Florida Atlantic Ends NC State's Season, 10-2

Saturday, June 5

Coral Gables, Fla.

6:45 PM

NC State

36-24

Florida Atlantic (NCAA Regional)

47-16

NC State

Florida Atlantic

6/5/2004 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

June 5, 2004

Final Stats

CORAL GABLES, Fla. - Will Mann tossed a complete game, and the top four hitters in the Florida Atlantic batting order had two hits apiece as the Owls ended NC State's season Saturday with a 10-2 victory over the Wolfpack in an elimination game in the 2004 NCAA Coral Gables Regional.

Mann allowed two runs, one earned, on eight hits in improving to 5-0. He walked two and struck out nine. NC State's Joey Devine (0-4), making his first college start, went three-plus innings, only his fourth appearance of three innings or more this season. He started strong but faded, allowing seven runs, six of them earned, on five hits. He walked four and struck out four.

Devine and Mann traded scoreless innings until the Owls scratched for a pair of runs in the bottom of the third. With one out, Mike McBryde singled to center, and Jeff Fiorentino walked. Derek Hutton bounced back to Devine, who got the lead runner at third for the second out, but Tim Mascia doubled to center field to drive in both runs and give Florida Atlantic a 2-0 lead.

FAU drove Devine to the showers with five runs in the fourth. Alex Fonseca got it started with a leadoff walk and Robert Orton singled to right. McBryde bunted back to the mound, but Devine's throw to third to nail the lead runner went down the line into foul territory, allowing Fonseca to score and putting runners on second and third with none out. Fiorentino walked, and Hutton drove in Orton and McBryde with a single to left to make it 5-0. Mascia singled to center to score Fiorentino, driving Devine from the game. Phillip Davidson replaced Devine and gave up a run-scoring double to Rusty Brown to make it 7-0.

Fonseca led off the bottom of the fifth with an infield single, and Orton was hit by a pitch. McBryde hit into a force play, with Orton erased at second base. That put runners on the corners with one out, and Fiorentino and Hutton hit back-to-back RBI-singles to put Florida Atlantic in front 9-0.

The Wolfpack finally got on the board in the top of the sixth. Matt Camp doubled into the left-field corner with one away, went to third on Bryan Kinneberg's single to right, and scored when Brown misplayed David Hicks's chopper to first base for an error. Mike Jensen singled to center to load the bases and Jason St. Julien was hit by a pitch to drive in a run and cut the lead to 9-2.

Fiorentino led off the bottom of the seventh against reliever Daniel Caldwell with a double to left-center, and scored on a two-out double to right-center by Brown, his second two-bagger of the game, to make the score 10-2.