NC State Rolls Past West Virginia 12-4

Friday, February 24

Greenville, N.C.

1:30 PM

NC State

10-1

West Virginia

3-1

West Virginia

NC State

2/24/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

Feb. 24, 2006

Final Stats

GREENVILLE, N.C. - NC State rapped out 11 hits and took advantage of four West Virginia errors Friday to rout the Mountaineers 12-4 in the first round of the Keith LeClair Classic at Clark-LeClair Field.

The Wolfpack, which scored seven unearned runs, improved to 10-1 with the victory, while West Virginia took its first loss in four games. NC State starter Eryk McConnell (3-1) worked five innings and allowed three runs on eight hits, striking out four without issuing a walk. Marty Fagler (0-1) started and took the loss for the Mountaineers. He allowed seven runs, only two of which were earned, on five hits in 4 2/3 innings. He walked four and struck out three.

Jon Still and Matt Mangini led the NC State offense. Still went 2-for-4 with two doubles, three runs scored and two RBIs. Mangini went 2-for-5 with two RBIs. Caleb Mangum and Matt Camp had two hits each for the Pack, and Jonathan Diaz reached base four times as the leadoff hitter, drawing three walks and getting hit by a pitch.

The Mountaineers scratched for a run in the top of the second. Kyle Matuszek singled to right field and Casey Bowling followed with a single through the hole and into right field. David Carpenter's two-out bloop single into right brought Matuszek around to score the game's first run.

The Wolfpack took the lead with a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the second. Still doubled down the left-field line and went to third on Mangini's grounder to second. Ryan Pond grounded to third, and Carpenter dropped Justin Jenkins' throw home for an error that allowed Still to score the tying run. Pond went to second on a groundout and scored the go-ahead run on Camp's single up the middle.

The Pack added another unearned run in the bottom of the third. Right fielder Stan Posluszny dropped Still's one-out fly ball for a two-base error, and Still came around to score on Mangini's RBI single through the right side of the infield.

West Virginia tied the game up at 3-3 with a pair of runs in the top of the fifth. Tyler Kuhn singled to right leading off, and Doug Nelms blasted a one-hop double off the wall in left-center. Posluszny's one-out groundout drove in Kuhn, and Matuszek singled up the middle to drive in Nelms with the tying run.

NC State put four on the board in the bottom of the fifth. Diaz led off and was hit by a pitch. Ramon Corona bunted Diaz to second, and Aaron Bates walked to put runners on first and second. Brian Aragon hit a grounder that Matuszek booted at first for an error. Diaz scored on the play and Bates went to third. Still doubled into the left-field corner to drive in Aragon and Bates, and Still came around to score on a pair of wild pitches. Mike Schmidt came in to pitch for the Mountaineers and walked pinch-hitter Jeremy Synan, Mangum, Camp and Diaz to force in another run and give the Wolfpack an 8-3 lead.

Carpenter drew a one-out walk in the top of the sixth, went to second on Adam White's bunt single, took third on Kuhn's single up the middle and scored on Nelms's roundout, trimming the lead to four runs at 8-4.

Bates drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the sixth and Aragon bunted for a single. Still sacrificed the runners to second and third, and Synan made it 10-4 with a two-run single to right field.

Bates got the Wolfpack's two-out rally started in the bottom of the seventh with a single to left field. Aragon walked and Still was safe on an error that allowed Bates to score from second base. Mangini lofted a single to shallow right field to make it a 12-4 lead for the Wolfpack.

NC State will be back in action in the LeClair Classic on Saturday with a 10 a.m. game vs. Penn State. The game will be broadcast live in WKNC-FM (88.1) and will be available on-line on gopack.com through Yahoo's subscription service.