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Florida blown out by East Carolina in opening game of regional round
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Florida entered the NCAA Tournament hoping for a repeat trip to the College World Series. After a late-season push a year ago, the Gators snuck into the tournament and rolled to a 2nd straight CWS appearance.
Now, Florida has a chance to make it 3 straight trips to Omaha, but Friday’s regional opener for the Gators did not go according to plan. Facing East Carolina, the 3-seed in the Conway Regional, Florida was out-hit and out-pitched in a thorough 11-6 beatdown loss to the Pirates.
Remarkably, there was not one major big inning for the Pirates, but ECU managed to score 2+ innings in each of the first 4 innings of the game, scoring the first 9 runs of the contest. Liam Peterson started and was tagged with the loss for Florida, but a total of 7 Gator pitchers were used to cover the frame. The first 4 pitchers into the game for Florida were all credited with at least 1 earned run allowed.
For ECU, first baseman Austin Irby was a thorn in the flesh of Florida all afternoon. He had a single and a double early before adding a solo home run in the 6th inning that made it 10-2 in favor of the Pirates.
Overall, Irby ended the game 4-for-5 with 3 runs scored and 3 RBI, reaching base in 4 straight at-bats after an early strikeout. Braden Burress and Ryley Johnson also scored 2 runs apiece for the Pirates.
Florida did get a late 3-run blast from Bobby Boser, his 17th home run of the season, to make the score 11-6, but that’s where the game would end just a few minutes later. It’s a disappointing start after the Gators entered the postseason as the favorites in the Conway Regional.
Fans can check out the latest odds for the College World Series throughout the postseason with the Florida sports betting apps. As for the Gators, they will enter a do-or-die matchup on Saturday.
Coastal Carolina, hosts of the regional and the No. 13 national seed in the tournament, will face Fairfield on Friday night, with the loser moving into an elimination matchup vs. Florida. Saturday’s first elimination game is currently set for 12 pm ET.
Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.
