Deacons Even Series With NC State, 9-5

Saturday, April 16

Winston-Salem, N.C.

1:30 PM

NC State

26-11, 0

Wake Forest

16-20, 0

NC State

Wake Forest

4/16/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

April 16, 2005

Final Stats

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Wake Forest scored four runs in the second inning and five more in the sixth Saturday and rolled to a 9-5 victory over NC State in the second game of a three-game Atlantic Coast Conference baseball series at Hook Stadium. The Deacons and Wolfpack have won one game each in the series, which will conclude on Sunday.

The win lifted Wake Forest to 16-20 overall and 8-12 in the ACC. NC State, which had its four-game winning streak snapped with the loss, dropped to 26-11 overall and 8-9 in the conference.

Tim Morley (1-4), the third of five Wake Forest pitchers, got credit for the win after allowing two runs on one hit in two innings of work. He walked one and struck out two. Wolfpack starter Branden Knapp (2-2) took the loss after allowing being charged with six runs on seven hits in five-plus innings. Knapp walked three and struck out four.

Freshman shortstop Andy Goff keyed the Wake Forest offense, going 2-for-4 with a double and driving in three runs. Catcher J.B. Tucker went 2-for-5 with a double and two RBIs. For the second time in as many games, Aaron Bates led the Wolfpack offense with a single, a double and three RBIs.

After cruising through the bottom of the first inning, Knapp hit a speed bump in the second. Six consecutive Deacons batters reached base safely, four of them scored, all after Knapp had retired the first two hitters of the inning. Casey Sterk got it started with a double to left field and scored on Goff'single to center field. Goff took second when Matt Camp's throw to the plate from center field got away for an error, then scored on Brett Linnenkohl's single to center field. Matt Antonelli rolled a single through the left side of the infield, and Knapp threw a wild pitch to move the runners to second and third. Ben Ingold drew a walk to load the bases, and J.B. Tucker drove a two-run double to right to put NC State in a hole at 4-0.

The Wolfpack got one run back in the top of the third. Jonathan Diaz led off and hit an opposite-field double into the right-field corner. Matt Camp bunted Diaz to third and Jake Muyco walked to put runners on the corners with one out. Bates got the run home with a sacrifice fly to center field.

Wake Forest starter Charlie Mellies left the game with an injury after four innings, and NC State rallied for two runs in the top of the fifth. Diaz worked reliever Matt Hammond for a walk with one down, stole second on strike three to Camp, and scored on Jake Muyco's single through the left side. Bates yanked an RBI double down the left-field line to drive in Muyco and trim the Wake Forest lead to a run at 4-3.

Knapp hit his second speed bump in the bottom of the sixth, hitting Matt Miller with a pitch to lead off the inning, and then yielding a double down the left-field line to Sterk to put runners on second and third. Adam McLaurin came in to face Goff, who hit McLaurin's first pitch right down the left-field line for a two-run double that pushed the Wake Forest lead back to three runs at 6-3. Linnenkohl and Antonelli walked to load the bases, still with none out, and McLaurin hit Ben Ingold with a pitch to force in a run and make it 7-3.

That was the end of the day for McLaurin. Phil Davidson came in from the bullpen and went to a full count on J.B. Tucker before fanning him for the first out of the inning. Unfortunately for the Wolfpack, Ryder Mathias took a fastball in the wallet to force in another run and Antonelli scored on a passed ball to make it 9-3. Davidson got out of the inning when Brendan Enick flied out to left field and Mathias was caught off second base on the throw to the plate. Matt Devine cut the throw off and Ingold was tagged out at the plate after a brief run-down for the final out of the inning.

Jason St. Julien pinch-hit for Kinneberg leading off the top of the seventh and reached on an infield single. Diaz walked and was forced at second on a one-out grounder to third base by Muyco. Eric Niesen came in to pitch for Wake Forest and promptly balked home a run, with Muyco moving to second. Bates singled up the middle to drive in Muyco, his third RBI of the game, making the final score 9-5.