Duke Evens Series With NC State, 14-10

Saturday, May 14

Durham, N.C.

2:00 PM

NC State

35-14, 0

Duke

14-34, 0

NC State

Duke

5/14/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

May 14, 2005

Final Stats

DURHAM, N.C. - Senterrio Landrum, Kyle Kreick and Jonathan Anderson drove in three runs apiece, and Danny Otero recovered from a rocky start Saturday as Duke rebounded from a blowout on Friday night to hand NC State a 14-10 defeat in the second game of an Atlantic Coast Conference series at Jack Coombs Field.

The Blue Devils overcame 2-0 and 5-4 deficits in the game's early innings with three big rallies in the second, third and fourth innings to lift their overall record to 14-34 and 5-21 in the ACC. The Wolfpack, which lost for the first time in five games, dropped to 35-14 overall and 14-12 in the conference.

Otero (5-11) allowed 10 runs on 13 hits n 7 2/3 innings, but pitched well enough in the middle innings to keep the Wolfpack at arm's length while the Blue Devils were building a six-run lead. Otero walked two and struck out two. Jimmy Galagher allowed two hits 1 1/3 innings scoreless innings to record his first save. He struck out one and did not issue a walk. Wolfpack starter Branden Knapp (2-4) took the loss after yielding four runs, all earned,, on six hits in just two innings. He struck out two without a walk.

Landrum went 3-for-4 for the Blue Devils, while Kreick was 3-for-5 with a double. John Berger had Duke's only home run. Aaron Bates went 4-for-5 with a home run and two RBIs for NC State. Ryan Pond was 2-for-4 with two RBIs, and Lee Mezistrano hit a two-run home run in four at-bats. Jake Muyco was 2-for-5.

For the second game in a row, it was the Wolfpack vaulting to the early lead. Muyco led off the top of the second with a double to left-center and took third on a groundout. Otero hit Matt Devine with a pitch, and Muyco scored when Jonathan Diaz beat the relay from second base on a grounder to shortstop. Matt Camp singled up the middle to send Diaz to third, and Diaz scored to make it 2-0 when Otero was called for a balk on a pickoff attempt at first base.

Berger got one of those runs with a long one-out home run in the bottom of the second. J.J. Koterba followed with a single up the middle, and with two down, Anderson beat out a bunt up the third-base line for a single to put runners on first and second. The runners advanced to second and third on a wild pitch and scored on Landrum's single to center field, giving Duke its first lead of the series at 3-2. Adam Murray made it 4-2 when he lined a single to left to drive in Landrum.

The Duke lead lasted about five minutes. Bates led off the top of the third with a bunt single, and Mezistrano belted a two-run homer to left, knotting the score at 4-4. Muyco followed and went to the opposite field with a single through the right side of the infield. Brian Aragon walked to put runners on first and second, and Devine broke the tie with an RBI single on a hit-and-run play.

NC State's lead lasted a little longer than five minutes, but not by much. Phillip Davidson came in to start the bottom of the third inning and seemed to have everything under control after retiring the first two hitters on routine grounders. Davidson then hit Berger with a pitch, and Koterba and Kreick singled to right to load the bases. Anderson singled to right to drive in two runs to give Duke the lead again at 6-5. Landrum singled to left to drive in another run and make it 7-5, with Anderson going to third on the play and Landrum taking second on the throw home. Murray walked to load the bases, and Brett Bartles singled to left to drive in Anderson and Landrum and increase the Blue Devil lead to 9-5.

Bates' two-out solo homer in the top of the fourth cut one run off the Duke lead, trimming it to three runs at 9-6, but Duke promptly expanded the lead in the bottom of the fourth. Bryan Smith led off and walked, but was caught stealing for the first out. Berger reached on an error and Davidson hit Koterba with a pitch to put runners on first and second. Kreik doubled into the left-field corner to drive in both runners and went to third when the throw to the plate got past Muyco for an error. Anderson drove in Kreick with a run-scoring fly ball to center field, making it 12-6.

While his teammates were building him a big lead, Otero settled in and cruised through the middle innings. Following Bates' home run, he retired the next seven men in a row, then pitched through a tough inning in the seventh, allowing just one run in a situation that looked like a potential big inning for the Wolfpack. Ramon Corona led off and reached on an infield single. Bates singled to center, and Pond drove in Corona with a single up the middle, cutting the lead to 12-7. Otero got out of the inning by getting Mezistrano on a sharply hit grounder that Murray turned into a 4-6-3 double play. Muyco grounded to third for the final out of the inning.

Otero finally ran out of gas in the eighth. With one down, he hit Devine with a pitch and walked pinch-hitter Bryan Kinneberg. Camp grounded to third to force Kinneberg at second and send Devine to third, but Corona singled to center to drive in Devine. Bates followed with a roller up the middle that got through for a single to drive in Camp. That was the end of the line for Otero. Gallagher came in and surrendered a single to left to Pond, scoring Corona to trim the Duke lead to 12-10, but that was all the Wolfpack could manage.

Duke got two big insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth. Socorro drew a one-out walk and went to third on Smith's ground-rule double. With the infield drawn in, Berger grounded to Camp at shortstop, and Camp booted the ball as he attempted to make the catch and throw to the plate, allowing Socorro to score and make it 13-10. Koterba popped up to first base for the second out, and Matt Payne came in to pitch. Kreick greeted Payne with a single to left to drive in Smith and give the Blue Devils a 14-10 lead.

The final game of the series will be Sunday at 1 p.m., not 1:30 as previously listed. The game will be broadcast live on WKNC-FM (88.1) and on gopack.com through Yahoo's subscription service. Live in-game stats will be available on gopack.com on the Gametracker.