North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack Baseball Hammers High Point, 12-3
4/11/2000 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
NC State improved to 21-16 with the win, while High Point fell to 10-23-1. Wolfpack starter Mike Sollie (4-4) went six innings, allowing three runs on five hits to pick up the win. One of the runs was unearned. Sollie walked two and struck out five. High Point starter Bryan Meadows (3-6) took the loss after allowing six runs on seven hits in six innings. He walked five and struck out one.
The Panthers scratched for a run in the top of the first inning when Michael Lowman led off with a double and scored on a bloop single by Buck Hamrick. Sollie settled down after that and retired the next 10 men he faced and 13 of the next 14.
While Sollie was shuttung down High Point, the Wolfpack offense cranked into gear, starting in the bottom of the second inning. With two out and none on base, Tyler Tiesing and Jeremy Dutton drew walks, and John Whitley singled to drive in the first run of the game. Shortstop Chris Goodman, who made two dazzling defensive plays in the game, came up next and drove a two-run double to the wall in straightaway center field, giving Sollie and the Pack a 3-1 lead to work with.
NC State struck again in the bottom of the fourth. Goodman started things off with a one-out walk, and Craig Lee, Jason Smith and Wright followed with singles to drive in two runs and make it 5-1, Wolfpack. Mike Prochaska's sacrifice fly increased the lead to 6-1.
Kemp Smith led off the top of the seventh with a single for High Point and scored all the way from first base on Andy Harney's double to right-center field. Harney advanced to third on a throwing error on the play and scored when Adam Beck reached on the Wolfpack's second error of the inning to cut the NC State advantage to 6-3.
RBI singles by Dutton and Whitley in the bottom of the seventh gave NC State an 8-3 lead, and the Wolfpack blew the game open in the bottom of the eighth. Daniel Caldwell led off and reached on an error and Ryan Strain was hit by a pitch. Wright followed with an RBI double to right field to score Caldwell, and Prochaska drove in Strain with a single, giving the Wolfpack a 10-3 lead. Jamey Shearin drove in Wright by bouncing into a force play, went to second on an error on the play, took third on Tiesing's single, and scored on a groundout by Dutton for the final run of the game.
NOTE: With three hits in five at-bats for the game, Wright now has 16 hits in his last 26 at-bats.
