CONWAY, S.C. — Freshman Austin Irby had a season-high four hits, Ethan Norby matched the longest outing of his career with a strong 7 1/3 innings and East Carolina opened the Conway Regional with an 11-6 win over Florida on Friday.
East Carolina (34-25) will play No. 13 national seed Coastal Carolina or Fairfield in a winner's game Saturday. The Gators (38-21) will play the loser in an elimination game.
The Pirates tagged Florida ace Liam Peterson for four quick runs on their way to a 9-0 lead in their seventh straight regional. Irby doubled in a run in the fourth, hit his 10th homer in the sixth and singled in another run to make it 11-2 in the seventh.
The Pirates, the No. 3 regional seed, knocked Peterson (8-4) out of the game with one out and the bases loaded in the second inning. Peterson gave up four runs, two earned, in his shortest outing of the season other than a seven-pitch start cut short because of a weather delay on May 2 at South Carolina.
The Gators, in their 17th straight regional, broke through against Norby in the fourth with Brendan Lawson leading off with a homer and Blake Cyr connecting with two outs to make it 9-2.
Norby (8-5) allowed six hits, struck out 10 and walked none. He threw a career-high 116 pitches before giving way to Jake Hunter, who gave up a three-run homer to Bobby Boser in the ninth.
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