North Carolina State University Athletics
Fall Practice Wraps Up With 14-11 Slugfest
10/25/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Oct. 25, 2005
RALEIGH, N.C. - Jon Still drove in four runs, and assistant coach Jeff Waggoner's White team scored seven runs in the bottom of the seventh inning Tuesday to defeat head coach Elliott Avent's Red team 14-11 in an eight-inning scrimmage game at Doak Field that ends NC State's fall baseball practice.
Ramon Corona went 4-for-5 for the White team, and Matt Camp (1-for-3), Brian Aragon (3-for-6), Matt Payne (3-for-5) and Jason Rago (2-for-4) each drove in two runs. Kyle Rutter got the win with a scoreless inning of relief work. He allowed one hit, walked one and struck out one.
Caleb Mangum led the Red team, going 3-for-3 with three runs scored and three RBIs. Chris Engle and Jonathan Diaz drove in two runs apiece. Wylie Jones, who allowed three runs, two of them earned, on two hits without retiring a batter, was tagged with the loss, although he was hardly alone in pitching ineffectively. Of the 13 pitchers who worked in the game for the two teams, none worked more than 2 2/3 innings and only three - Rutter, Joel Brookens and Alan Letchworth - did not allow a run. The defense was hardly airtight either, with seven of the total 25 runs being unearned.
Aragon got the White team started with a one-out single to left in the bottom of the first. Camp ran as a courtesy runner for Aragon, who has been nursing a hamstring injury. Camp went to third on Corona's perfectly executed hit-and-run single to right field, then scored on Still's sacrifice fly to the base of the wall in left field.
The Red team came back to tie the score at 1-1 in the top of the second. Ryan Pond led off and was hit by a pitch and Aaron Cone singled to left to put runners on first and second with none out. Mangum bunted the runners to second and third, and Engle drove in the run with a grounder to shortstop.
Camp reached on a one-out walk for the White team in the bottom of the third, then scored from first on Aragon's double into the gap in left-center. Corona singled to left to put runners on the corners with none away, then took second on the throw back to the infield. Adam McLaurin came on in relief of starter Eryk McConnell, and Still greeted him with a two-run single up the middle, giving the White team a 4-1 lead.
Once again, the Red team answered immediately with three in the top of the fourth. Cone and Mangum led off with singles to left, and Matt Mangini's throw to first on Engle's bunt was low, loading the bases with none out. After Dixon popped out, Joey Cutler relieved Branden Knapp and got Drew Martin to ground into a force play at second base. Cone scored on the play, and after Martin stole second base, Diaz doubled down the left-field line to drive in both runs, tying the score at 4-4.
The White team came right back in the bottom of the fourth thanks to a succession of bunts, several of them misplayed by the defense. Payne led off with a single to right and stole second. Bobby Hubbard beat out a sacrifice attempt for a single, putting runners on the corners with none out. Rago then beat out another bunt for a single, driving in Payne with the go-ahead run, and Camp bunted the runners to second and third. With two down and the infield back, Corona beat out a squeeze bunt for an RBI single, making it 6-4, White team.
That lead didn't last either. Aaron Bates led off the top of the fifth with a double down the left-field line and went to third on Pond's grounder to shortstop. Cone walked to put runners on the corners. Mangum singled through the left side on a hit-and-run play, driving in Bates and putting runners on the corners with one out. A wild pitch allowed Cone to score the tying run and moved Mangum to second base. Engle grounded to second to move Mangum to third, and Dixon bounced an RBI single over first base to make it 7-6. Martin flied to center field for what should have been the final out, but Marcus Jones dropped the ball for an error that allowed Dixon to score from first and give the Red team an 8-6 lead.
That was the last anyone heard about the Red team leading, as the White team put up seven runs in the bottom of the sixth. Jones walked Hubbard leading off the inning, and Rago tripled into the right-field corner to cut the lead to 8-7. Camp followed with a grounder to second, and Martin juggled the ball for a run-scoring error, tying the score at 8-8. Aragon cashed in the error with his third hit and second RBI-double of the game, giving the White team a 9-8 lead.
Ammer Cabrera came in to pitch for the Red team at that point to face Corona, who bounced a single through the left side of the infield to put runners at first and third with none out. Rago, running for Aragon, was out in a rundown at home on a botched double-steal attempt, with Corona reaching third on the play. Still bounced a double off the wall in right-center, driving in Corona to make the score 10-8 in favor of the White team. Sam Walls came in and struck out Mangini for the second out, but Marcus Jones beat out an infield single, with Still holding at second. Payne singled to right to drive in Still, and Hubbard beat out a squeeze bunt to drive in Jones. Camp then singled to the hole at shortstop to drive in Payne and give the White team a 13-8 lead.
The White team added an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh, with all the damage coming after two were out. Mangini singled to left and went all the way to third when Jones reached on an error by Jeremy Synan at third base. Payne followed with an RBI single to right to make it 14-8.
The Red team reached double digits in runs with three in the top of the eighth off freshman Jake Kensmoe. Synan led off with a walk and was erased at second on a ground ball by Bates, who was safe at first on the play. Pond singled up the middle to put runners on first and second. Mangum drove in both runners with a two-out double to left-center, cutting the lead to 14-10, and Engle's single to left chased home Mangum to make it 14-11.
