MILLINGTON, Tenn. – Troy Gilroy lived up to his All-Americancredentials Saturday morning in the opening round of the NJCAADivision II World Series. The Iowa Central Community Collegesophomore pitched a 4-hitter and the Tritons shut out the Co-LinWolves 4-0. It was the first time in 61 games for the Wolves to beheld scoreless this year.

Gilroy, a righthander, remained undefeated in 13 games. Hestruck out 9 batters and walked 5. The 6-foot, 185-pounder fromPerry, Iowa, is 20-0 over two seasons. He has signed a scholarshipwith Grandview College, an NAIA school in Des Moines, Iowa.

Iowa Central (51-8) advances to a Sunday winners’ bracket game.The Tritons will face the winner of the Jefferson Davis, Al.-MercerCounty, N.J. game at 2 p.m.

Due to a rain-delay, Co-Lin will play the loser at 5 p.mtonight.

“I had control of all my pitches today,” said Gilroy, a largeice bag taped to his right shoulder and upper arm. “My arm feelsgood. I feel like I could pitch some more. I’ve got a rubberarm.”

Gilroy’s mastery of the Wolves was impressive. An eighth-inningdouble by rightfielder Scott Poole was the only extra base hit forCo-Lin. Poole collected 2 hits in the game. Adam Different andEdison Lee singled.

“I had them (pitches) all going today,” said Gilroy. “Mycurveball got them (Wolves) off balance. I didn’t try to changeanything for this game.”

Gilroy’s teammates collected 11 hits and 4 runs off losingpitcher Jacob Blakeney (11-3). Only one of the runs was earned asthe Wolves committed 4 errors.

“Fortunately our bats got going,” said Gilroy. “When we got thelead I felt like I was in control.”

It was a scoreless pitching duel until the fifth inning when theTritons plated 1 run. They capitalized on 2 errors by Co-Linshortstop Nook Logan. The Tritons plated 3 insurance runs in the8th.

Iowa Central coach Rick Sandquist was pleased with theperformance of Gilroy and his team. “Troy’s a good one. He’s verycompetitive. He had good stuff today. That’s why he’s All-Americancaliber.”

Heavy rain, complete with lightning and thunder, greeted theteams early Saturday morning as they awakened for a quick breakfastand pregame batting practice. By 7 a.m. the rain had halted and theteams began boarding their respective buses for the short ride toUSA Stadium.

By 8 o’clock the sun had returned and the groundskeepers beganrolling back the rain-soaked tarp which covered the infield. Theopening round game started 15 minutes behind schedule.

Co-Lin coach Keith Case was disappointed with his team’sperformance but he praised Gilroy. “He dominated us. Not takinganything away from him, we didn’t play well.

“We had more errors than runs and you won’t win playing likethat.”

Case said Blakeney pitched well enough to win most games.”That’s very frustrating.”

Blakeney struck out 4 batters and walked 1. Doug Atkins replacedBlakeney with 1 out in the eighth inning and the bases loaded.Atkins allowed 1 hit and struck out 2 batters.

Poole said Gilroy kept the Wolves off balance. “He had a prettysharp curveball.”

Second baseman Chris Dunn, who leads the nation in home runswith 20, agreed with Poole. “(Gilroy) was locating and changingspeeds on us. “

Co-Lin catcher Lance Newman agreed with his teammates. “Theirpitcher was good but we couldn’t get anything going. He had a realgood deuce (curve).”

Leftfielder Daniel Mouton, also one of Co-Lin’s leading hitters,agreed. “He kept us off balance throwing off-speed stuff.”

Co-Lin left six runners on base. Twice the Wolves were pickedoff base.

The Tritons were picked off base two times by Co-Lin and theWolves turned 2 double plays.

Iowa Central got 2 hits from third baseman Matt Stender, secondbaseman Scott Browning, rightfielder Brian Hopkins and DH BrianMcGuire.

IOWA CENTRAL 4 CO-LIN 0

Iowa Central 000 010 030 – 4 12 1

Co-Lin 000 000 000 – 0 4 4

Gilroy and DeLaCruz. Blakeney, D. Atkins (8) and Newman.WP: Gilroy (13-0). LP: Blakeney(11-3). 3B: Thissen (IC) . 2B:Stender (IC), McGuire (IC), Poole (CL). Multiple hits:Stender (IC) 2, Hopkins (IC) 2, Browning (IC) 2, McGuire (IC) 2,Poole (CL) 2.