North Carolina State University Athletics
Stallings, Wolfpack Shut Down West Virginia, 5-1
2/23/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Stallings (2-0) allowed just one run on three hits. The one run he allowed was a wind-blown home run. He struck out six and did not issue a walk. Kyle Rutter worked the final 2 2/3 innings, allowing just one hit and no runs, to record his first save. Stallings, Rutter and middle man Jake Kensmoe limited the Mountaineers to four hits. West Virginia starter Kenny Durst (0-1) took the loss after allowing two runs on nine hits in five strong innings. He walked one and struck out five.
Joe Florio led the NC State hit parade with three hits in four at-bats. Pond and Corona had two hits in three at-bats each.
The Wolfpack took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first thanks to a two-out rally. Corona drew a two-out walk and went to second on a wild pitch. Pond continued his recent clutch hitting, fouling off several pitches before grounding a single up the middle to drive in Corona with the first run of the game.
Stallings rolled through the first three innings and retired the first 11 men he faced before the Mountaineers’ Justin Jenkins got a fly ball up into the wind. The wind carried it over the wall in near-straightaway center field, tying the game at 1-1.
Florio led off the bottom of the fifth with a line-drive single to left field, NC State’s first hit since the second inning. Tommy Foschi laid down a sacrifice to move Florio to second, and Caleb Mangum’s grounder to shortstop advanced him to third. Marcus Jones dribbled a grounder up the third-base line, and Durst and third baseman Vince Belnome collided trying to field the ball, which went as an infield single and scored Florio from third with the go-ahead run.
West Virginia reliever Billy Gross pitched out of a bases-loaded, none-out jam in the bottom of the sixth by striking out pinch-hitter Vince Gutierrez, Mangum and Jones, began the bottom of the seventh by walking Corona on four pitches. Pond followed with an opposite-field double that one-hopped the wall in the right-field corner. Corona scored all the way from first on the play to give the Wolfpack an insurance run and a 3-1 lead.
Florio led off the bottom of the eighth with a single up the middle, his third hit of the afternoon, and Gutierrez singled through the right side of the infield to put runners on first and second with none out. Mangum bunted the runners to second and third, and Corona smoked a double down the left-field line to drive in both runners and extend the lead to 5-1.
NC State will play again Saturday against host Coastal Carolina at Coastal Federal Field in Myrtle Beach at 12:30 p.m.
