NC State Baseball Finishes Doubleheader Sweep At UVa, 3-2

Saturday, April 19

Charlottesville, Va.

4:00 PM

NC State

33-8, 0

Virginia

22-15, 0

NC State

Virginia

NC State Baseball Finishes Doubleheader Sweep At UVa, 3-2

4/19/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

April 19, 2003

Final Stats

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - Colt Morton drove in the go-ahead run in the fourth inning and a huge insurance run in the eighth Saturday to lift eighth-ranked NC State and righthander Vern Sterry to a 3-2 victory over Virginia in the second game of an Atlantic Coast Conference doubleheader at the UVa Baseball Stadium.

With the win, Sterry (10-0) tied the school record for consecutive victories with his 10th in a row, matching the mark set in 1988 by Brad Rhodes. Sterry allowed one run on eight hits in seven innings. He walked two and struck out four. Freshman righthander Joey Devine worked the final two innings, allowing a run on three hits to notch his league-leading 11th save. Devine walked one and struck out one. Virginia starter Chris Gale (2-4) got the loss after allowing three runs on five hits in 7-1/3 innings. He walked none and fanned two.

The doubleheader sweep lifted the Wolfpack to 33-8 overall, 11-3 in the ACC. Virginia dropped to 22-15 and 6-7.

The Cavaliers took the lead in the bottom of the second. Ryan Zimmerman singled to center, and Chris Sweet laid down a sacrifice bunt. Zimmerman went to third on a groundout, and scored on Scott Headd's bunt single. Kyle Werman drew a walk, and Matt Street singled to right, but Joe Gaetti's throw to the plate was in plenty of time to cut down Headd with the final out of the inning.

The Wolfpack came back and took the lead in the top of the fourth. Marc Maynor led off and was hit by a pitch. Jeremy Dutton bunted the runner to second, and Gaetti lined a double into the left-field corner to tie the score at 1-1. Morton followed with a single to center to score Gaetti and give NC State a 2-1 lead.

The Cavaliers threatened again in the bottom of the seventh, putting Headd at third base with one out, but Street's fly ball to right was not deep enough to get the run home, and Headd was gunned down at the plate for the second time in the game, this time by Matt Camp, to complete the inning-ending double play. Camp had moved from left to right field to begin the inning.

The Wolfpack responded with a two-out rally in the top of the eighth. Orvella led off with a single, and with two away Dutton and Dustin Murphy drew walks to load the bases. Morton singled to center field to drive in Orvella, but Murphy was cut down trying for third, and it was ruled that he was out before Dutton crossed home plate, meaning that just one run scored in the inning.

Virginia picked up a run in the bottom of the eighth off of Devine. Matt Dunn led off with a walk, went to second on a groundout and scored on Joe Koshansky's double to left-center. Zimmerman followed with a single, but Koshansky had to stop at third, and the inning ended when Devine got Sweet to pop to second and Eric Christensen to hit a one-hopper back to the mound.

Headd led off the bottom of the ninth with a single to center field, his third hit of the game, but the potential game-tying rally was short-circuited when Headd was caught stealing on a broken hit-and-run play.

The two teams will conclude the three-game series on Sunday beginning at 1 p.m. The game will be broadcast on WKNC, 88.1 FM. The broadcast, along with live in-game stats on the gametracker, will be available on the internet at gopack.com.