No. 6 South Florida jumped out to an early lead on the way to a 7-2 win over No. 3 Wichita State in the fourth game of the 2021 American Athletic Conference Baseball Championship Tuesday, May 25 at BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, Fla.

South Florida (25-26) chased Wichita State starter Liam Eddy (5-8) in the first inning after Matt Ruiz doubled to score Jake Sullivan and Nelson Rivera singled to plate Ruiz with two outs and give the Bulls an early 3-0 lead.

Collin Sullivan (3-3) tossed 5.2 innings in the win for the Bulls, striking out seven with three hits and two runs allowed. Logan Lyle pitched the final 3.1 innings without giving up a run to earn his fourth save.

With the win, South Florida faces No. 2 Tulane on Thursday, May 27, while Wichita State (30-22) will play No. 7 Houston on Wednesday, May 26. Both games will take place 47 minutes after the first games each day, which begin at 3 p.m. ET/2 p.m. CT.

Roberto Pena hit a monstrous two-run home run to right to give South Florida a 5-0 lead in the second.

Wichita State began to chip away at the lead as Couper Cornblum scored on a groundout in the third and provided a sacrifice fly that scored Corrigan Bartlett in the fifth to cut the USF lead to 5-2, but that was as close as the Shockers would be.

The Bulls added a pair of insurance runs in the top of the eighth when Jarrett Eaton scored on a sac fly by Carmine Lane and Daniel Cantu followed with a deep solo home run to right.