WILMINGTON, NC -- Junior pitcher Mike McGuire came within two outs of the eighth no-hitter in program history as the University of Delaware baseball team shutout Old Dominion University, 4-0, on Friday evening to advance to the Colonial Athletic Association championship round.

McGuire (right) allowed only one hit and struck out seven in his longest outing as a Blue Hen. The 6’7” righthander overmatched the No. 1 seeded Monarchs, who never advanced a runner past second base. Scott Shockley had three hits for the offense, while Ryan Jablonski and Ryan Engelhardt each had two hits.

Delaware (32-22) continued its struggles with runners on base in the first inning. After putting runners on second and third with no outs, ODU starter Dexter Carter struck out Alex Buchholz and Bryan Hagerich before Adam Tsakonas flew out to leftfield to end the inning with no runs scoring.

The Hens took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second. Bill Merkler led off with a single and was followed by a double by Shockley. Carter then uncorked a wild pitch that scored Merkler, and catcher Tyler Belcher’s throw to Carter covering home was wild, allowing Shockley to score. The Hens then loaded the bases with no outs, but managed to score only one more time on a sacrifice fly by Brandon Menchaca before Buchholz struck out for the second time and Hagerich lined out to center.

The Hens added another run in the third when Tsakonas led off with a line drive single to center that got by centerfielder Cameron Scott. Tsakonas ended up on third base and came in to score when two pitches later Carter threw his fourth wild pitch of the game.

As in any no-hit bid, the defense must make plays behind the man on the mound. One such play happened on the first batter of the game, as Tsakonas, playing his first game at third base in almost two months, made a nice stab ranging right and gunned Chris Keenan at first. Later in the game, Keenan lined a ball that looked destined to land in centerfield, but second baseman Kyle Davis went high up the ladder to snare it.

McGuire carried his no-hit bid until there was one out in the ninth, when Jake McAloose knocked a single up the middle just out of the reach of Davis at second base. With his pitch count high, McGuire was then lifted in favor of David Slovak, who entered his second game of the day. Slovak got David Burns to fly out to left, before defensive replacement Dan Richardson made an outstanding running catch on a liner up the rightfield line to end the game.

McGuire earned his third win against only one loss, while Carter took the loss for ODU (35-24) to fall to 2-5.

The Hens will play for the CAA championship tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m. when they take on VCU, who enters Saturday without a loss in the tournament. In order to win the league title, Delaware will have to defeat the Rams twice, with a second game following half an hour after the first game.

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