NC State Overcomes Rain Delay, Downs Virginia 4-3

Thursday, May 25

Jacksonville, Fla.

4:00 PM

NC State

37-19

Virginia (ACC Tournament)

46-12

Virginia

NC State

NC State Overcomes Rain Delay, Downs Virginia 4-3

5/25/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

May 25, 2006

Final Stats

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Coming into the Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball Tournament, NC State was noted for its high-octane offense. On Thursday, the Wolfpack pitching staff shut down a team ranked in the national top 5 for the second day in a row, defeating fifth-ranked Virginia 4-3 behind seven strong innings from starter Eryk McConnell and two blood-and-guts innings from closer Sam Walls, whose stay on the mound was interrupted by a rain and lightning delay of two hours and 25 minutes.

"I can't say enough about the way our pitching staff has performed in this tournament," said Wolfpack head coach Elliott Avent, who picked up his 600th career win. "Gib Hobson was magnificent yesteray against North Carolina, and Eryk McConnell and Sam Walls were tremendous today. With offense harder to come by in a tournament like this, we really need our pitching staff to step up, and they've been huge for us."

NC State, which won its third consecutive game, improved to 37-19 with the win while Virginia fell to 46-13. More significant, however, being the last undefeated team on its side of the bracket means the Wolfpack will have Friday off. Florida State and Virginia will play at 4 p.m. Friday for the right to meet the Pack in the bracket finals on Saturday. The UVa-FSU winner will have to defeat NC State twice.

McConnell (7-6) pitched seven innings and allowed two runs on nine hits to get credit for the win. He walked one and struck out four. Sam Walls worked the last two innings to pick up his seventh save. Walls allowed a run on two hits, walking three without a strikeout. Virginia freshman Jacob Thompson (10-3) took the loss after allowing four runs, three of them earned, on six hits in seven innings. He walked two and struck out two.

Virginia, which lost all three games in a weekend series against NC State back in April, took the early lead in the top of the third inning. Mike Mitchell led off and walked. McConnell appeared to have Mitchell picked off first base, but a balk was called instead, sending Mitchell to second. Greg Miclat bunted Mitchell to third, and Brandon Marsh, who went 5-for-5 and drove in all three Cavalier runs, made it a 1-0 game with an RBI single up the middle.

The Wolfpack tied it at 1-1 in the bottom of the fourth. With two out and none on, Brian Aragon beat out a bunt for a single for perhaps the biggest hit of the game. Thompson hit Ryan Pond with a pitch to put runners at first and second, and Matt Mangini drove in Aragon with the tying run with a single down the right-field line.

Marsh wasted no time in breaking the tie, belting a two-out solo homer to left in the top of the fifth, but the Wolfpack came back and took the lead with a big three-run inning in the bottom half of the fifth. Jonathan Diaz led off with a single to center field, and Matt Camp walked. Ramon Corona laid down a sacrifice bunt, but third baseman Jeremy Farrell threw the ball past first base and into the bullpen for a two-base error, allowing Diaz to score and putting runners on second and third with none out. Aaron Bates grounded out to third base without advancing the runners, but Jon Still drove a single to left field to drive in Camp and Corona and give NC State a 4-2 lead.

"That inning kind of epitomized the way we've played offense in this tournament," Avent said. "We're known for scoring a lot of runs, but this ballpark doesn't play like that, so we've had to execute, do the little things and put pressure on the defense. That was a big inning for us, and our pitchers were able to make that lead stand up the rest of the way."

Virginia had its chances to get back in the game, especially in the seventh. Miclat reached on a two-out single and stole second. Marsh hit a single to center field and Miclat rounded third to try and score on the play. Camp came up throwing, and Miclat was out at the plate on a bang-bang play that Virginia coach Brian O'Connor vehemently protested, to no avail. TV replays and and still photographs of the play were inconclusive.

Walls came in to pitch the eighth for the Wolfpack, and with two down, David Adams on first base, and a 2-2 count on Tom Hagan, the game was stopped by a nearby lightning strike. Heavy rain was not far behind, and the game did not resume for nearly two and a half hours. When it did, Walls was back on the mound.

"I went back and forth, back and forth during the rain delay about whether or not to send Sam Walls back out there," Avent said. "He really wanted to go back out there, and after what he's given us this year and for the last three years, I felt he deserved the opportunity to go out there and try and finish off the game."

Walls did finish off the game, but not without hitting a few bumps in the road first. He completed the walk to Hagan, then walked Patrick Wingfield to load the bases. Pinch-hitter Tim Henry hit a grounder to Corona at second base. Corona went to Diaz covering the bag at second, barely beating Wingfield on another play that O'Connor protested.

Virginia cut the final margin to a run in the top of the ninth and had the tying run on base before Walls wriggled off the hook. Mitchell led off, walked and stole second. Miclat moved the runner to third base with a grounder to second base, and Marsh made it 4-3 with a single up the middle. But Walls got ACC Player of the Year Sean Doolittle to ground into a 5-4-3 double play to end the game.

NC State will meet the winner of Friday's Florida State-Virginia game on Saturday at 10 a.m. WKNC-FM (88.1) will broadcast all of NC State's tournament game live, and all broadcasts will be available online at gopack.com through Yahoo's subscription service.