Missed opportunities, including bunt disaster, costs Tennessee baseball vs ECU
· Yahoo Sports
CHAPEL HILL, NC – The missed opportunities were due to catch up to Tennessee baseball eventually. When they did, the No. 25 Vols were resigned to the losers bracket of the Chapel Hill Regional.
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No. 2 seed Tennessee twice had a runner in scoring position with less than two outs in extra innings, chances to end a marathon game then and there. Neither resulted in runs.
The outcome: a 7-3 loss to No. 3 seed East Carolina (37-22-1) in 14 innings at Boshamer Stadium. It matched Tennessee’s win over Clemson in the 2023 Clemson Regional for the longest NCAA Tournament game in program history.
More importantly, it created a longer, more arduous route forward for Tennessee (38-21), which will now need to win four consecutive games to advance to a super regional. That path begins with an elimination game on May 30 (noon) against the loser of the late game played between No. 1 seed North Carolina (45-11-1) and No. 4 seed VCU (37-23).
“We’ve got to try and find a way from the loser’s bracket, but it’s been done before,” Tennessee coach Josh Elander said. “We just have to execute a little bit better. That was the difference today.”
The 12th inning presented Tennessee’s best opportunity to advance in the double-elimination regional. Manny Marin stepped to the plate with one out and pinch runner Chris Newstrom just 90 feet away on third. Elander called for a squeeze bunt on the second pitch.
Newstrom would’ve scored if Marin got the bunt down, but Marin had to reach for a pitch outside. His offering rolled foul. He struck out swinging and the next batter, freshman Nate Eisfelder, grounded out.
“It’s an indefensible play when you execute it right there,” Elander said of the decision to bunt. “That was one of many plays that could’ve changed the game.”
In the fourth inning, Levi Clark grounded into a double play with runners on first and second. Reese Chapman was caught off third base and doubled off after Blaine Brown lined out in the fifth, ending that threat. Henry Ford made it to third with one out in the seventh but never scored after back-to-back strikeouts. A runner on second with one out in the 11th didn’t amount to anything either.
Tennessee finished 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
“It was hard not getting the job done today, but I have full trust in everybody that’s in our lineup every single day,” UT second baseman Blake Grimmer said. “We’ve just got to come back and be ready to go tomorrow.”
It wasn’t that Tennessee didn’t show fight. The Vols were down to their final out in the ninth inning when Ford hit a game-tying home run. They were again down one in the 13th and rallied, with Grimmer providing a game-tying single.
Tennessee had its moments, but it never found the breakthrough. East Carolina did with a four-run 14th inning that shut the door.
Now Tennessee must rebound quickly, with a turnaround of just over 19 hours from last game’s end to next game’s first pitch. It also has to navigate the rest of the weekend with a taxed pitching staff. Four relievers followed seven innings of one-run ball from Evan Blanco, including a career-high four innings from Bo Rhudy.
“They can put this one in their back pocket," Elander said. "We just need to hit the reset button as soon as we can."
Emmett Siegel covers Tennessee baseball for Knox News. Email: [email protected]; X: @EmmettSiegel_
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Inside Tennessee baseball's regional loss vs ECU, including bunt disaster