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Texas Dominates Game 3 to Beat the ECU Pirates, 11-1, and Advance to the CWS

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Baseball

No. 9 Texas Baseball defeated No. 8 East Carolina, 11-1, at Clark-LeClair Stadium in the NCAA Greenville Super Regional on Sunday night to advance to the NCAA College World Series for the 38th time in program history.

The Longhorns (47-20) jumped out to an early lead in the top of the first before having to endure a nearly five-hour delay. With the delay, Texas completed the win after 12:30 a.m. CT.

Tristan Stevens made his first start since April 30 and was brilliant, pitching six innings of one-run baseball to keep the Longhorns' season alive. He struck out five batters and allowed just one run on five hits. With the win he improved to 7-6 this season and 23-11 in his career.

Texas jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first before the game went into a delay at 4:25 p.m. CT and did not resume until 9:15 p.m. CT.

Douglas Hodo III started the game with an infield single and stole second base before Eric Kennedy walked. Ivan Melendez then launched a three-run home run, his 32nd homer of the year, to left field to open the scoring.

Murphy Stehly was hit by a pitch and sacrificed to second base before Skyler Messinger drove him in with an RBI single to make the score 4-0. The delay began while Silas Ardoin was batting in the top of the first.

The Pirates got a run back in the bottom of the first but Stevens was able to strand a runner on base. The first-inning run would be the only one allowed by the Longhorns.

The Longhorns were right back at it in the second inning, batting around and scoring five more runs to extend the lead to 9-1. The inning started with three-straight singles from Trey Faltine, Hodo and Kennedy for the first run. After an intentional walk to Melendez, Stehly hit a two-run double to center field.

Austin Todd continued the second-inning scoring with a sacrifice fly to deep center field and Messinger capped off the frame with an RBI single to center.

Faltine hammered his 15th homer of the season to lead off the fifth inning and extended the Texas lead to 10-1.

Silas Ardoin added another insurance run with his 12th home run of the season in the top of the ninth to make the score 11-1.

Travis Sthele pitched two scoreless and hitless innings of relief to keep the lead intact. Jared Southard finished off the game with a perfect bottom of the ninth, including a game-ending strikeout to send the Longhorns to Omaha.