GREENVILLE, NC — Texas and East Carolina will play for a spot in the College World Series on Sunday.
After never meeting on a baseball field before this weekend, Texas and East Carolina split the first two games of this super regional. The Pirates (46-20) recorded a 13-7 victory at Clark-LeClair Stadium on Friday. Texas (46-20) rallied for a 9-8 win a day later.
Golden:How Texas baseball ignored the undertaker to force Game 3 in Greenville
After:Texas should brace for madness in East Carolina’s 5,000-seat ‘Jungle’
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Texas closes East Carolina, books another trip to Omaha
With an 11-1 win over East Carolina, Texas took the crown at the Greenville Super Regional. The accomplishment advances the Longhorns to the College World Series for the 38th time in school history.
Texas will face Notre Dame later this week in their opener in Omaha. Rival teams like Oklahoma, Texas A&M and Arkansas have also reached the College World Series.
East Carolina finished its season with a 46-21 record. The Pirates were looking to reach the College World Series for the first time.
Texas moves within three outs of its 38th trip to the College World Series
After eight innings at Clark-LeClair Stadium, Texas maintains a 10-1 lead over East Carolina. While walking two walks and allowing no hits, relief pitcher Travis Sthele has guided UT the past two innings.
Texas go to their bullpen after receiving six solid innings from Tristan Stevens
When Texas returned to the field after the seventh inning, Tristan Stevens strolled into the reliever area to hug his fellow pitchers. The sixth-year senior allowed five hits, three walks and one run in six innings. Five of his 101 pitches retired a batter.
Last year, Stevens was the record-breaking pitcher in UT’s regional super win over South Florida. In 5 2/3 innings in that 12-4 win, Stevens had eight hits and four runs.
Travis Sthele (3-1, 6.40 ERA) is Texas’ next pitcher.
As Texas leads 10-1, Tristan Stevens passes fifth inning
After East Carolina had two runners on board to start the end of the fifth inning, Texas began dropping reliever Jared Southard into their bullpen. David Pierce, however, did not need to switch pitchers. Tristan Stevens got a double play which was confirmed by video review and groundout to end the inning.
So far, Stevens has thrown 84 pitches. He allowed four hits and walked two.
Trey Faltine takes the lead in Texas with his 15th home run
In the fifth inning, Texas shortstop Trey Faltine became the first Longhorn to include ECU reliever Garrett Saylor. After UT went hitless through Saylor’s first two innings of work, Faltine led the frame with a solo homer.
It was Faltine’s 15th home run this year. Those 15 home runs would have led Texas’ offense in 10 of the previous 11 seasons. Instead, they currently rank third on the UT list behind Ivan Melendez (32 homers) and Murphy Stehly (19 homers).
Garrett Saylor signs for East Carolina as Tristan Stevens completes fourth inning of work
The fifth Pirate to pitch tonight, East Carolina’s Garrett Saylor had some success against Texas. Saylor kept Texas scoreless in its two innings. Saylor hit two Longhorns but didn’t allow a hit.
Saylor threw 58 shots in Saturday’s game.
Meanwhile, Tristan Stevens got Texas through the first four innings. Stevens allowed three hits and a run. Texas still leads 9-1.
Texas builds on early lead as East Carolina switches pitchers twice
For the second straight inning, Texas forced East Carolina to call its bullpen. The Pirates actually made two pitching changes when CJ Mayhue replaced Trey Yesavage and Josh Grosz then replaced Mayhue.
Against those three pitches, Texas had five hits. Eric Kennedy, Murphy Stehly, Austin Todd and Skyler Messinger all made runs as the Longhorns increased their lead to 9-1.
East Carolina goes on the scoreboard after super regionals resume
Quickly clearing a weather delay that lasted nearly five hours, East Carolina got back to work. The Pirates kept relief pitcher Trey Yesavage, who was called out of the bullpen just before the game’s break, on the mound and he struck out two Longhorns to end the first half of the first inning.
In the bottom half of the inning, East Carolina kicked off their attack with two straight singles. Leading hitter Zach Agnos finally scored the Pirates’ first run on a sacrifice fly.
After a nearly five-hour delay, Texas and East Carolina got to play ball
The NCAA announced that Texas and East Carolina will resume Game 3 of their super regional at 10:15 p.m. ET. A weather delay was announced around 5:25 a.m.
When play resumes, Texas will have a 4-0 lead with one out in the top of the first inning. Silas Ardoin will hit with a runner on first base.
Texas strikes first but weather strikes again in first inning
Texas wasted no time in making a statement in Greenville. To start the first inning, Douglas Hodo III reached base on a fielding single and Eric Kennedy walked. That set up Ivan Melendez, who worked a 2-0 count against ECU pitcher Danny Beal.
On the first pitch after a meeting between Beal and catcher Ben Netwon, Melendez fielded a baseball over the fence in left field. The home run was Melendez’s 32nd of the season. In the Division I record books, those 32 home runs are tied for 13th all-time. This number also set a new standard for a single season for the BBCOR Bat era.
After UT cleanup hitter Murphy Stehly was hit by a pitch, ECU made a pitch change. Texas then took a 4-0 lead when Skyler Messinger drove Stehly in with a Trey Yesavage single.
With one out in the first half of the first inning, action at Clark-LeClair Stadium was halted when the second afternoon weather delay went into effect. A restart time has not been announced.
Texas to pitch veteran pitcher Tristan Stevens against ECU’s Danny Beal
Although both teams are expected to empty their relievers today, Tristan Stevens (6-6, 5.16 ERA) and Danny Beal (5-1, 4.03 ERA) were named starting pitchers for Texas and ECU . Stevens has already thrown 23 pitches in two short appearances this weekend. Beal recorded two quick outs and walked one on Saturday.
After:Texas’ Tristan Stevens has ‘another chip to put on my shoulder’
Stevens has thrown 24 games this season, but the sixth-year senior started on April 30. He was the starting pitcher last year when Texas booked its 37th trip to the College World Series and closed out its super regional against South Florida.
This will be Beal’s second start of the season.
Texas and East Carolina have a history with do-or-die games in super regionals
This is the seventh time UT has reached Game 3 of a super regional. So far, Texas is 5-1 in those contests. East Carolina was beaten in its only previous appearance in a winner-takes-all contest from a super regional.