Life in the Valley

UE Knocks Off VCU, 17-11, to Go 2-0 in Greenville

Evansville advanced to a regional final for the second time in school history Saturday evening, defeating the Virginia Commonwealth Rams, 17-11, to go to 2-0 in the Greenville Regional and win its 8th straight game overall.

UE (37-23), which is 28-8 in its last 36 games, will await the winner of Sunday’s first game, an elimination contest between VCU and regional host and top-seed East Carolina. The Pirates stayed alive with a dramatic 7-6 win over Wake Forest earlier Saturday that saw ECU blow a 4-1 lead in the 9th, only to rally for 3 in the bottom half to win it.

But while UE has made a regional final before – that coming in 2006 when it got to Game 7 of the Charlottesville Regional before losing to South Carolina, the Purple Aces are in the driver’s seat at 2-0 in a regional for the first time in school history. Since the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament began, UE has scored 75 runs in 6 games and Saturday’s win marked the 3rd time in that span the Purple Aces have scored exactly 17 runs.

But unlike the Valley tournament, there’s no 10-run mercy rule in effect in the NCAA Tournament and that gave the Rams (38-22) a chance to make things interesting after being down, 13-0, at one point. A 7th-inning grand slam by William Bean cut Evansville’s lead to 15-10. But if there was any concern for UE fans about perhaps being on the wrong end of one of the greatest comebacks in college baseball history, those fears were allayed in the top of the 8th when Kip Fougerousse did what Kip Fougerousse does, and hit a 2-run homer, scoring Mark Shallenberger ahead of him, who had doubled as part of a 4-hit game. That made UE’s lead an insurmountable 17-10. Shallenberger was also hit by a pitch for a school-record 25th time.

The game, which featured 423 total pitches and lasted nearly 4 hours, turned into a runaway in the UE 5th. Already up 6-0, UE piled on 7 more runs. One scored on a Simon Scherry single, before UE loaded the bases and Brent Widder launched a grand slam to make it 11-0. Cal McGinnis followed late run the inning with a 2-run shot to give UE its 13-0 lead. In the 6th, Mark Shallenberger added an RBI single and a run scored on a double play ball to make it 15-3 and seemingly end the competitive portion of the contest.

But to their credit, VCU didn’t quit and no lead is ever safe in college baseball. But their comeback hearts might have been a bit broken beyond repair when with 5 runs already plated in the 7th and the bases loaded with 2 outs, Scherry made a play deep in the hole at shortstop and fired to first to get Eli Weisner by a half-step, ending the rally and getting UE off the field before things got any more troublesome.

Jakob Meyer worked the final 2 innings, allowing 1 run on 3 hits, to finish off the Rams. Despite giving up 11 runs, the UE pitching staff is still in pretty good shape heading into Sunday thanks to 6 innings Saturday from starter Donovan Schultz, who allowed 5 runs on 7 hits with 4 walks and 5 strikeouts, throwing 114 pitches. UE didn’t need to turn to Shane Harris, who threw 1 inning in Friday’s win over East Carolina, and he could well be in line to start Sunday evening’s matchup.

The win, which saw #GUAC (Get Up Ace Country) trending on X, and the team posing with college baseball media legend and Dippin’ Dots expert Stephen Schoch, leaves Evansville one win away from their first Super Regional appearance in school history.

Whomever wins between East Carolina and VCU will then have to beat UE twice to win the regional – meaning a team will need to win 3 games in 2 days to advance. And we’re at the point now in this regional where all the aces, pardon the pun, like ECU’s Trey Yesavage and VCU’s Christian Gordon, have been used up. That’s true for UE, too, as we won’t see Kenton Deverman again in this regional, which means having the path with the fewer number of games needed to advance is a massive advantage.

Sunday’s ECU/VCU game will begin at 11 a.m. Central. Evansville’s game against the winner of that contest will begin at 5 p.m. Central. All NCAA regional games are streamed on ESPN+.

Greenville Regional – Game 4
UE 17 16 0 (37-23)
VCU 11 14 1 (38-22)
W: Schultz (6-2)
L: Cosentino (3-2)
S: None
HR: Fougerousse, UE (19); Hug, UE (6); Widder, UE (12); McGinnis, UE (4); Kleinman, VCU (4); McHugh, VCU (6); Bean, VCU (4).