East Carolina 14, Oklahoma 5
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – East Carolina advanced into the winner’s bracket at the NCAA Charlottesville Regional Friday night, turning aside Oklahoma 14-5 in its tournament opener at Davenport Field.  
 
The Pirates (46-17) will face No. 7 national seed and host Virginia Saturday at 6 p.m. for the right to move into the regional final while the Sooners (31-27) are set to battle Army in an elimination game at Noon.  
 
In its first-ever meeting with Oklahoma on the baseball diamond, ECU unleashed a 15-hit barrage and scored in every inning but the first. Joey Berini paced all players with four hits while Carter Cunningham went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and three RBI. Dakota Harris and Easton Carmichael both picked up a pair of hits for the Sooners. 
 
Pirate ace Trey Yesavage (7-1) was as good as advertised, collecting the win on the mound after allowing one run (unearned) with seven strikeouts in 5.1 innings of work. He finished the evening with 105 strikeouts for the campaign, tying for 10th on the program single-season chart. East Carolina handed Braden Carmichael (7-1) his first loss of the year as the southpaw surrendered four runs (three earned) on four hits with a season-high five walks in 2.2 frames.  

LSU 7, Tulane 2
BATON ROUGE, LA – LSU pitcher Paul Skenes went the distance for the first time this season to fuel a 7-2 victory by #5 national seed LSU over Tulane on the first day of action at the 2023 Baton Rouge Regional. 
 
The win improved the Tigers to 44-15, while Tulane dropped to 19-41. 
 
LSU will now face the winner of tonight’s matchup between Oregon State (39-18) and Sam Houston (38-23) at 8 p.m. on Saturday. Tulane will play the loser of that game six hours earlier at 2 p.m. 
 
Skenes (11-2) struck out 12 with no walks, giving up a seventh-inning two-run homer to Tulane designated hitter Brennan Lambert for the game’s lone home run. Skenes yielded seven hits in a 124-pitch effort that saw him reaching 101 miles per hour in the ninth frame. 
 
Tulane starter (5-9) Dylan Carmouche took the loss, surrendering six runs on nine hits with two strikeouts and two walks in four-plus innings. Green Wave reliever Michael Lombardi pitched admirably, allowing just one run on two hits with two strikeouts and one walk in three and two-thirds innings.