HUNTINGTON -- As the NCAA baseball tournament moves into its version of the Sweet 16, Conference USA teams are preparing a run at the national championship.

For the first time in league history three teams advanced to the Super-Regional round.

Rice and East Carolina both hosted a four-team regional and emerged victorious. Meanwhile, Southern Miss went on the road to the Atlanta regional and defeated host Georgia Tech to move on.

The Super-Regional round gets started Friday with Rice, the C-USA champion, traveling to Baton Rouge, La., to take on LSU.

After defeating Sam Houston State, Rice fell to Kansas State 7-6, putting itself just one loss away from elimination. However, a 12-5 win over Xavier earned the Owls a rematch with Kansas State. Rice forced a third game with the Wildcats after an 8-0 victory on Saturday. The regional championship was clinched Monday with a 13-4 drubbing of Kansas State.

Friday and Saturday's contests between Rice and LSU will be on ESPN at 7 p.m.

While Rice had an interesting road, East Carolina can lay claim to the most exciting regional victory after its comeback win over South Carolina.

The Pirates now continue the "Battle of the Carolinas" this weekend when they travel to Chapel Hill, N.C., to take on North Carolina in the Super-Regional.

ECU, playing at home in the Greenville regional, fell behind South Carolina 6-0 in the fifth inning of Monday night's winner-take-all matchup before rallying to win, 10-9, in 10 innings. Trailing 9-6 in the bottom of the ninth, Devin Harris hit a three-run home run to knot the game. He followed that with an RBI single in the 10th to score Kyle Roller with the game-winner. The win came after ECU fell to South Carolina 12-2 in its first game. The Pirates rebounded with a 16-9 win over Binghamton before an 8-6 win over the Gamecocks set up the deciding matchup.

"I've hit home runs, but I say by far that's the biggest I've ever hit," Harris said.

The Pirates get underway with the Tar Heels at noon Saturday.

Southern Miss was on the opposite end of the spectrum in its championship win of the Atlanta regional, which puts them into the Gainesville Super-Regional against the Florida Gators.

The Golden Eagles moved into the championship with victories over Elon and host Georgia Tech.

In the double-elimination finals, Georgia Tech seized the advantage Sunday with a 10-3 victory. Southern Miss bounced back to win Sunday, 12-8, and advanced to the Super-Regional round for the first time in 10 tries.

"We worked really hard to get to this next step, and hopefully we can take it farther," Southern Miss coach Corky Palmer said.

Southern Miss begins the next round with Florida at 3 p.m. Saturday.

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