NC State Baseball Tops UNC Wilmington, 8-2

Tuesday, April 16

Raleigh, N.C.

7:00 AM

NC State

25-14

UNC Wilmington

25-10

UNC-Wilmington

NC State

4/16/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

April 16, 2002

Box Score

RALEIGH, N.C. - Senior righthander Ryan Combs tossed five scoreless innings and catcher Colt Morton bashed his eighth home run of the season to lead the NC State Wolfpack to an 8-2 victory over the UNC Wilmington Seahawks at Doak Field on Tuesday. NC State moved to 24-14 overall with the victory, while the Seahawks fell to 25-10. NC State is now 47-10 all-time against UNC Wilmington, winning five in a row.

Nate Cretarolo (2-1) picked up the win in relief, shutting UNC Wilmington out for three innings. He allowed only two hits and struck out three. Reliever Jeff Moore (2-2) took the loss for the Seahawks, allowing two earned runs in 1/3 of an inning on one hit.

Both starting pitchers were the story early on as Combs and UNC Wilmington starter Ronald Hill were locked in a pitcher's duel midway through the game with neither hurler allowing a run through the first five frames and striking out 12 batters between them.

That all changed in the bottom of the sixth when the Wolfpack broke the game open with six runs. Moore began the inning and promptly walked left fielder Brian Wright and served up a base hit to first baseman David Hicks to get off to a rough start. UNC Wilmington manager Mark Scalf then brought in righthander Matt McDonnell to face Morton. Morton responded with a long blast over the 380-foot sign in left center field to give the Wolfpack a three run lead.

Center fielder Joe Gaetti nearly followed with his third home run of the season when his smash appeared to clear the left field wall. However, the hit was ruled a triple, his first of the season. Right fielder Matt Butler then coaxed a walk off McDonnell to set up shortstop Chad Orvella's seeing-eye single to right, scoring Gaetti to make the score 4-0.

McDonnell then walked third baseman Jeremy Dutton to load the bases and was relieved by lefthander Bryan Meadows. Wright hammered a shot between first and second to score Butler and Orvella to give NC State a 6-0 lead heading into the final third of the contest.

The Wolfpack tacked on a couple of more runs in the eighth for an 8-0 lead. Second baseman Adam Hargrave and and Orvella laced consecutive singles to begin the frame to set the table for Wright's run-scoring single to center. Hicks tacked on the final run of the game for the Wolfpack, with a sacrifice fly to center, plating Orvella.

The Seahawks broke up the shutout in their last at-bat with two runs in the ninth off NC State relief pitcher Brian Ross. Shortstop Kiley Vaughn led off the frame with a leadoff double to left and later scored on catcher Eric Mitchell's long double to left field. However, Ross retired right fielder Jason Schindler on a groundout to short to end the threat and the game.

Orvella went 3-for-4 with one RBI on the night, while Wright (3 RBIs), Hicks, Gaetti and Hargrave all notched two hits each.

Vaughn led the Seahawk attack, going 3-for-4.

The Wolfpack's next game is on Friday at 7 p.m. at arch-rival North Carolina in the first of a three-game series.