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News Release
EAST CAROLINA BLANKS UMBC, 7-0, IN NCAA REGIONAL OPENER
5/29/2001
WILSON, NC -- East Carolina did something Friday night in the NCAA Regional Tournament at Fleming Stadium that no team had been able to do all season -- shutout UMBC. The NCAA Tournament's seventh seeded Pirates (45-11) turned the trick in a 7-0 victory over the Retrievers (31-19-2). ECU moves on to play South Florida, a 7-2 winner over Winthrop, in the winner's bracket of the tournament at 3 p.m. on Saturday. UMBC will face the Eagles in an elimination game at 11:30 a.m. ECU rode the strong pitching of junior Jason Mandryk (7-1). The right-hander went eight innings, allowing only four hits and one walk while striking out a career-high eight. Only two UMBC runners reached third base against Mandryk. The Pirates gave their starter all the run support he would need in the first inning off Retrievers' starter Eric Weltmer (12-2). A leadoff single by Warren Gaspar, an error and a hit batter set the stage for an RBI ground ball and a two-run double by Lee Delfino. ECU added single insurance runs in the fourth and fifth innings. Cliff Godwin doubled and scored on a Ryan Jones single in the fourth and Chad Tracy blasted a solo homer, his ninth, in the fifth. The Pirates put the game away in the seventh when Joseph Hastings drilled a two-run homer off Weltmer for a 7-0 lead. The bomb was Hastings' 12th of the year and was a school-record tying 79th of the season for ECU. Tracy and Godwin had two hits each to lead ECU while catcher Scott Kosmicky had two of the Retrievers' five hits.