Wake Forest Defeats NC State Baseball, 4-1

Friday, April 16

Raleigh, N.C.

7:00 PM

NC State

25-12, 0

Wake Forest

12-21, 0

Wake Forest

NC State

4/16/2004 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

April 16, 2004

Final Stats

RALEIGH, N.C. - Casey Sterk homered to ignite a three-run outburst in the top of the eighth inning, and Justin Keadle pitched a gem for Wake Forest, which handed NC State a 4-1 defeat Friday night in the first game of a three-game Atlantic Coast Conference baseball series at Doak Field.

The Deacons, who snapped a 13-game losing streak with the victory, improved to 12-21 overall and 2-11 in the ACC. The Wolfpack fell to 25-12 overall and 7-6 in the conference. Keadle (1-3) threw a complete game to pick up his first win of the season, a surprising note considering how well he pitched. He allowed one run on five hits, walked three and struck out 10. Wolfpack starter Michael Rogers (6-2) matched Keadle for most of the game, and actually outpitched Keadle most of the night. Rogers dominated the Deacons through the first seven innings, allowing just one unearned run on two hits in that time, but hit the wall hard in the eighth. He wound up allowing four runs, three of them earned, on six hits in 7 1/3 innings. He walked two and struck out nine.

The Wolfpack got to Keadle for the only time all night in the bottom of the first. Matt Camp led off and beat out an infield single. Jake Muyco followed with a perfect hit-and-run single chopped through the right side of the infield to put runners on first and third. David Hicks got the run home with a sacrifice fly to deep left field. Keadle got Jason St. Julien to pop out and Lee Mezistrano to ground out to end the inning. The Wolfpack threatened again in the bottom of the third and sixth innings, but stranded two runners in each inning. Keadle retired 10 of the last 11 men he faced.

The Deacons tied the game in the top of the second without hitting the ball out of the infield. Brad Scioletti led off and walked. J.B. Tucker hit a chopper to third that Eric Taylor dropped for an error, putting runners on first and second with none out. Ryder Mathias bunted to Hicks at first base, and Hicks threw to third to cut down the lead runner for the first out. Matt Miller struck out for the second out, but Rogers committed a Cardinal baseball offense by walking Streck, the nine hitter in the Wake lineup, on four pitches to load the bases. Nick Blue got the tying run home with a slow roller to shortstop. Jonathan Diaz was playing deep and could not reach the ball in time to get Blue at first base as Tucker scored to make it 1-1.

Rogers settled in and cruised after that, retiring the next 16 men he faced before running out of steam in the eighth. Sterk led off with a towering home run over the tall wall in left field, to get things started. Blue tried to bunt for a hit, but was cut down by Tim Holt, a defensive replacement at third base. Matt Antonelli singled through the left side of the infield, then stole second. Ingold drove in Antonelli with a triple to right, his second three-bagger of the game and of the season, to make it 3-1. Steve LaFaivre's sharp single to center scored Ingold and gave the Deacons a 4-1 lead.

The two teams will resume the series on Saturday. Game time is 1 p.m. The game will be televised on cable channel Fox Sports South, and will be picked up by numerous Fox Sports Net cable affiliate nationwide. The game will be broadcast locally on radio station WKNC-FM (88.1), and that broadcast will be available on gopack.com through the Yahoo subscription service. Live in-game stats will be available on gopack via the Gametracker.