NC State Baseball Downs Marshall 9-4

Saturday, March 8

Clayton High School

5:00 PM

NC State

10-4

Marshall

3-6

Marshall

NC State

3/8/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

March 8, 2003

Final Stats

CLAYTON, N.C. - Joe Gaetti hit a double and two home runs, and Mike Rogers picked up his fourth win of the season as NC State defeated Marshall in the first game of a doubleheader Saturday night at Clayton High School.

The Wolfpack improved to 10-4 with the win, its season-best fifth in a row, while Marshall fell to 3-6. Rogers (4-1) worked seven workmanlike innings, allowing three runs, two of them earned, on seven hits. He walked three and struck out seven. Grant Harper (0-3) took the loss for Marshall. He worked five innings, allowed seven runs on 10 hits, walked one and struck out five.

The Herd took advantage of the cozy fences at Clayton High in the top of the first when Matt LaFleur walked and Corie O'Bryan followed with a two-run homer, just beyond the outstretched glove of Gaetti for a 2-0 lead.

Gaetti partially atoned for not catching O'Bryan's blast by launching a solo shot in the bottom of the first, a drive that easily cleared the wall in left and cut the Marshall lead to 2-1.

The Thundering Herd got an unearned run in the top of the second. Gregg Hiller and Adam Frederick singled, and with two out, Mike Koitsopoulos hit a grounder to third base. Jeremy Dutton was late making the throw to first, allowing Koitsopoulos to reach on the infield single, and Hiller scored when David Hicks's throw back to third base got by Dutton for an error.

The Wolfpack shaved another run off the lead in the bottom of the third when Adam Hargrave led off with a double to center field and went to third on Dutton's single. With one out, Harper committed a balk to score Hargrave and cut the lead to 3-2.

NC State took the lead in the top of the fourth, all after two men were out. Marc Maynor singled to left-center, went to second on a passed ball, and stole third on ball four to Chad Orvella. Hargrave then ripped a hit-and-run double down the left-field line to drive in both runners and give the Wolfpack a 4-3 lead.

Gaetti made it 5-3 with his second homer of the game, a long leadoff blast to left in the bottom of the fifth.

The Wolfpack broke the game open in the bottom of the sixth. Maynor led off with a double, Orvella was hit by a pitch and Hargrave beat out a bunt single to load the bases. Maynor was out trying to score on what would have been a wild pitch, but Dutton walked to reload the bases. Gaetti and Hicks then ripped back-to-back two-run doubles to give NC State a 9-3 lead.

Marshall dinged reliever Jason Duncan for a run in the top of the eighth. Craig Dzeidziejko led off with a single, went to second on a single by Brian Helmer, took third on a fly ball, and scored on Josh McConnell's single to left.