D1 Digest: Friday, May 11 | D1Baseball.com

1. Houston clinches share of American regular season title
The Cougars are one of several teams where you’re spending half the day trying to figure out how their RPI is so low. After all, they entered Friday leading the American, which is one of the nation’s better RPI conferences. Well, despite having an iffy RPI on Friday, the Cougars made yet another statement by clinching a share of the conference title with a doubleheader sweep of red-hot Connecticut, 6-5 and 10-1.

In the series opener, lefthander Trey Cumbie allowed two earned runs on seven hits in 6.1 innings, while Lael Lockhart had a big game at the plate, smacking a home run, double and finishing the afternoon with four RBIs.

In the nightcap, husky and hard-hitting Joe Davis led the offensive charge with a pair of homers, four hits and four RBIs, while Kyle Lovelace, Cooper Coldiron, Connor Hollis and Tyler Bielamowicz each had a pair of hits. Meanwhile, UConn’s Jeff Kersten allowed six runs on 10 hits in 4.2 innings, but UH lefthander Aaron Fletcher dealt yet again, striking out five, not walking anyone and allowing a run on five hits in seven innings.

With the wins, the Cougars now lead three teams tied for second place by three games — East Carolina, South Florida and Cincinnati. As for the RPI, the Cougars are still sitting at 52, but have a very impressive 13-8 record vs. RPI Top 50. The committee would be smart to look at UH’s regular season accomplishments at this point.

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