Wes Carroll is an Evansville man through and through, and his pride was on display after his team became the only No. 4 regional seed to win on the opening day of the NCAA Tournament.
The Purple Aces' 4-1 victory over No. 16 national seed East Carolina on Friday came in their first game in the national tournament since 2006 and in one of the most intimidating venues in college baseball at Clark-LeClair Stadium in Greenville, North Carolina.
Freshman left-hander Kenton Deverman allowed one run and three hits in eight innings and Kip Fougerousse hit his team-leading 18th home run for the Missouri Valley Conference tournament champions.
“What an incredible game for our program, for our fans and all of our alumni, the university and the people watching at home,” Carroll said. “I knew we were an older club. I knew we had a lot of talent and we would come in and handle that environment.
“For a freshman to do it, I think it was one of the most incredible performances I've seen for a Purple Ace in a baseball uniform in many, many decades.”
The 45-year-old Carroll's childhood home was minutes from the Evansville campus, he grew up watching the Aces and later he and his older brother, Jamey Carroll, a major leaguer for 12 years, played for them. The 16th-year coach said Deverman's performance, for him, reminded him of Andy Benes' 1-0 shutout of top-ranked Arizona State in the 1988 regionals for Evansville.
Next up is a surprise matchup against regional No. 3 seed VCU on Saturday for a spot in Sunday's regional final. The Rams advanced with a 1-0 victory over Wake Forest.
“I think a lot of people agreed that we were the fourth seed,” Fougerousse said. “We could have easily taken third place, but we didn't care. We're going to go out there and give it our all. MVC has great baseball. It's a deep league, it's a tough league, and I think we came out and showed a little bit of what it's like today.”
LSU freshman Steven Milam hit four home runs in 177 at-bats in the regular season. He has hit four more in his last 25, and they have been big.
The 5-foot-8 switch-hitter hit two home runs in the defending national champion Tigers' 4-3 victory over Wofford. He went deep from the right side in the seventh inning for LSU's first run and hit the decisive home run from the left side in the bottom of the ninth.
“I just did one last week, so I'm kind of used to it now,” Milam said smiling.
In fact, Milam hit two home runs in the SEC tournament, including a walk-off shot to beat South Carolina in the semifinals.
Looking at Milam, it's obvious that she wears her heart in her hair. With the help of teammate Jake Brown's girlfriend, she dyed it blonde and added purple tiger stripes, a process that took two hours.
Three of the last four teams to receive at-large bids scored wins and the fourth nearly got the job done.
Coastal Carolina, which will send coach Gary Gilmore into retirement after the season, scored all of its runs in the first three innings and got six solid innings from Riley Eikhoff in a 13-3 win over Vanderbilt. It was the fifth time this season the Commodores lost by at least 10 runs.
Indiana made quick work of Southern Mississippi, leading 8-0 in the fifth inning and collecting 17 hits in a 10-4 victory. Brock Tibbitts and Morgan Colopy each homered and combined for seven RBIs.
UCF beat Alabama 8-7, with Andrew Sundean's pinch-hit single in the top of the ninth scoring the go-ahead run.
James Madison was one out away from defeating South Carolina when Joe Vogatsky hit a batter and Cole Messina followed with a game-tying two-run home run to force extra innings. A walk and error in the bottom of the 10th set the stage for Will Tippett's sacrifice fly in the Gamecocks' 8-7 victory.
Gavin Gallaher's three-run homer in the ninth inning rallied North Carolina from an 8-5 deficit in an 11-8 victory over LIU. … Charlie Condon went 3-for-3 and hit his national-leading 36th home run in Georgia's 8-7 win over Army. … Jalin Flores' third grand slam of the season highlighted a seven-run fifth inning in Texas' 12-5 win over Louisiana-Lafayette. Flores also had a slam in the regional final against Miami last year. …Dakota Jordan's three-run homer in the 10th gave Mississippi State a 5-2 victory over St. John's. …Bryce Boettcher's home run in the top of the 11th inning sent Oregon to a 5-4 victory over San Diego. … Ashton Wilson had three doubles and hit his first home run for Florida in a 5-2 win over Nebraska. … Hudson White and Ben McLaughlin each hit twice and Arkansas totaled six home runs in a 17-9 victory over Southeast Missouri State. … Bryan Arendt hit a grand slam and drove in five runs in UNC Wilmington's 9-0 win over Georgia Tech.
Christian Gordon allowed two hits and struck out 13 in 7⅔ innings and Brian Curley allowed one hit the rest of the way for VCU. … Jack Crowder allowed three hits in eight innings in Illinois' 4-1 win over Indiana State. … West Virginia's Derek Clark pitched his fourth complete game, allowing one run on four hits with eight strikeouts in a 4-1 win over Dallas Baptist. … Carson Dorsey allowed one run in 8⅔ innings in Florida State's 7-2 win over Stetson. … UConn's Ian Cooke and Braden Quinn combined for eight hits and struck out nine in a 4-1 win over Duke. …Virginia's Joe Savino and Chase Hungate combined on a four-hit game with 11 strikeouts in a 4-2 win over Penn.
