Evansville won its first NCAA Tournament Super Regional contest in program history on Saturday.
The Purple Aces defeated No. 1 national seed Tennessee, 10-8, at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
Evansville head coach Wes Carroll discussed the Purple Aces’ win.
“This team doesn’t surprise me anymore, they just don’t,” Carroll said. “Just an incredible effort after what they’ve been through over the past two weeks. For them to dig deep there in the middle part of that game and perform the way that they did, it’s something that I can’t really put into words. Yesterday, we came to the yard, and it was bright lights. We were tight, the dugout wasn’t really engaged, and I was upset about it. Today, it was the complete opposite, and I felt like we were ourselves. We were the Aces that liked to have fun and are loose coming into the yard.
“In an elimination game, it’s a great feeling to have, it really is whenever you know that your team is ready. I said yesterday that solo home runs don’t hurt you. I didn’t know that they were going to stack three of them back to back to back and kind of throw us on our heels. Donovan Schultz has been throwing really well for us over the past month and a half, but we had to pull him. That’s really leaning heavy on our bullpen and Jakob Meyer coming in, giving us a performance of just a goose egg and another goose egg to give our offense a chance during the fourth, fifth and sixth to do something really unique, and what I feel like we’re capable of and that’s putting up crooked numbers on the scoreboard. These two guys beside me had incredible games, but it was also some really special at-bats that we had through the course of that game, including Chase Hug and Brent Widder, amongst many others. I’m just really proud of our guys. I think it’s hands down the greatest win of our school’s history, a program that I’m extremely proud of. I bleed purple, and it’s great to be able to experience that as the head baseball coach at UE.”
