North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State Baseball Whips Liberty 11-3 Behind Mooney, Caldwell
5/12/2000 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
The Wolfpack improved to 29-26 on the season, while Liberty fell to 31-20. Caldwell, who allowed three runs on nine hits, improved to 2-2 on the season. He walked two and struck out a career-high eight. Caldwell, 2-2 on the season with a 5.59 ERA, is 1-1 with a 3.57 ERA in his four starts. Flames starter Brian Adams took the loss and dropped to 6-5 after allowing 10 runs on 11 hits in 5 1/3 innings. He walked one and struck out five. Six of the 10 runs scored off Adams were unearned.
NC State took control of the game in the bottom of the first inning. Jason Smith hit a one-out double down the left-field line and scored on Brian Wright's single to center field. Mooney followed with a two-run homer into the screen atop the left-field fence, giving the Wolfpack a 3-0 lead.
Trey Miller led off the top of the second for Liberty with a walk, stole second, went to third on a single to left by Chad Bryan and scored on Steve Baker's sacrifice fly to center field, cutting the NC State lead to 3-1.
The Wolfpack broke the game open with six unearned runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. Adam Ennis led off and reached on an error. Ennis stole second and went to third when ball four to Jeremy Dutton skipped past the catcher for a wild pitch. That put runners on the corners with one out, and Dutton stole second to put runners on second and third. Eric Mosley drove in Ennis and moved Dutton to third with a sacrifice squeeze bunt, and Duttton scored when Josh Schmitt reached on an error to make it 5-1. Smith singled to center to send Schmitt to third, and Wright singled to right field to score Schmitt and sent Smith to third. Mooney then belted his second homer of the game, a three-run blast, into the screen in left-center to give NC State a 9-1 lead.
Scottie Scott walked with one out in the top of the fifth inning for Liberty and went to third on Jay Sullenger's double down the right-field line. Joey Monahan grounded out to third base to drive in the run and cut the lead to 9-2.
Smith singled with one out in the bottom of the sixth, went to third on Wright's smash double off the shortstop's glove, and scored on an alert play when Mooney popped up into shallow right field. The second baseman caught the ball, and with his momentum carrying him away from the play he had no chance to throw out Smith, whose run made it 10-2.
Craig Lee hit a one-out double to right field in the bottom of the seventh and scored on Schmitt's two-out single to center field, giving Caldwell and the Wolfpack an 11-2 lead through seven. Liberty added one last run in the top of the eighth when Larry York led off with a single and scored all the way from first on Trey Miller's two-out double to left-center field.
