Four Conference USA standouts are among the 33 players that will begin participation in the 2002 USA Baseball National Team Trials - to be held in Tucson, Arizona, beginning Tuesday evening. The USA National Team will be selected from this pool following the tryouts, which conclude on June 23. Louisville’s Lelo Prado, the 2002 Conference USA Coach of the Year, will serve as the head coach for Team USA and will announce the official team roster next Monday, June 24.

A trio of sophomore standouts, Houston righthander Brad Sullivan, Tulane pitcher/outfielder Michael Aubrey and Louisville outfielder Mark Jurich are joined by South Florida freshman catcher Devin Ivany as Conference USA’s representatives at the tryouts.

Sullivan, a consensus first team All-American, was named Conference USA’s Pitcher of the Year this season after helping the Cougars to the league’s regular season championship and trip to the NCAA Super Regional. The Nederland, Texas, native has compiled a 13-1 record with a 1.82 ERA and set UH and Conference USA single-season records with 157 strikeouts in 128.2 innings of work. Sullivan came on even stronger down the stretch, allowing only one run in his last 36 2/3 innings and tossing shutouts in three of his last four starts.

Ivany was named to Conference USA’s All-Freshman team after batting .322 with 11 doubles. He tied for the team lead in home runs with 10 and drove in 56 runs, which ranked second on the club. Named as an honorable mention Freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball, Ivany recorded a .509 slugging percentage (second on USF) and threw out 12 would-be base stealers.

Aubrey followed up his National Freshman of the Year honors in 2001 with a very productive sophomore season in 2002. He tied for third on the team with a .316 batting average, clubbed 15 doubles, hit seven home runs and drove in 52. On the mound, Aubrey was 8-1 in 11 starts before a back injury suffered in late April took him out of the pitching rotation. He has played for Team USA each of the last two summers, helping the Junior National team to a silver medal at the IBA World Junior Championships in 2000.

Jurich became the first Louisville player since 1992 to earn All-American honors when he was named to the NCBWA All-America third team. The standout sophomore spent much of the 2002 campaign batting over .400 before finishing with a .365 average with 15 doubles, 16 home runs and 60 RBI. The 16 home runs were the most by a Cardinal player since 1995 as he helped U of L to its first-ever NCAA Regional appearance.

Prado will be the first coach from Conference USA to take over the USA National Team program, after serving two previous coaching stints with USA Baseball. The first came in 1997, when he was a coach at the USA National Team Trials in Tucson, Arizona. The second occurred three summers later in 2000, when he worked under head coach Mike Gillespie (USC) as an assistant for a Team USA squad that posted the program's all-time highest winning percentage for a summer (.900), with a 27-3-1 record.

After Prado and his coaching staff select the 22-man team, they will depart for the east coast to play a five-game series against the Japanese Collegiate All-Stars - the 31st annual meeting of the two countries. Team USA will then play approximately 10-15 additional games in July in various states on the USA Red, White and Blue Tour before traveling to the Honkbal Baseball Classic in Haarlem, The Netherlands in late July. Team USA's summer will climax at the first ever FISU World Baseball Championships in Sicily and Messina, Italy, August 1-11.

Last season, Conference USA had three representatives play for Team USA. Aubrey was joined by Tulane shortstop Anthony Giarratano and Houston catcher Chris Snyder on the squad.

For more information on Team USA, go to www.usabaseball.com