NC State Baseball Turns The Tables On Virginia, 6-0

Saturday, April 9

Charlottesville, Va.

1:00 PM

NC State

23-10, 0

Virginia

21-10, 0

NC State

Virginia

NC State Baseball Turns The Tables On Virginia, 6-0

4/9/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

April 9, 2005

Final Stats

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - What goes around comes around, and NC State, shut out on Friday night by Virginia, got a complete-game five-hitter from junior lefthander Branden Knapp to shut out the Cavaliers 6-0 at Davenport Field. The victory for the Wolfpack evens the three-game ACC series at a game apiece. The Wolfpack improved to 23-10 overall with the victory, 6-8 in the ACC. Virginia dropped to 21-10 overall and 5-7 in the conference.

Knapp (2-1) pitched the first complete-game shutout in an ACC game this season. He walked two, struck out four and threw 115 pitches. He allowed just two runners to reach scoring position, and allowed more than one runner in an inning just once. He retired 13 of the first 14 batters he faced and 18 of the first 20. Virginia starter Mike Ballard (5-3) pitched well enough to win most games, allowing six runs, five earned, on nine hits in 7 1/3 innings. He walked two and struck out two.

Aaron Bates and Ryan Pond had two hits each to lead the NC State offense, and Matt Camp had a pair of RBIs, one on a single and one on a squeeze bunt. Ryan Zimmerman went 2-for-4 to lead the Cavaliers.

The Wolfpack broke open a scoreless duel between Knapp and Ballard with two runs in the top of the fifth inning. Pond led off with a single to left-center, and Lee Mezistrano followed with a bloop single to shallow left. Ramon Corona sacrificed the runners to second and third, and Camp drove in Pond with a blooper to left. Mezistrano came around to score when left fielder Mike Mitchell kicked the ball for an error, giving NC State a 2-0 lead.

The Wolfpack added another run in the top of the seventh. Pond led off with a single to right field, and pinch-hitter Ryan Johnson sacrificed him to second. Corona laced a single to left to put runners on the corners with one out, and Camp laid down a perfect squeeze bunt up the first-base line to drive in Pond and give Knapp a more comfortable margin at 3-0.

The closest Virginia came to a scoring threat was in the seventh. Ryan Zimmerman led off with a single past first base, the first time in the game that the Cavaliers got their leadoff hitter on base in an inning. Two outs later, Scott Headd drew a walk, the first issued by Knapp, to put runners on the corners with two down, but Knapp retired Mike Campagna on a lazy fly ball to right field to end the inning.

NC State finally drove Ballard to the showers and broke the game open in the top of the eighth. Jake Muyco rolled a grounder through the hole on the right side of the infield to extend his hitting streak to 11 games, then scored all the way from first on Bates' hit-and-run double down the right-field line. Brian Aragon belted Ballard's next pitch off the top of the wall in right field for an RBI-triple that gave the Wolfpack a 5-0 lead. Aaron Cone's two-out pinch-hit double to left scored Aragon to make it 6-0.