Both East Carolina and Tulane staved off elimination with victories on Saturday, June 1.
East Carolina 7, Wake Forest 6 - Box Score
GREENVILLE, N.C. – Staring down a two-run deficit entering the bottom of the ninth and facing elimination from the NCAA Greenville Regional Saturday afternoon, top seed East Carolina never stopped believing and posted a three spot that culminated in a Luke Nowak walkoff single as the Pirates turned aside No. 2 seed Wake Forest 7-6 inside Lewis Field at Clark-LeClair Stadium.
East Carolina stays alive in the tournament and will take on the loser of the winner's bracket game between No. 3 seed VCU and No. 4 seed Evansville Sunday at Noon.
The Demon Deacons (38-22) seemed to seize control in the top of the ninth with five runs that turned a 4-1 deficit into a 6-4 advantage, but ECU (44-16) was not about to let a legendary Trey Yesavage performance go unrewarded.
After missing the American Athletic Conference tournament due to injury, the future Major League Baseball first round draft pick dazzled with an epic 7.1-inning performance during which he limited the preseason national No. 1-ranked Demon Deacons to one run and a lone hit with six strikeouts.
Charlie Hodges (1-0) collected his first career victory on the mound, registering the final out of the top of the ninth frame. Michael Massey was tagged with the loss as he surrendered three runs on four hits without recording an out.
Greenville native Dixon Williams put on a show in front of the 5,700 hometown faithful, notching three hits, two runs scored and four RBI which included a three-run tank off the top of the scoreboard that effectively ended the day of Wake Forest ace Chase Burns who posted season lows in innings pitched (5.0) and strikeouts (seven).
Tulane 3, Nicholls 0 - Box Score
CORVALLIS, Oregon – Tulane starter Luc Fladda and closer Jacob Moore finished off a four-hit, 3-0 shutout of third-seeded Nicholls on Saturday in the first elimination game at the 2024 Corvallis Regional.
The fourth-seeded Green Wave (36-25) will face the loser of Saturday evening's winners' bracket game between top-seeded Oregon State (43-14) and second-seeded UC Irvine (44-12) on Sunday at 2 p.m. CT/12 PT in another elimination game.
The Colonels finished the season at 38-22.
Fladda (5-3) was amazing on Saturday, limiting the Colonels to just four hits and two walks with one strikeout over eight innings. Moore came in and nailed down his sixth save of the season with a flawless ninth frame.
Nicholls starter Michael Quevedo (5-1) suffered his first loss despite pitching quite well. He gave up two runs on five hits with two strikeouts and no walks.
The Green Wave's offense came in the second, fifth and ninth innings. Second baseman Connor Rasmussen knocked in third baseman Gavin Schulz with an RBI groundout to give the team its first run. Right fielder Matthias Haas and left fielder Jackson Linn each followed with RBI singles to right later on for runs two and three.
Linn went 2-for-3 on the day, as did Nicholls catcher Kaden Amundson and both men posted doubles.
Saturday's win was Tulane's first NCAA Tournament shutout since a 7-0 triumph over Rice on June 12, 2005 in the New Orleans Super Regional. The last Regional shutout was another 7-0 victory the year before (June 5, 2004) over Western Kentucky in Oxford, Mississippi.