NC State Baseball Doubles Up Wake Forest, 13-6

Sunday, April 13

Winston-Salem, N.C.

1:30 PM

NC State

30-8, 0

Wake Forest

21-12, 0

NC State

Wake Forest

4/13/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

April 13, 2003

Final Stats

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Jeremy Dutton had four hits, including a home run, and Vern Sterry battled through eight tough innings Sunday to lead ninth-ranked NC State to a 13-6 victory over 20th-ranked Wake Forest at Gene Hooks Stadium. With the win, the Wolfpack wins the three-game Atlantic Coast Conference series two games to one and improves to 30-8 overall and 9-3 in the ACC. The Pack has won seven of its last eight games and 25 of its last 29. Wake Forest fell to 21-12 overall and 7-7 in the ACC.

Sterry (9-0) was not as sharp as in most of his previous starts, but made huge pitches when he had to. He allowed a season-high six runs on nine hits, walked one and struck out a season-low four. But aside from a four-run fourth inning by the Deacons, Sterry allowed one hit in the second and nothing else until the seventh and eighth, when Wake scratched for a run on two hits in each inning. Wake Forest starter Brian Bach (4-1) got his first loss of the season. He lasted just two-thirds of an inning and allowed five runs, four of them earned, on four hits. He walked two and did not register a strikeout.

Bach got into hot water right away. Jeremy Dutton and Joe Gaetti drew one-out walks, and Bach's errant pickoff attempt moved the runners to second and third with one away. Justin Riley doubled to left-center to drive in both runners, and Riley scored on David Hicks's single to center. Matt Camp doubled into the left-field corner to put runners on second and third, and Chad Orvella reached on an infield single to drive in Hicks with the fourth run of the inning. Camp strayed too far past third on the play, but was able to score when the throw to the plate went wide for an error, staking Sterry and the Wolfpack to a 5-0 lead.

The Pack threatened again in the second, but left the bases loaded, and reliever Seth Hill retired 12 of 16 batters from the end of the second inning through the end of the sixth.

Wake Forest made it a game again in the bottom of the fourth. Ryan Hubbard, Ryan Johnson and Jamie D'Antona led off with singles to load the bases, and with one down, Jeff Ruziecki, who was Sterry's teammate at Cypress (Calif.) Junior College, ripped a grand-slam home run to right field, pulling the Deacons to within a run at 5-4.

Colt Morton finally knocked Hill out of the game with a leadoff homer to left in the top of the seventh, giving the Pack a 6-4 lead. Hill worked 5-1/3 innings and allowed just the one run.

Ben Ingold hit a one-out single in the bottom of the seventh. Ryder Mathias followed with a sinking liner to right-center. Marc Maynor dived and was unable to come up with the ball, which rolled to the wall. Ingold scored all the way from first to trim the lead to a run at 6-5.

With one out in the top of the eighth, Dutton reached on an infield single, and Gaetti hit the next pitch into left field for a single that put runners on first and second. Morton struck out, but the runners stole second and third on strike three, and Hanson was called for a balk while pitching to Justin Riley, allowing Dutton to score and sending Gaetti to third. The balk call seemed to unnerve Hanson, who was in the middle of a heated protest by the Deacons. Two pitches later, Riley unloaded a two-run homer to left that gave the Wolfpack a 9-5 lead.

Ryan Hubbard led off the bottom of the eighth with a solo homer to cut the lead to 9-6, and Ryan Johnson singled and went to second on a wild pitch. But Sterry buckled down and retired D'Antona, LeFaivre and Ruziecki, the 4-5-6 hitters in the order, on grounders to end the threat.

NC State finished off the Deacons with four in the top of the ninth. Camp sinjgled up the middle, and Orvella beat outo a sacrifice attempt for a bunt single. Adam Hargrave sacrificed the runners to second and third, and Marc Maynor snapped an 0-for-14 skid with a two-run double to left, through the drawn-in infield. Dutton capped a huge weekend with his 11th hit of the series, a two-run homer down the line in right field, giving the Wolfpack its final 13-6 margin.