Less than three hours before tonight’s game with Notre Dame, the Bulls clinched a berth in next week’s Big East baseball tournament thanks to Louisville’s 3-1 against Rutgers Friday afternoon.

“It’s great,” Coach Lelo Prado said in a statement. “Any time you can get into the tournament and have a chance to win, it’s a good thing. Now we have a shot at winning a conference championship, and that’s what we play for every day.

“We have to play good against Notre Dame now. We still want to get a little momentum going into the conference tournament, but now I can relax a little bit.”

As the host team, USF will open Big East Tournament play Tuesday at 8 p.m. in Clearwater.

Now that the Bulls are officially in, the only suspense that remains is if USF earns the No. 7 or No. 8 seed. Entering Friday night’s game, USF (12-13 Big East) owns a one-game lead over Villanova (11-14) and owns the tiebreaker against the Wildcats.

Villanova’s game Friday vs. St. John’s was postponed by rain and the teams will play a doubleheader Saturday. One USF win Friday or Saturday vs. Notre Dame or one Villanova loss on Saturday’s DH against St. John’s gives USF the No. 7 seed.

Bulls drop NCAA opener: The softball team fell to UCF 3-2 in its NCAA Tournament opener Friday.

The Bulls now face the loser of Friday night’s Florida-Georgia Tech contest on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. USF will have to win four consecutive games to reach the NCAA Super Regionals.