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By TOM ZEBOLD

USF Senior Writer

CLEARWATER, MAY 22, 2015 – USF awaits the NCAA Selection Show after falling to Memphis, 4-1, in an American Athletic Conference Championship elimination game Friday at Bright House Field.

USF (33-24-1) is currently No. 24 in the RPI and head coach Mark Kingston is confident the Bulls have done enough to earn an NCAA tournament berth.

“I feel very good about Monday,” Kingston said. “We're going to be ranked no lower than probably 26, 27, 28 in the RPI. We finished ranked third in the third-toughest baseball conference in the country and we have wins in the mid-30's. In my experience, that's good enough to get you in. One day should not change whether you got into the tournament or you did not get into the tournament.”

USF opened the conference tournament with a 10-6 victory over Memphis on Tuesday and the Bulls jumped ahead again in the second meeting of the week. Kevin Merrell (Odessa, Fla.) and Luke Maglich (Sarasota) singled to start the third inning before Levi Borders (Winter Haven, Fla.) put the Bulls on the board with a run-scoring flyout to right field. Borders, a Johnny Bench Award semifinalist, leads the team with a career-high 44 RBIs in his junior season.

Casey Mulholland (Bradenton, Fla.) cruised through the first five innings, striking out four batters and scattering five hits, before Memphis took the lead with a two-run sixth. Tucker Tubbs led off with a home run and Brandon Montgomery scored after reaching on a fielder's choice.

Just like Ryan Valdes on Thursday, Mulholland (5-8) gave the Bulls a quality start by limiting the Tigers to two runs on eight hits in six innings of work.

“Casey was solid today, no doubt about it,” Kingston said. “He stepped up for us and he pitched well enough for us to win. We needed to be able to score more runs than that, but when we get an outing like that we generally win the game.”

Memphis (37-20) extended its lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the seventh with a one-out RBI single by Zach Schritenthal. The Tigers capped off the scoring with an insurance run in the eighth frame.

Dylan Toscano (9-2) earned the win after allowed one earned run on seven hits in eight innings. Merrell went 2-for-5 to lead USF's offensive attack but the Bulls stranded 10 runners.

Teams will find out their postseason paths when the NCAA Selection Show takes place Monday, May 25 at noon (TV: ESPNU).

“If you look at the totality of our resume, we're the third-best team in the third-best conference in America,” Kingston said. “We've played one of the top 10 schedules in America. We've challenged ourselves and done everything they ask you to do – finish well in your league, play a tough schedule and have success. We're going to go into Monday thinking that we're going to get in.”