Ryan Towers Starts for East Carolina in Ecu Baseball Opener
ecu baseball opened NCAA Tournament play on Friday with Ryan Towers starting for East Carolina against Tennessee in the Chapel Hill Regional. The opener was not win-or-go-home, but losing it makes the road to a regional title extremely thin.
Ryan Towers Takes the Ball
Towers arrived as a left-hander with a 7-3 record, a 3.04 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP in 53.1 innings pitched. He made 15 appearances and 13 starts, struck out 42 batters and walked 20, then entered the postseason after allowing just three earned runs in his last six outings dating back to April 19.
That run gave East Carolina a starter carrying a 0.86 ERA over the stretch. It also put a Loyola Marymount transfer in line for one of the regional’s first pressure starts.
Evan Blanco Faces Early Trouble
East Carolina matched Towers against Evan Blanco, Tennessee’s left-hander with the most postseason experience on the pitching staff. Blanco was the ace on Virginia’s 2024 team that reached Omaha, but he also had allowed three-plus runs in the first inning of his last three starts.
He settled in for solid starts against Texas and Oklahoma, then did not get deep into the Arkansas game. Tennessee opened with a pitcher who has handled big games before, but his recent first-inning pattern put extra weight on the first few frames in Chapel Hill.
East Carolina’s Balance Matters
East Carolina entered ranked 21st nationally in ERA and had five relievers who had thrown more than 29 innings with ERAs below 3.50. That gives the Pirates a deep pitching base behind Towers, which matters in a regional where one starter alone does not solve the bracket.
The lineup looked less power-driven. East Carolina had five players batting over.300 and four with double-digit extra-base hits, but it ranked 136th nationally with 56 home runs, 110th in slugging and had no player with double-digit home runs. The Pirates also stole 42 bases, a total that ranked 254th nationally and sat only slightly above Tennessee’s.
That mix leaves East Carolina needing clean pitching and enough contact to avoid playing catch-up early. After dropping its first two series in May, the Pirates won six of their last seven games, swept Florida Atlantic to close the regular season and then won the American Conference Tournament Championship, which is the form they carried into Friday’s opener.
