The Cinderella story will continue.
Facing elimination in the Greenville Regional, Evansville rallied to upset No. 16 overall seed East Carolina with a 6-5 victory in Monday’s winner-take-all championship.
Evansville has clinched its first NCAA baseball regional title in program history and will advance to the super regional round this weekend. They’re the ninth team ever to make a super regional after being seeded fourth in a regional.
The Aces (38-24) again used the long ball to their advantage, starting with Kip Fougerousse’s fourth homer of the regional and program-tying 21st on the season in the first inning. Then, after ECU took the lead in the fifth, Mark Shallenberger belted a three-run, go-ahead homer in the sixth.
Evansville didn’t relinquish the lead as the veteran group continues to take the program to new heights.
“This means a significant amount to the University of Evansville, to our athletic department and to our city,” Purple Aces coach Wes Carroll said postgame on the ESPN broadcast. “I couldn’t be more proud to be an Ace right now. We went out and we earned that thing today. We delivered some big barrels when we needed to.”
