NC State Edges The Citadel 3-2

Wednesday, March 8

Raleigh, N.C.

4:00 PM

NC State

14-4

The Citadel

9-5

The Citadel

NC State

3/8/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

March 8, 2006

Final Stats

RALEIGH, N.C. - Lefthander Jason Duncan had his best start of the season, and three NC State relievers combined to work three scoreless innings Wednesday at the Wolfpack defeated The Citadel 3-2 at Doak Field at Dail Park.

Duncan (4-0) allowed two runs, one earned, on five hits in six solid innings. He struck out two and did not walk a batter. Sam Walls allowed one hit and struck out one in the ninth to notch his third save of the season. Bulldogs starter Zach Brown (1-1) was effective but got no run support. Brown allowed three runs, only one of which was earned, on nine hits in six innings. He walked one and struck out three.

The Wolfpack, which won its 17th consecutive midweek game dating back to 2004, improved to 15-4, while The Citadel dropped to 9-5.

For the fourth game in a row for NC State, the opposition scored first. The Citadel got a run in the top of the first when Matt Covington singled to left-center, stole second and scored on Matt Matulia's two-out single to center field.

The Wolfpack got the run back in the bottom of the third. Ryan Pond led off with a single up the middle and took second on Jonathan Diaz's sacrifice bunt. Matt Camp sliced an opposite-field double to left-center, his second two-bagger of the game, to score Pond and knot the score at 1-1.

Brian Aragon led off the bottom of the fourth and reached on an error by Mark Egleton at first base. Jon Still bunted Aragon to second, and Matt Mangini singled up the middle to drive in Aragon with the tie-breaking run. Bobby Hubbard singled through the right side to put runners on first and second, and Diaz singled to right field to chase home Mangini and make it 3-1.

After allowing the run in the first inning, meanwhile, Duncan was in command. He retired 13 of the next 15 men he faced through the end of the fifth inning, erasing one of the two who reached base on a double play, and he should have cruised through the sixth except for a Wolfpack error.

Tripp Cappelmann led off the top of the sixth for the Bulldogs with a grounder to third base and went all the way to second when Mangini's throw to first skipped past Aaron Bates for a two-base error. Conrad Kellehan grounded to second to move the runner to third, and Covington grounded to shortstop to drive him home, cutting the lead to a single run at 3-2.

Duncan was done after the sixth, but Travis High, Chris Engle and Walls allowed just two hits between them over the final three innings and allowed just one runner past first base.

NC State will return to action this weekend with the first Atlantic Coast Conference action of the season. Boston College will come to Doak Field at Dail Park for the Terriers' first ACC baseball action. Game times are 4 p.m. on Friday, 2 p.m. on Saturday, and 1 p.m. on Sunday. All three games will be broadcast live on WKNC-FM (88.1) and on gopack.com through Yahoo's subscription service.