North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State Baseball Routs Pace, 10-2
3/15/2000 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
NC State won for the third straight time and the fourth time in five games, improving to 13-7 overall. Pace dropped to 0-6. Wolfpack starter Mike Sollie (3-1) went three innings in a pre-arranged pitching split to get the win. Sollie allowed a run on four hits. He walked none and struck out five. The Pack's five relievers were just as effective, allowing one run on four hits over the final six innings. Wolfpack pitchers recorded 11 strikeouts on the afternoon without issuing a walk.
Pace starter Joel Filipek (0-1) made his first start of the season and was roughed up for 10 runs, nine of them earned, on eight hits in five innings. He walked seven and struck out two.
Pace got on the scoreboard first when Jesse Brady and Jason Jaworski hit back-to-back doubles leading off the game, giving the Setters a 1-0 lead. Sollie settled down after that, allowing only a pair of two-out singles in the third inning before giving way to the bullpen.
Before Sollie left, however, his teammates gave him a ton of run support, including three runs in the bottom of the first inning. Wright led off with a single to center, and Eric Mosely hit a hard shot off Filipek's glove for a single that put runners on first and second. Mike Prochaska beat out a bunt for a hit to load the bases, and Dan Mooney grounded into a force play to drive in the first run for the Wolfpack. Craig Lee reached on an error to drive in another run, and Jeremy Dutton hit a sacrifice fly to center field for the third run of the inning.
Mosley hit a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the second to give the Wolfpack a 4-1 lead, and NC State erupted in the bottom of the third. Mooney, Lee and Dutton led off with walks to load the bases. Jamie Shearin hit a first-pitch double down the left-field line to drive in two runs, and after Jason Smith walked to reload the bases, Wright unloaded them with a home run down the right-field line, his third homer of the season and the first grand slam of his career.
That capped the scoring for the Wolfpack, but the pitching took over from there. Following Sollie's three-inning stint, Kyle Stephenson worked two scoreless innings, and Corey Mattison, Ryan Steadham and Josh Miller worked one scoreless inning apiece.
Daniel Caldwell worked the ninth and was good but wasn't lucky. Caldwell hit Ricky Asner with a curveball leading off the inning, then struck out Joe Stefania for the first out. Keith Richardson singled to right, with Asner taking third on the play, and Brady just beat out a potential double-play grounder to allow Asner to score. Caldwell fanned Jaworski to end the game.
