GREENVILLE, N.C. -- East Carolina's ace, LHP Sam Narron, shut down the Golden Knights on Friday afternoon to lead the Pirates to a 4-0 shutout victory. He limited UCF to just 4 hits, all singles in his 8 innings pitched, while allowing no walks and striking out 7.
Mark Michael (1-2) did a good job of keeping the East Carolina offense at bay during the 6 innings he pitched. He allowed 4 hits and 4 runs, although 2 of those were unearned.
The game started quickly enough for the 23rd ranked Pirates. Freshman first baseman Daryl Lawhorn sailed a solo home run over the left field fence to give the Pirates early an 1-0 lead. Third baseman Bryant Ward's triple and a later throwing error by catcher Jeremy Frost would send Ward home to increase the lead to 2-0.
UCF combined for 33 hits in the Charleston Southern series, but couldn't get anything going against Narron. George Cox led off the 2nd inning with a basehit, but was later caught in a run-down. In the 3rd inning Matt Fox reached first on an error and Mike Myers would advance him to second with a 2-out single, but Adam Miller would ground out to end the inning. Miller and Dee Brown would each single with 2 outs in the 6th, but George Cox struck out to end any hopes of a late rally.
East Carolina added 2 more runs in the 7th inning after capitalizing on UCF's third error of the game. A pitch that got away from Jeremy Frost moved ECU baserunners to 2nd and 3rd, and Jedd Sorenson's single to centerfield would send both of the runners home. Reliever Nick Whidden took over for Michael and pitched the rest of the way allowing 1 hit and striking out 3. Neal Sears closed out the 9th inning for ECU allowing no hits.
"Getting on the board early was helpful," ECU assistant coach McMullan said. "You`ve got to give credit to Central Florida. [Michael] threw a good game and worked all three pitches for strikes. Luckily, we got some clutch hits when it counted.
"Sam Narron pitched a great game. We took him out in the eighth because he hit his pitch count--95 pitches--and that`s enough for him at this time of the year."
East Carolina improved to 8-0 on the season and UCF falls to 5-7. The two will meet again for the second game of the series on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. UCF LHP Paul Lubrano (1-0, 1.47) will go up against ECU RHP Jason Mandryk (1-0, 2.45).
BOX SCORE
2002 East Carolina University Baseball
Central Florida at East Carolina
Mar 01, 2002 at Greenville, N.C. (Harrington Field)
Central Florida 0 (5-7) East Carolina 4 (8-0)
AB R H RBI AB R H RBI
Myers cf 4 0 1 0 Gaspar cf 4 0 0 0
Miller 2b 3 0 1 0 Lawhorn 1b 4 1 2 1
Mann ph 1 0 0 0 Ward 3b 4 1 1 0
Brown lf 4 0 1 0 Jones rf 3 0 0 0
Cox 1b 3 0 1 0 Wedemeyer dh 3 0 1 0
Frost c 4 0 0 0 O'Sullivan pr 0 1 0 0
Reichardt dh 2 0 0 0 McCullough c 3 0 0 0
Summers ph 1 0 0 0 Cherry ss 2 1 0 0
Bear rf 3 0 0 0 Sorenson 2b 3 0 1 2
Fox ss 3 0 0 0 Paige lf 3 0 0 0
Hall 3b 3 0 0 0 Narron p 0 0 0 0
Michael p 0 0 0 0 Sears p 0 0 0 0
Whidden p 0 0 0 0
Totals...... 31 0 4 0 Totals...... 29 4 5 3
Score by innings: R H E
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Central Florida 000 000 000 - 0 4 3
East Carolina 200 000 20 - 4 5 1
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E - Frost(2); Fox(1); Whidden(1); Lawhorn(4). DP - UCF 1. LOB - UCF 5; ECU
3. 3B - Ward(1). HR - Lawhorn(3). SB - Lawhorn(3); Jones(4).
IP H R ER BB SO WP BK HP IBB AB BF Fly Gnd NP
Michael L 1-2 6.1 4 4 2 2 4 0 0 0 0 23 25 9 5
Whidden 1.2 1 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 6 6 0 2
Narron W 3-0 8.0 4 0 0 0 7 0 0 0 0 28 28 10 6
Sears 1.0 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 3 4 0 0
PB - Frost(1).
Strikeouts - Myers 2; Mann; Brown; Cox 2; Frost; Reichardt; Bear; Fox;
Gaspar; Lawhorn; Ward; Jones 2; McCullough; Paige. Walks - Cox; Jones;
Cherry.
Umpires - Home:Mike Webster 1st:Hal Stewart 3rd:Brian Kennedy
Start: 3:59 pm Time: 1:58 Attendance: 1814