East Carolina and Tulane both fell in their first games of the 2024 NCAA Baseball Tournament on Friday, May 31.
Evansville 4, No. 16 East Carolina 1 - Box Score
GREENVILLE, N.C. – Freshman LHP Kenton Deverman tossed eight strong innings Friday afternoon to lift Greenville Regional No. 4 seed past top-seeded East Carolina 4-1 inside Lewis Field at Clark-LeClair Stadium.
The Purple Aces (36-23) advance into the winner's bracket where they will face No. 3 VCU Saturday at 6 p.m. The Pirates (43-16) will take on No. 2 Wake Forest in an elimination bout at noon Eastern on ESPN2 and ESPN+.
Deverman (9-1) scattered three hits over the eight frames and finished with four strikeouts against no walks. Zach Root (6-1) was saddled with his first loss of the campaign, but still turned in a solid five-inning outing and allowed two runs on three hits with a walk and two strikeouts.
Brent Widder paced the Evansville offense, going 2-for-3 with two runs driven in. Carter Cunningham delivered a pair of base knocks, a run scored and an RBI for ECU.
The Purple Aces surged into the lead in the top of the second. Chase Hug drew a leadoff walk and Widder followed with a single down the right field line. Brendan Hord then flew out to center but drove it deep enough to plate Hug from third for a 1-0 Evansville advantage. Kip Fougerousse doubled the lead in the top of the third with a two-out solo home run, but Cunningham answered with a solo shot of his own in the bottom of the fourth to slice the deficit to 2-1.
The scoring settled down from there as the teams produced four-straight scoreless frames. However, the Purple Aces collected two key insurance runs in the top of the ninth on the strength of a Widder two-run single. The Pirates created some traffic on the bases in the bottom of the inning via Cunningham and Ryan McCrystal consecutive one-out singles, but Deverman induced a fly ball to center and mustered up a strikeout to preserve the victory.
No. 15 Oregon State 10, Tulane 4 - Box Score
CORVALLIS, Oregon – Oregon State designated hitter Gavin Turley belted a fifth-inning grand slam and the Beavers limited Tulane to just one run over the final seven innings to best the Green Wave 10-4 on the first day of play at the 2024 Corvallis Regional.
Fourth-seeded Tulane (35-25) will play third-seeded Nicholls (38-21) at 3 p.m. CT/1 PT in an elimination game. The top-seeded Beavers (43-14) will face second-seeded UC Irvine (44-12) at 9 p.m. CT/7 PT in the winners' bracket game.
Irvine saw its 9-1 lead over Nicholls disappear in Friday's first game before rallying in the bottom of the ninth for a 13-12 walkoff victory.
Turley's blast came against Tulane starter Chandler Welch (7-4), who lasted four innings, giving up six runs on seven hits with just one strikeout and two walks.
OSU starter Aiden May (7-0) stayed unbeaten as he yielded four runs (three earned) on five hits with nine strikeouts and four walks. In all, the Beavers struck out every Green Wave batter at least once for a total of 15 on the evening.
Beaver center fielder Micah McDowell went 4-for-5 at the plate with a pair of RBI. First baseman Mason Guerra also drove in two runs. The other OSU home run came off the bat of second baseman Travis Bazzana, who blasted his 27th of the season in the eighth inning.
Tulane center fielder Teo Banks and catcher Colin Tuft each went 2-for-4 and Tuft drilled his 12th round-tripper of the season in the sixth inning.
Second baseman Connor Rasmussen gave the Olive and Blue a 3-0 lead on a two-run single to right in the second inning.