Life in the Valley

Purple Aces Face One Game for Trip to First SuperRegional Today

I’ve never subscribed to the idea that a team wins because “they wanted it more.” Everyone who plays a sport wants to win. If you’re keeping score, both teams want to win.

Certainly, some teams win because they work harder when no one is looking. And I guess you could call that wanting to win more. But in life, if you work harder, you’ll usually get farther. It’s as true in baseball as it is in any other environment.

But what can be true is that certain moments, games, or events can be more meaningful to one side than the other. This isn’t necessarily the other side’s fault. But when 2 players or teams meet, their universes collide and they aren’t always floating in the same orbit.

I know East Carolina is trying like hell to get to Omaha. This is I think their 35th NCAA appearance and they’ve yet to make the College World Series. I’m sure today means a lot to the Pirates. But they’ve played bigger games before. They’ve been to 7 Supers. They’ve seen bigger stages.

Evansville hasn’t. Almost ever, in any sport. The men’s soccer team made 2 Final Fours (before they were glossed as College Cups) in 1985 and 1990, losing in the national semifinals each time. Men’s basketball made a triumphant return after the 1977 plane crash, making the NCAA Tournament in 1982, losing in the 1st round to Marquette. But just getting there was a victory.

But both programs eventually went through long periods of struggle. UE’s men’s basketball hasn’t made March Madness since 1999 when they were routed by Kansas, 95-74.

Baseball has stood here once before, in 2006 at the Charlottesville Regional, playing a Monday night game against the South Carolina Gamecocks with a chance to make Supers. But that team felt different. It was exciting just to be in that spot. The loss didn’t leave a lot of long-standing disappointment.

But then, you don’t know when such opportunities are going to come around again. Had you told me back in ’06 that it would be 18 years before UE would even reach Regionals again, I probably would have been more upset about the loss to South Carolina.

So part of that nervousness goes into today. When will UE ever get back here again? With what Wes Carroll is building in Evansville, and with the new facilities coming on board (thank you to the Freelands for that one), hopefully the wait won’t be nearly as long for a return engagement.

But this group in particular makes this much more than a happy to be here moment. It’s been a long slow climb to get to this point and the seniors and grad students on this team have stuck it out when there were probably opportunities to go elsewhere or do other things. They took to heart the promise that this *could* happen, when there was no recent evidence that it had, and used that to fuel them to get to this point.

After today, win or lose, everything changes. A win, and Evansville dances into SuperRegionals for the first time. No matter that said SuperRegional would be in Knoxville against the #1 national seed Tennessee, and that the Purple Aces would be massive underdogs to advance on to Omaha.

But a SuperRegional loss almost wouldn’t matter. Tennessee could win both games, 20-0. Who cares? Sure it wouldn’t be fun to go through that but the important point is that UE has the chance to show recruits and potential transfers that yes, you can come to Evansville and you can go to a SuperRegional. You can be part of the next great group of UE baseball players that will break down the next door somewhere along the way. Kent State made Omaha. Stony Brook made Omaha. Oral Roberts made Omaha. There’s no reason why Evansville can’t. A win today changes recruiting, the portal, perhaps NIL, everything.

Or, UE loses today. It still would be a great season. But Evansville would have to start the climb all over again with a much-changed roster in 2025. Certainly having MVC Freshman of the Year pitcher Kenton Deverman at the top of the rotation will be a nice center piece, but there will be parts of the lineup that need to be filled in. It wouldn’t be the end of the world, but it’d be a long road back.

So, yes, I’d argue this game today probably means a little more to Evansville than it does to East Carolina. There’s just more on the line for the Purple Aces for both on- and off-field reasons. That motivation can either create too much pressure and cause UE will falter, or it can produce the adrenaline Evansville needs to prevail.

No question, UE must play an almost perfect level of baseball to win today. No errors, take advantage of scoring opportunities, make the smart play at all times.

But the potential reward to this team, program, university, and community is tremendous.

(MVCBaseball.com writer and founder Ed Morgans is a 1995 graduate of the University of Evansville and a former Purple Aces baseball broadcaster on WUEV radio.)