April 23, 2002

The 18th-ranked East Carolina Pirates defeated the Duke Blue Devils, 8-1, Tuesday night at Jack Coombs Field.

Duke got on the board first, taking a 1-0 lead in the third inning. Junior Doug Bechtold led off with a walk and scored on a double to centerfield by junior Larry Broadway.

The Pirates evened the score in the top of the fifth. Bryant Ward led off with a single to shortstop and advanced to third on a double by Luke Cherry. He scored on a groundout by Jedd Sorenson.

ECU added two runs in the sixth to take a 3-1 lead. Darryl Lawhorn hit a one-out double to left-center and scored on a double by Adam Stephens. After a single by Clayton McCullough, Stephens crossed the plate on a sacrifice fly by Warren Gaspar.

The Pirates increased their lead to 5-1 with two runs in the seventh. Cherry led off with a single, stole second and scored on a sacrifice fly. Ben Sanderson singled and later scored on a fielding error.

East Carolina added three runs on three hits, including two bunt singles, a passed ball and an error, in the eighth inning to take a commanding 8-1 lead.

The Blue Devils once again had their chances against one of the nation's top teams, but left eight runners on base. Duke had runners on first and second with no one out in the fourth inning and runners on second and third in the sixth inning, but failed to score each time.

"I'm not pleased with the way we're hitting it, especially with runners on base," said Duke head coach Bill Hillier. "I thought Justin Dilucchio pitched very well, but as a team, we made too many little mistakes. We need to regroup and play this weekend the way we did against Clemson. If we do that, we'll be in good shape come Monday."

Sophomore Bryan Smith led the Blue Devils with three hits. Broadway and junior Troy Caradonna, who extended his hitting streak to 11 games, had two hits apiece.

Dilucchio (4-3) took the loss, allowing three runs on five hits and three walks while striking out five. Jason Mandryk (5-1) picked up the win, scattering eight hits and two walks in 5.0 innings but allowing just one run.

Duke fell to 19-23 and travels to Maryland for a three-game series this weekend. East Carolina improved to 30-10-1.