NC State Rallies Past UIC With Three In Ninth Inning

Saturday, June 4

Lincoln, Neb. (NCAA Lincoln Regional)

2:05 PM

NC State

41-18

Illinois-Chicago (NCAA Regional)

38-21-1

NC State

Illinois-Chicago

NC State Rallies Past UIC With Three In Ninth Inning

6/4/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

June 4, 2005

Final Stats

LINCOLN, Neb. - Jonathan Diaz drove home the tying run in the ninth inning with a squeeze bunt, and Matt Camp followed with a two-run slap-shot single to left field Saturday as NC State rallied past stubborn Illinois-Chicago 9-7 in an elimination game at the NCAA Lincoln Regional.

The Wolfpack's only lead came in the ninth inning despite scoring in each of the last five innings and six of the last eight. The Flames had leads of 5-1, 6-3 and 7-4 before NC State could finally catch up and take the lead one out away from elimination.

The victory puts the Pack (41-18) into an elimination game Sunday at 2:05 p.m. EDT against Creighton, which fell to Nebraska on Saturday night. The game will be broadcast on WKNC-FM (88.1) and on gopack.com through Yahoo's subscription service. Live in-game stats will be available on www.ncaasports.com.

NC State must win twice on Sunday and again on Monday afternoon to win the regional championship and advance to the NCAA Super Regionals next weekend. One more loss will end the Wolfpack's season. Illinois-Chicago exits the tournament with a 38-21-1 record after taking both NC State and Nebraska, the top two seeds in the regional, to the wire before falling.

"Illinois-Chicago is a tremendous team," an obviously exhausted but relieved Wolfpack head coach Elliott Avent said. "They're fundamentally sound, they take a great approach at the plate, and they play outstanding defense. They faced three outstanding pitchers for us today and just kept coming and coming. I'm very impressed with Illinois-Chicago, and I'm very impressed with our club for hanging in there and gritting it out and finding a way to win."

NC State reliever Joey Devine, the third of three pitchers for the Wolfpack, got the win with 3 1/3 innings of shutout baseball. He walked two and struck out four. Reliever Scott Sailing, the fourth of five UIC pitchers, faced just three batters in the ninth inning, but was tagged with the loss after being charged with two runs on one hit and one walk in a third of an inning.

Camp led the Wolfpack offense with a pair of hits, two sacrifices and three RBIs. Diaz went 3-for-4 at the plate, drove in the tying run, and turned in a pair of glittering defensive plays. Aaron Bates went 4-for-6 and drove in a run, and Ramon Corona had a home run, a single and an RBI. Brian Aragon had a double and an RBI-single, and Jake Muyco had two singles and an RBI in five at-bats. The Wolfpack had 18 hits in all, the most in a game since a 21-hit attack against Delaware State in an 18-3 victory on opening day.

Ted Rosinski led the Flames with two singles, a double and an RBI, and Larry Gempp and Mark Hallberg each had two hits.

NC State starter Andrew Brackman had control problems early, and UIC took advantage to score twice in the bottom of the second inning. Rosinski led off and blooped a single to shallow left field. Brackman hit Bryan Nolte with a pitch. With one away, Mike Bruszer hit a bloop single to shallow right field to load the bases. Both singles came on three-ball counts, and Jeff Gremley drew a walk to force in a run. Shane Crowder hit a fly ball to shallow center field that drove in Nolte, but Gremley was cut down attempting to advance to second on the throw to the plate, ending the inning with UIC leading 2-0.

The Wolfpack cut the lead in half in the top of the third when Corona led off with a solo home run to left-center, but the Flames made it a two-run game again in the bottom of the inning. Hallberg led off with a single to left, went to second on a groundout and scored on Rosinski's RBI-single to center field, making it 3-1 after three innings.

Brackman easily retired the first two men in the bottom of the fourth before running into trouble again. Gremley singled to center and stole second. Crowder singled through the left side of the infield to drive in Gremley, then went to second on a passed ball. Gempp's double off the top of the wall in left-center easily scored Crowder and gave UIC a 5-1 lead after four.

The Wolfpack sliced into the lead with a pair of runs in the top of the fifth. Diaz and Camp led off with singles, but were erased when Corona grounded into a 5-4 double play. Corona was safe on the fielder's choice, and Bates singled to left to put runners on first and second. Ryan Pond singled to drive in Corona, and Brian Aragon's single up the middle scored Bates to pull the Pack to within two runs at 5-3.

Bart Babineaux led off the bottom half of the inning with a bunt single and went to third on Rosinski's ground-rule double to right. With the infield drawn in and runners on second and third, Diaz robbed Nolte of a two-run single with an incredible diving stop on a grounder in the hole. Diaz retired Nolte at first with the runners holding their bases, and Bryan Russo's squeeze bunt was all that IUC could make of the opportunity, giving the Flames a 6-3 lead.

Matt Devine led off the top of the sixth with a one-out walk off of reliever Jason Foster and went to third on Diaz's single to left. Camp got the run home with a sacrifice bunt. The Flames came right back in the bottom of the sixth, again after two men had been retired. Gempp singled off Corona's outstretched glove, stole second and then scored on Hallberg's single to center.

"We kept coming back and coming back, and we just could not seem to stop them," Avent said. "Every time we scored, it seems like they would answer, and that can be tough on a team. Our guys never gave up, never stopped believing, and it paid off."

Joey Devine came in for the Wolfpack with two down in the bottom of the sixth and struck out Rosinski to end that threat with UIC leading 7-4. The Flames only had three more baserunners the rest of the way, and none reached scoring position, paving the way for NC State's final comeback push.

The Wolfpack added a run in the top of the seventh. Aragon ripped a double off the wall in right-center and scored on Muyco's two-out single up the middle, making it a two-run game once again at 7-5. The Pack made it a one-run game at 7-6 in the top of the eighth on a leadoff single by Diaz, a sacrifice bunt by Camp and a two-out single to right by Bates, his fourth hit of the game and his third four-hit game of the season.

The game-winning rally in the ninth started with a one-out walk to pinch-hitter Mike Jensen. Chris Engle pinch-ran and Muyco greeted Saling, just into the game, with a single through the left side. Matt Devine walked to load the bases with one down, and Diaz bunted the first pitch to the right of the pitcher's mound, driving in Engle with the tying run. That left runners on second and third, and with a 2-2 count on Camp, UIC coach Mike Dee elected to bring in reliever Ryan Hopkins. Camp sliced Hopkins' first pitch the other way to shallow left field for the game-winning runs.