Duke Rallies Past NC State Baseball, 7-4

Sunday, March 21

Raleigh, N.C.

2:00 PM

NC State

15-6, 0

Duke

12-11, 0

Duke

NC State

3/21/2004 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

March 21, 2004

Final Stats

RALEIGH, N.C. - Duke's Javier Socorro belted a three-run ninth-inning home run Sunday, and the Blue Devils came from behind to defeat NC State 7-4 at Doak Field. With the victory, Duke wins the three-game Atlantic Coast Conference series, two games to one, marking the first time that Duke has ever won a three-game series at Doak Field. The Blue Devils are 12-11 overall and 2-1 in the ACC. The Wolfpack falls to 15-6 overall and 1-2 in the conference.

Blue Devils starter Greg Burke (3-2) allowed three runs, two earned, on nine hits in seven innings. He walked one and struck out five. Billy Muldowney worked the final two innings, allowing one run on two hits and striking out two for his first save. All-America closer Joey Devine (0-1) had a tough outing for the Pack, yielding five runs, four of them earned, on five hits, including Socorro's home run in the ninth. Devine walked one, struck out two, threw one wild pitch and hit a pair of Duke batters.

Early on, the game was a pitchers duel between Burke and Wolfpack starter Derek McKee, who allowed just one run in five-plus innings. He walked one and struck out four before leaving two batters into the sixth inning with a 2-1 lead. NC State got single runs in the first two innings. Matt Camp led off the bottom of the first and reached on an infield single. After Tim Holt flied to center field, Jason St. Julien and David Hicks reached on errors to load the bases. Camp scored when Lee Mezistrano grounded into a force play at second base, giving the Wolfpack a 1-0 lead.

Jonathan Diaz ripped an opposite-field two-out double down the left-field line in the bottom of the second and scored on Camp's line single to center field, making it 2-0.

That score held until the top of the sixth, when Jonathan Anderson led off with a homer to left. McKee then walked Socorro, the last batter he faced. Nate Cretarolo came in and struck out Tim Layden looking, got Brian Hernandez on a fly ball, and struck out Bryan Smith to end the inning with NC State leading 2-1.

With one out in the top of the seventh, pinch-hitter Kyle Silver greeted Adam McLaurin, just in the game for Cretarolo, with a double off the wall in left. Silver went to third on a bunt by Michael Golom, and scored on a wild pitch, tying the game at 2-2.

The Wolfpack retook the lead in the bottom of the seventh. St. Julien singled to center with two out, and scored all the way from first on Hicks's opposite-field double off the top of the left-field wall.

The Pack then gave up the lead in the top of the eighth. With one out, Devine hit Socorro with a pitch and Layden doubled to right-center, driving in Socorro and tying the score at 3-3. Layden wound up on third when right fielder Ryan Johnson bobbled the ball for an error, and Layden scored the go-ahead run on a passed ball.

Pinch-hitter Tony Bajoczky led off the top of the ninth for Duke and doubled into the left-field corner. A wild pitch moved Bajoczky to third, but with the infield drawn in, Devine got Golom to ground to second base, hit Adam Murray with a pitch to put runners on the corners, and popped up Jonathan Anderson for the second out. Socorro was up next, however, and he drilled the 2-2 pitch from Devine past the scoreboard in left-center, giving Duke a 7-3 lead.

The Pack threatened in the bottom of the ninth. Pinch-hitter Bryan Kinneberg led off and bounced a single up the middle. Camp forced Kinneberg at second on a grounder to short, but Muldowney hit Holt with a pitch and Smith couldn't handle Hicks's chopper into the hole at second base, whch went as an RBI single. That cut the lead to 7-4, but Muldowney got Mezistrano to fly to center field for the final out of the game.