USF softball closed out the regular season Sunday with a three-game sweep of visiting UTSA.
That gave the Bulls 41 wins, their most since 2022, and assured them of the second seed in this weekend’s American Athletic Conference tournament.
Florida Atlantic is the top-seeded team.
The tournament will begin on May 7, and USF is the host school. The Bulls are 29-7 at the USF Softball Stadium this season.
They also enter on a hot streak, winning 11 of their last 13 games.
By finishing second, USF gets a double bye and won’t have to play until the semifinals begin on Friday. USF’s game is at 3:30 p.m.
Bulls coach Ken Eriksen rested his top two starting pitchers – Belle Sardia and Payton Dixon – in Sunday’s 10-2 mercy-rule win. The two have combined for 33 of USF’s 41 wins.
He said the rest could pay dividends when the tournament begins.
“Just to take off the day and not do anything, tomorrow's completely off. The rest of (Sunday) is an off day. So when we talk about rest and recovery,” Eriksen said.
“It's not just a day, right? It's basically you have 58 hours before you're throwing again. That's big.”
Baseball was swept by UTSA
USF fell into a three-way tie for second place in the AAC when the Bulls fell to runaway conference leader UTSA 3-2 on Sunday.
It gave the Roadrunners a commanding six-game lead over the Bulls, Florida Atlantic, and Charlotte with six conference games remaining.
UTSA left town with a three-game sweep of the Bulls, who now travel to Gainesville on Tuesday to face the Florida Gators.
Football picks up reinforcements
The Bulls went to the portal to add two players on the defensive side. Bulls Insider reported that former Murray State defensive end Dennard Flowers and former 4-star safety Cedrick Hawkins from UCF.
Hawkins is an interesting case.
He signed with Ohio State out of Cocoa High School. After a redshirt season as a freshman, he transferred to UCF for the 2024 season but didn’t play much.
If the Bulls can unleash the promise he had that made him a coveted target in high school, this could be big.
Men’s basketball adds another player
New coach Bryan Hodgson continued to build his roster with help from the portal.
He added 6-foot-7 guard/forward Isaiah Jones from Oakland (Mich.). He averaged 25 minutes per game last season for the Golden Grizzlies and hit 32.7 percent on three-pointers.
The Bulls currently have seven players who came through the portal. Additionally, they acquired three players that originally committed to Hodgson at Arkansas State.