1996 Conference USA Baseball Tournament

The 1996 Conference USA Baseball Tournament was the 1996 postseason college baseball championship of the NCAA Division I Conference USA, held at Pete Taylor Park in Hattiesburg, Mississippi from May 14–19. Tulane won the tournament and received Conference USA's automatic bid to the 1996 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament. The tournament consisted of nine teams with a play-in game, two double-elimination brackets, and a single-game final.[2]

1996 Conference USA
Baseball Tournament

Teams	9
Format	Play-in round followed by eight-team double-elimination tournament
Finals site	Pete Taylor Park Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Champions	Tulane (1st title)
Winning coach	Rick Jones (1st title)
MVP	Jason Fitzgerald, Tulane

1996 Conference USA baseball standings
	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
South Florida  ‍†‍‍^y	20	–	4		.833			47	–	19		.712
Tulane  ‍‍‡‍^y	18	–	6		.750			43	–	20		.683
Southern Miss  ‍‍‍	14	–	10		.583			32	–	28		.533
UAB  ‍‍‍	13	–	11		.542			33	–	25		.569
Charlotte  ‍‍‍	11	–	13		.458			29	–	30		.492
Memphis  ‍‍‍	9	–	11		.450			26	–	28		.481
Saint Louis  ‍‍‍	9	–	12		.429			25	–	24		.510
Louisville  ‍‍‍	6	–	15		.286			18	–	36		.333
Cincinnati  ‍‍‍	1	–	19		.050			5	–	34		.128
† – Conference champion ‡ – Tournament champion y – Invited to the NCAA Tournament As of June 30, 1996[1]; Rankings from Collegiate Baseball

Regular season results

Team	W	L	Pct	GB	Seed
South Florida	20	4	.833	--	1
Tulane	18	6	.750	2	2
Southern Miss	14	10	.583	6	3
UAB	13	11	.542	7	4
Charlotte	11	13	.468	9	5
Memphis	9	11	.450	9	6
Saint Louis	9	12	.429	9.5	7
Louisville	6	15	.286	12.5	8
Cincinnati	1	19	.050	17	9

• Records listed are conference play only. Marquette and DePaul did not field baseball teams. Houston participated in the Southwest Conference for baseball.

Bracket

Play-In Game

The two teams with the worst records in regular season conference play faced each other in a single elimination situation to earn the 8th spot in the conference tournament.

	Play-In Game May 14
	9	Cincinnati	2
	8	Louisville	4

	First Round May 15–16					Second Round May 16–17					Semifinals May 17–18						Championship Game May 19
	5	Charlotte	17
	4	UAB	9
						9	Louisville	3
						5	Charlotte	23
	9	Louisville	13
	1	South Florida	9
											5	Charlotte	2	6
										1	South Florida	13	17
	4	UAB	7
	1	South Florida	9
						9	Louisville	11
						1	South Florida	14
																2	Tulane	2
																1	South Florida	0
	7	Saint Louis	5
	2	Tulane	14
						3	Southern Miss	5
						2	Tulane	9
	6	Memphis	4
	3	Southern Miss	9
											3	Southern Miss	8
										2	Tulane	10
	7	Saint Louis	9
	6	Memphis	8
						7	Saint Louis	5
						3	Southern Miss	9

• Bold indicates the winner of the game.
• Italics indicate that the team was eliminated from the tournament.

Finish order

Finish	Team	W	L	Pct	Seed	Eliminated By
1	Tulane^†	4	0	.1000	2
2	South Florida^#	4	2	.667	1	Tulane
3	Southern Miss	2	2	.500	3	Tulane
4	Charlotte	2	2	.500	5	South Florida
5	Saint Louis	1	2	.333	7	Southern Miss
6	Louisville	1	2	.333	9	South Florida
7	Memphis	0	2	.000	6	Saint Louis
8	UAB	0	2	.000	7	South Florida
^† - Winner of the tournament and received an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. ^# - Received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

All-Tournament Team

Position	Player	School
C	Chad Sutter	Tulane
1B	Cliff Wren	Southern Mississippi
2B	Mike Pursell	Tulane
SS	Joe Hammond	Charlotte
3B	Chris Heintz	South Florida
OF	Joey Anderson	Charlotte
OF	Jason Fitzgerald	Tulane
OF	Jason Michonski	South Florida
DH	Jeff Davis	Southern Mississippi
P	Jack Cressend	Tulane
RP	Todd Ardoin	Tulane
MVP	Jason Fitzgerald	Tulane

References

1. "College Baseball Conference Standings -- 1996". Boyd's World. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
2. "Conference USA Baseball Historical Records". Conference USA. Archived from the original on 2009-05-28. Retrieved 2009-05-21.