Life in the Valley

Purple Aces Headed to First SuperRegional After 6-5 Win at ECU

To paraphrase a line from the late, great Jimmy Buffett, East Carolina’s Pirates have nothing left to plunder, their cannons didn’t thunder.

Max Hansmann and Shane Harris held ECU scoreless for the final 4 innings, and Mark Shallenberger hit a 3-run homer in the bottom of the 6th that put Evansville ahead for good, as the Purple Aces defeated the Pirates, 6-5, to win the Greenville Regional and advance to the first SuperRegional in program history.

UE, now affectionately known as “America’s Team,” on Twitter/X, will head to Knoxville to take on #1 national seed Tennessee in a best-of-3 Super starting Friday (in all likelihood, games and times haven’t been released yet for the 8 Supers). Evansville fell behind, 5-2, in the top of the 5th inning after a series of miscues, bad breaks, and lost opportunities seemed be dooming the Purple Aces to defeat. But Simon Scherry scored an important run in the bottom of the 5th on Kip Fougerousse’s ground out to make it 5-3 and keep UE in the ball game.

In the 6th, the entire game changed. First, Hansmann pitched a 1-2-3 top half, including a strikeout of top ECU hitter Carter Cunningham. In the bottom of the 6th, Ty Rumsey singled against ECU reliever Zach Root, who had gotten the start when the teams met on Friday and took his first loss of the season in Evansville’s 4-1 victory. He took his 2nd defeat today. Simon Scherry followed with a single to put 2 runners on with 1 out. That brought Shallenberger to the plate.

Shallenberger took a hanging 1-1 curve ball and lofted it to right center. Off the bat, it looked more like a deep fly ball and an out. But balls carried to right better than left all day, and Shallenberger’s shot ended up going over the fans in right center, past the scoreboard, and on to an auxiliary field. Shallenberger struck a pose for the UE dugout before touching first, and spent much of the afternoon having a back-and-forth with “The Jungle,” – ECU’s rabid fans just beyond the rather short fence using hand-crafted megaphones after being told by the NCAA they couldn’t have real ones.

The homer, Shallenberger’s 17th of the season, suddenly turned ECU’s 5-3 lead into a 6-5 deficit. But given how this wacky, insane regional had gone through the first 3 days, you probably wouldn’t find many people who felt the game would stay 6-5 the rest of the way.

In fact, it immediately looked as if UE would make it 7-5. Two batters after Shallenberger’s homer, Brent Widder hammered a curve ball to left, a ball hit so hard and seemingly deep, you could hear a fan in the background exclaim, “Oh my God,” but it was caught on the warning track.

But thanks to Hansmann and Harris, there would be no more runs and Evansville’s 1-run lead was insurmountable. Hansmann (2-1) got the win, throwing 4 innings of scoreless baseball with just 1 hit and 1 walk allowed. He struck out 2. His 68-pitch effort kept UE from having to make the kind of tough decisions ECU head coach Cliff Godwin was seemingly stuck with all game long regarding whom to throw. ECU used 5 pitchers, including closer Wyatt Lunsford-Shenkman in the 2nd inning, along with Root and Aaron Groller, who had previous starts in the regional.

There was never a hint that freshman top UE starter Kenton Deverman was going to pitch after his 8-inning, 98-pitch effort in Friday’s win over the Pirates, as tempting as that might have been. Shallenberger’s homer and Hansmann’s pitching got UE to the 9th with its 6-5 lead intact.

Enter Harris.

In an era where pitching seems to be all about velocity, Harris is a throwback to a Gregg Olson type, the former Auburn and Orioles pitcher who especially from 1989 to ’93 devastated hitters with a sharp 12-to-6 breaking ball, propelling Olson to 160 saves over the 5-year span.

Harris’ break starts high and doesn’t break quite that sharply. But the trio of ECU hitters in the top of the 9th (UE was designated the home team for this game) couldn’t do anything with it. Harris threw 10 pitches, all breaking balls of varying speeds and angles. Ryley Johnson showed ECU’s frustration just 2 pitches into the inning, taking a pair of strikes and then whacking himself on the helmet 4 times. Godwin called time from the third-base coach’s box and tried to calm his hitter down.

It didn’t work. Johnson whiffed at Harris’ next pitch for the first out. That brought up Ryan McCrystal. He also fanned on Harris’ first pitch, a breaking ball inside. Harris missed to make it 1-1, and after a called 2nd strike, McCrystal fouled off a 1-2 pitch. But Harris went outside this time with a breaking ball that froze McCrystal for the 2nd out.

Jacob Jenkins-Cowart was ECU’s final hope. Jenkins-Cowart, the AAC Preseason Player of the Year selection each of the past 2 seasons, took a breaking ball out of the zone from Harris to start his at-bat. But in a 1-0 count, he swung at a lofted breaking ball and grounded weakly near second base. Cal McGinnis made the play, tossed to Chase Hug at first and the dogpile began.

UE took a 1-0 lead in the first when Fougerousse took a 1-0 fast ball straight to center field and off the batter’s eye above the 400-foot sign for a 1st-inning homer. The blast tied Eric Roberts for most homers in a season in UE history with 21. But more importantly, it gave the Purple Aces first blood and probably fired up an already loose dugout that now knew they were ready to play in the most important game in program history.

Hug scored on an error in the 2nd, but UE’s rally ended when with the bases loaded, McGinnis was tagged out at the plate trying to score on a wild pitch. ECU immediately took advantage, as Jenkins-Cowart’s seeing-eye single on a great pitch by starter Nick Smith tied the game. In the 5th, ECU scored 3 runs on 2 fielder’s choices and a wild pitch, as Smith’s day ended after 4+ innings. He officially got charged with 5 runs, but for much of his appearance, Smith looked a bit like his old self that was the 2022 MVC Pitcher of the Year. He threw 88 pitches and prevented UE from having to go its bullpen as early as ECU did, which gave UE an advantage later on.

ECU’s season ended at 46-17. They have made 34 NCAA Tournament appearances and are still yet to reach the College World Series.

Evansville, meanwhile, improved to 38-24, and no matter how improbable many will think it is that they advance past #1 Tennessee in Supers, the Purple Aces are 2 wins away from Omaha.

Greenville Regional – Game 7
ECU 5 6 1 (46-17)
UE 6 9 1 (38-24)
W: Hansmann (2-1)
L: Root (6-2)
S: Harris (3)
HR: Fougerousse, UE (21); Shallenberger, UE (17).