Live From Clearwater: USF vs. Louisville at 3pm Will Mean Something

USF lost 10-0 to Rutgers to open the 2014 AAC Baseball Championship, but they're right back in this thing, and they can thank the Memphis Tigers.

Due to the new four-team round robin format, USF could have been eliminated with a Rutgers win today since there would be no way to surpass them, and no way to win a tiebreaker. The tiebreakers in a two-team situation are head-to-head, and in a three team situation are the highest seed. USF is the #5 seed and RU is the #4, so they would have been toast. But the #8 seed Memphis beating them gives the Bulls a path forward. Here are the current standings:

#1 Louisville 1-0
#8 Memphis 1-1
#5 Rutgers 1-1
#4 USF 0-1

If each of the three remaining games in the bracket break like this, USF advances to the championship game on Sunday at noon on ESPNU:

USF beats Louisville today at 3pm

Louisville beats Rutgers tomorrow at 3pm

USF beats Memphis tomorrow at 7pm

Since the Bulls control their destiny in two of them, and Louisville sends their beast Kyle Funkhouser (12-2, 1.81 ERA,) correction: Anthony Kidston (6-0, 3.70 ERA) against Rutgers tomorrow, it's almost in USF's hands to still get through here. Josh Rogers will go for Louisville (2-2, 4.05 ERA), with UL matching up a lefthander against a Bulls team that has struggled against southpaws all season. But USF counters with their ace Jimmy Herget (7-6, 1.28), who had 13 strikeouts in 8.1 innings against Louisville on May 3rd in a brutal tough-luck no decision.

You can listen to myself and Josh Appel call the Louisville game here at 3pm today, where we'll delve into all sorts of minutia and diversions while hoping Herget can have another great start against the Cardinals.

Also we'll eventually get to the 10-0 disaster on Wednesday, but hopefully be able to temper it with some optimism after a win today.