Evansville Stuns Tennessee 10-8 to Force Game Three in Super Regional
No. 1 national seed Tennessee will have to wait an extra day to punch its ticket to Omaha, Nebraska. If not, that means the plucky Purple Aces of Evansville will have pulled off one of the great upsets in college baseball history.
The Aces forced a deciding game in the best-of-three series with a 10-8 win in Knoxville, Tennessee. That made them the first No. 4 regional seed to beat a No. 1 national seed in the NCAA Tournament. No. 4 regional seeds had been 0-30 all-time in such matchups.
“It’ll go down, hands down, as the greatest win in our school’s history, a program I’m extremely proud of,” coach Wes Carroll said. “I bleed purple and it’s great to be able to experience that as the head coach at UE.”
Tennessee’s home run power was on display to start the game.
They homered three times in the first inning.
Evansville rallied for a 10-5 lead, and then held their breathe in the ninth. The Volunteers, down five runs, singled twice and drew three walks off Nick Smith to start the ninth. Shane Harris issued a one-out walk to load the bases before he struck out Cal Stark and got Christian Moore to fly out to end the game.
The Purple Aces converted four singles and a double into a 6-5 lead in the fifth. Brendan Hord, who was 0 for 18 in the tournament, and Kip Fougerousse each hit two-run homers in the sixth to make it 10-5.
Evansville has taken a nothing-to-lose attitude through their first six games in the NCAA Tournament. That changes Sunday in a winner-take-all game.
“The stakes are high for us, too,” Carroll said. “As a coach, it’s very challenging to get here. You don’t know if you’re going to get here again. It’s going to be one of those things that might be one game away (from Omaha) for the rest of my life, so I’m going to cherish it and embrace it and most importantly want to make sure our boys are ready to compete like they did today — loose and with a lot of belief.”
Game 3 is Sunday evening at six.
