Tennessee Falls to East Carolina 7-3 in 14 Innings to Open Postseason Play
Image: Kate Luffman/Tennessee Athletics
By Aidan Sidoti
CHAPEL HILL – Tennessee dropped a marathon in its NCAA Tournament opener Friday afternoon, falling 7-3 in fourteen innings to East Carolina in a game that turned out to take over 3.5 hours in duration.
Senior left-hander Evan Blanco was sharp early, retiring the first 6 Pirates he faced and punching out two in a clean second. ECU finally put traffic on in the third with back-to-back singles, but Blanco rolled a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning. Ryan Towers matched him pitch for pitch, opening with three hitless frames.
Tennessee struck first in the fourth when Blake Grimmer launched a towering one-out home run to right at 108 mph off the bat to give the Vols a 1-0 lead. ECU answered in the fifth after an Austin Irby double and a two out RBI single from Nick Parham to tie it 1-1.
The Pirates tried to take the lead in the sixth after a throwing error and a stolen base put Braden Burress on second, but left fielder Davin Whitaker singled to right and Reese Chapman came up firing, delivering a one-hop strike to Garrett Wright at the plate to gun Burress and keep the game tied.
Blanco finished his day with 7 innings, 4 strikeouts, 1 earned run, and no walks, handing the ball to Brandon Arvidson in the eighth. ECU ace left-hander Ethan Norby took over in the seventh and immediately shut down a Tennessee threat, striking out back-to-back Vols with the go-ahead run on third and one out.
East Carolina grabbed a 2-1 lead in the ninth when Davin Whitaker opened the inning with a solo home run to right. Tennessee answered right back. With two outs, Henry Ford crushed his 20th homer of the season to left to tie the game 2-2 and send it to extras.
Right-hander Bo Rhudy dominated the 10th, 11th, and 12th with clean innings and back-to-back strikeouts in the tenth. Tennessee nearly walked it off in the eleventh after a Stone Lawless leadoff single and a hit by pitch to Wright, but the Vols stranded both runners.
ECU took a 3-2 lead in the thirteenth on a suicide squeeze from Colby Wallace after a Burress leadoff double and a sacrifice bunt moved him to third. Tennessee answered again. Wright doubled down the left field line and Grimmer singled him home to tie it 3-3.
In the 14th, the game officially broke open. ECU catcher Walker Barron launched a solo home run to left to give the Pirates a 4-3 lead. A single, a walk, and another Burress hit made it 5-3 before Wallace delivered a two out, two run double to left to push the lead to 7-3.
Tennessee got a two-out single from Manny Marin in the bottom half, but nothing more as the Vols dropped the opener after fourteen innings.
Tennessee will face the loser of this evening’s game between regional host North Carolina and VCU on Saturday at Noon Eastern on ESPN Plus.
