NC State Baseball Downs East Carolina, 5-4

Wednesday, February 19

Greenville, N.C.

5:00 PM

NC State

4-2

East Carolina

3-1

NC State

East Carolina

2/19/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

Feb. 19, 2003

Final Stats

GREENVILLE, N.C. - David Hicks went 2-for-4 with a double, a home run and three RBIs, and three Wolfpack pitchers combined to scatter seven hits as NC State defeated East Carolina 5-4 in front of 2,786 fans at Harrington Field.om

The Wolfpack improved to 4-2 with the win, while East Carolina lost for the first time this season and fell to 3-1. Freshman righthander Joey Devine (1-0), the third of three Wolfpack pitchers, picked up the win after working the final 3-1/3 innings. He allowed one run on two hits. He walked none and struck out three. ECU starter Davey Penny took the loss after allowing four runs, all of them unearned, on four hits in five innings. He walked one and struck out four.

NC State starter Phillip Davidson pitched very well, but did not last the necessary five innings required to get credit for the win. Davidson worked 4-1/3 innings, allowing three runs, two of them earned, on three hits. He walked two and struck out four. Freshman lefthander Jason Duncan worked 1-1/3 scoreless innings before giving way to Devine with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the sixth.

The Pirates dinged Davidson for a run in the bottom of the first when Ryan Jones was hit by a pitch with one down, went to third on a hit-and-run single by Darryl Lawhorn, and scored on a single up the middle by Ryan Norwood. Davidson escaped further damage by getting Mark Minicozzi to foul out and John Poppert to ground into a force play.

East Carolina experienced a major defensive meltdown in the third inning, leading to four NC State runs. Chad Orvella grounded out to start the inning. With one down, Matt Camp singled to left. Lee Mezistrano flied to left for the second out, and Justin Riley hit a soft grounder to the mound for what should have been the third out, but Penny bobbled the ball for an error, putting runners on first and second. Hicks followed with a two-run double to the left-center-field gap, and then took third on a wild pitch. Joe Gaetti was hit by a pitch and stole second. Colt Morton hit a slow grounder that second baseman Kevin O'Sullivan bobbled for one error and then threw away for a second, allowing both baserunners to score and give NC State a 4-1 lead.

Davidson settled down after the first inning, retiring 10 batters in a row and 12 of 13 before running into trouble in the fifth. O'Sullivan flied to right to start things, but Luke Cherry walked and Davidson hit Jamie Page with a pitch. Ryan Jones rolled a single through the right side of the infield, and Cherry scored from second on the play when Joe Gaetti misplayed the ball in right field for an error. Jones and Page wound up on second and third, respectively, on the play, which drove Davidson from the game in favor of Duncan. Page scored on Lawhorn's groundout to Hicks to cut the lead to a single run at 4-3, but Duncan struck out Norwood to end the inning.

Duncan ran into trouble in the bottom of the sixth, walking the bases loaded with two down, but Devine came out of the bullpen to retire pinch-hitter Ben Sanderson on a fly ball to center field.

David Hicks picked up his third RBI of the night in the top of the seventh with a long solo homer to right field, his first long ball of the season. That gave NC State an insurance run and a 5-3 lead, but Lawhorn wiped out the insurance run with a solo homer of his own in the bottom of the seventh, his second of the year, to make it 5-4.

Devine was in command the rest of the way. He hit Minicozzi with a pitch with two outs in the seventh, and gave up a one-out single to Jones in the ninth, but pitched out of trouble both times.