ECU baseball beats Texas 13-7 in Greenville Super Regional, is 1 win away from Omaha
The East Carolina baseball team is one win away from Omaha.
The Pirates, the No. 8 overall seed, defeated No. 9 Texas, 13-7, at Clark-LeClair Stadium on Friday in front of an announced crowd of 5,723, the largest in program history, according to ECU.
One more win and the Pirates will advance to the College World Series for the first time in school history.
ECU jumped out to a 7-2 lead before the Longhorns got back in the game with back-to-back home runs in the top of the sixth. The Pirates survived through the seventh inning holding onto an 8-5 lead. Texas entered the game 0-17 this year when trailing after seven innings. But the Longhorns didn’t go easily, pushing two more runs across in the top of the eighth to pull within a run.
They probably would have tied the game, if not for Alec Makarewicz’s run-saving play at third base to close out the top of the eighth.
Then, in the bottom half, Makarewicz delivered with his bat, as well, launching a home run that caromed into the stands off a Texas fielder’s glove to reestablish a two-run advantage. The Pirates tacked on four more in the eighth and held Texas scoreless in the ninth to earn the win.
The Pirates (46-19) are in the Super Regional round for the third year in a row, hosting for the first time since 2001. The Longhorns rolled into Greenville having outscored their opponents 26-6 while going 3-0 in the Austin regional.
Friday’s matchup was the first time ECU and Texas had played each other in baseball. ECU went 3-1 as a regional host last weekend, and the Pirates have now won 22 of their last 23 contests, while Texas (45-20) arrived in Greenville having won 10 of their last 13 games.
The Pirates’ lone loss during the stretch came against Coastal Carolina in the regional, a setback that knocked ECU into the losers’ bracket and forced it to play an extra game to advance to the Super Regional.
At one point this season, ECU was 14-13 and in danger of missing the NCAA tournament entirely.
“They’ve been playing playoff baseball since our 28th game,” ECU skipper Cliff Godwin said. “That’s been neat. I still feel like we are playing with house money because nobody thought we were going to be any good this year at the beginning of the year.”
ECU is now 27-9 at home this season.
First pitch for Game 2 is Saturday at noon. The winner of Game 1 of a Super Regional has advanced to Omaha 80% of the time since 1999, when the NCAA expanded the college baseball postseason field to 64.
This story was originally published June 10, 2022 at 4:06 PM.
