NC State Edges UNC Wilmington 9-8

Sunday, February 26

Greenville, N.C.

4:00 PM

NC State

12-1

UNC-Wilmington

6-3

NC State

UNC Wilmington

2/26/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

Feb. 26, 2006

Final Stats

GREENVILLE, N.C. - Aaron Bates drove in Matt Camp with the winning run in the top of the eighth inning and six NC State relief pitchers combined to allowed just two earned runs over the final 6 2/3 innings Sunday night at the Wolfpack defeated UNC Wilmington 9-8 in the final game of the 2006 Keith LeClair Classic at Clark-LeClair Stadium.

NC State, ranked 18th nationally, won for the sixth time in a row and improved to 12-1 on the season. UNCW dropped to 6-3 with the loss.

Andrew Taylor (1-0) pitched out of a tight jam in the bottom of the seventh inning and worked 2/3 innings without allowing a hit or a run to earn his first collegiate victory. Sam Walls workd two scoreless innings, allowing just one hit and striking out two, to get his second save. Bradley Holt (0-1), the fourth of five Seahawks hurlers, got the loss after allowing a run on one hit in 1 2/3 innings.

The Wolfpack took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second when Jon Still reached on a force play, went to second on Matt Mangini's single to right field, the first of three hits for Mangini and his seventh of the weekend, and scored on Caleb Mangum's single to right-center.

The Seahawks tied the game in the bottom of the second. Justin Barefoot laced a two-out double into the left-field corner, took third on Steve Halford's infield single, and scored when Jonathan Diaz's throw bounced past first base for an error.

NC State came back with two in the top of the third to take a 3-1 lead. Jeremy Synan and Brian Aragon reached on walks, and Still and Mangini followed with back-to-back RBI singles.

UNCW came right back to tie the game at 3-3 in the bottom of the inning. Chris Hatcher led off the inning with an infield single and Michael Mabry rolled a base hit through the right side of the infield. Matt Poulk lined a single to center to drive in one run. Poulk and Marbry advanced to second and third on a wild pitch on strike three when starting pitcher Andrew Brackman, making his first start of the season, struck out John Raynor. Jason Duncan came in to pitch for the Pack, and Jonathan Batts drove home Marbry with a grounder to second base.

Brackman, who came in with a 50-pitch limit, made 47 pitches and worked 2 1/3 innings. He gave up three runs, two earned, on six hits. He walked one and struck out two.

Mangum, who wnt 3-for-4 and drove in a pair of runs, led off the top of the fourth with a single to right, and Matt Camp drove an 0-2 pitch through the wind and over the wall in right field for a two-run homer and a 5-3 Wolfpack lead.

Still led off the top of the fifth with a single up the middle and scored easily from first base on Mangini's booming double to the wall in straightaway center field. Ramon Corona followed with an equally booming triple just to the left of straightaway center, driving in Mangini to make the score 7-3. Jonathan Cantrell came on in relief of Seahawks starter Zach Booker, and Mangum greeted him with an RBI single to center, giving the Wolfpack an 8-3 lead.

The Seahawks took advantage of some sloppy NC State defense to score three runs in the bottom of the sixth. Barefoot led off and reached on an error by Diaz. Halford singled to center field to put runners on first and second, and Lee McLean stroked a one-out single to center to drive in Barefoot. Hatcher's foul pop-up was dropped by Aaron Bates for an error, and Hatcher drove the next pitch from Duncan to deep center field for a two-run double that cut the lead to a pair of runs at 8-6.

The Seahawks tied the game at 8-8 in the bottom of the seventh. Raynor led off with a single to left and went to second on a wild pitch. Jonathan Batts singled to right to put runners on the corners, and pinch-runner Grayson Evans stole second. Barefoot tied the game with a two-run double to right-center off reliever Ammer Cabrera.

Camp led off the top of the eighth and drew a 10-pitch walk and went to second on Diaz's sacrifice. Bates drove a two-out single up the middle to drive in Camp with the tie-breaking run.