No regular season title, no problem: East Carolina clinches seventh straight trip to NCAA Tournament winning AAC Tournament.

(Taken from X: ECUBaseball)

By Andrew Riedell

The AAC Conference has been seen as a one-bid league for the majority of the season, but after UTSA was eliminated by Tulane Saturday morning, it was apparent it would become a two-bid league this season. Tulane made it to the championship game to face off with East Carolina, who did not win the AAC Regular Season Title for the first time since 2018 but found their way into the title game after a weird 32-25 year. It concluded with an 8-2 Pirates win over the Green Wave and an automatic NCAA bid to the NCAA Tournament.

East Carolina attacked Tulane right out of the gate, with a two-run home run from Jack Herring off Tulane starter Michael Lombardi giving the Pirates an early 2-0 lead. Lombardi, who was used as the Tulane closer for majority of the season, then settled down and retired the next nine ECU batters before giving up another run in the fourth. Lombardi was expected to throw around 40-50 pitches, the highly-touted draft prospect protected by Head Coach Jay Uhlman.

Lombardi pitched into the fifth inning but exited after hitting ECU's Austin Irby, with Tulane turning to Will Clements. Clements, who's been somewhat inconsistent this season, faced two batters, and after a bunt back to him from Alex Peltier, threw it away to put runners on 2nd and 3rd. He loaded the bases on another HBP that forced another Tulane pitching change.

Blaise Wilcenski followed him, and on his first pitch, allowed a double down the left field line, Jack Herring following that with an RBI single. Wilcenski responded with two strikeouts before Ryley Johnson laced a two-run double down the right field line, making it a five-run fifth inning and an 8-0 lead for East Carolina. Tulane got their two runs off a Gavin Schulz home run and a Jason Wachs RBI double.

Freshman Sean Jenkins got the start for the Pirates, his first appearance of the tournament since both teams came into the championship game having used little pitching. Jenkins went 5 1/3 innings, surrendering only four hits and one earned run while striking out three. He was really solid and set it up perfectly to hand the baton to Ethan Norby, who was dominant for two innings and then gave way to Jake Hunter and Ryan Pruett to secure the AAC Championship victory. East Carolina will await learning its NCAA Tournament assignment on the selection show Monday at noon EDT.

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