North Carolina State University Athletics
Baseball Rallies Past Virginia, 10-3
3/25/2001 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Colt Morton doubled, homered and drove in four runs, and Daniel Caldwell pitched 6 1/3 innings of six-hit relief to lift NC State to a 10-3 Atlantic Coast Conference baseball victory over Virginia this afternoon at UVa Baseball Field.
The Wolfpack salvaged one game in the three-game series with the Cavaliers and improved to 12-13 on the season, 4-5 in the ACC. Virginia dropped to 15-10 overall and 4-5 in the conference. Caldwell (3-3) allowed just one run, walked none and struck out six. Virginia starter Dan Street (2-2) was charged with eight runs, four of which were unearned, on 12 hits in 7 1/3 innings.
Both teams threatened but did not score in the first, but the Wolfpack picked up a run in the top of the second. Jamey Shearin led off with a single up the middle and went to third on Joe Gaetti's opposite-field double to right. With one out, Adam Miller nubbed a slow roller to first that drove in Shearin with the go-ahead run.
Virginia, which left the bases loaded in the first and second innings, finally got a bases-loaded hit off Wolfpack starter Derek McKee in the bottom of the third to take the lead at 2-1. Mark Rueffert walked with one out and Robert Word singled through the right side. McKee then hit Eric Christensen with a pitch to load the bases, and Chris Sweet doubled off the left-field fence to drive in two runs. The Cavs wound up leaving the bases loaded again after David Stone drew a two-out walk to re-load the bases and reliever Daniel Caldwell struck out Rob Newton to end the threat.
The Pack tied the score at 2-2 with a run in the top of the fifth. Jeremy Dutton and Brian Wright hit one-out singles, but Dutton was caught stealing at third on the front end of an attempted double-steal. Wright was safe at second and scored NC State's second run when Morton drilled a single to left.
Sean Walsh and Shearin led off the top of the sixth with singles to left field. Gaetti laid down a sacrifice bunt, and Street threw the ball past first for an error that allowed Walsh to score and Shearin and Gaetti to advance to second and third. Sammy Esposito drove in Shearin with a groundout, and Miller hit a sacrifice fly to score Gaetti and give the Wolfpack a 5-2 lead.
Morton made it 6-2 in the top of the seventh with a one-out solo home run off the foul pole in left field. The homer was Morton's third of the series and his ninth of the season. The Cavaliers got a run back in the bottom of the seventh when Hunter Wyant led off with his sixth triple of the season and scored on Rueffert's groundout.
NC State blew the game open with four in the top of the eighth. Gaetti led off with a single to left, and the Cavaliers threw away Esposito's sacrifice bunt for an error. Esposito wound up at second and Gaetti at third, and pinch-hitter Eric Mosley made it 7-2 with a sacrifice fly.
Lefty reliever Alan Zimmerer came in for the Cavaliers and hit Dutton with a pitch to put runners on first and second. Pinch-runner Daniel Pruitt took third on Wright's deep fly ball to center field. Righthander Jeff Kamrath was summoned to face the red-hot Morton, who ripped a two-run double down the left-field line to make it 9-2. Morton, who went 8-for-13 with eight RBIs in the series, came around to score when Cavaliers second baseman Rob Newton threw away David Hicks's ground ball for an error.
