North Carolina State University Athletics
TCU Ends Baseball's Winning Streak at Eight, 5-3
2/25/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
NC State , which won two of three games at Baseball at the Beach, fell to 8-1 with the loss. TCU, which won just once in four games during Baseball at the Beach, improved to 7-4.
Garrison (1-0), making his fourth appearance and second start, pitched 6 2/3 innings, allowing one run on six hits. He walked one and struck out four. Junior righthander Sam Demel, an All-America candidate for the Horns, pitched the final 2 1/3 innings and struck out six for his second save.
Lefthander Eric Surkamp (2-1), the first of six NC State pitchers, struggled with his control and wound up saddled with the loss. Surkamp went 3 1/3 innings, allowing two runs on two hits. He walked three and struck out two.
Corey Steglich led the offense for the Frogs, going 3-for-4, scoring a run and driving in one. Austin Adams went 2-for-3 and scored twice, and Matt Vern went 2-for-4. Jeremy Synan went 2-for-4 for NC State, the only Wolfpack player with multiple hits.
NC State, which struggled offensively, had a couple of chances to score against Garrison, but managed just one run in the top of the second inning. Synan led off with a double over the first-base bag and into the right-field corner. Synan took third on Ryan Pond’s sacrifice bunt, then scored on Mike Roskopf’s high chopper to first base.
Pat Ferguson led off the top of the third with a single to left and adanced all the way to third on a sacrifice and a fly ball to right, but was stranded there when Garrison struck out Vince Gutierrez. The Pack got a runner on with one out in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh inning, but Garrison easily tap-danced out of trouble each time.
TCU’s winning rally featured two infield hits, three walks, a hit batter and a throwing error. TCU did not hit a ball out of the infield. Surkamp walked Keith Conlon and Austin Adams to lead off the inning, and Andrew Walker’s grounder back to the pitcher moved the runners to second and third.
Kyle Rutter came in for Surkamp at that point and struck out Matt Vern for the second out, but Clint Arnold walked on a 3-2 pitch to load the bases, and Steglich bounced a grounder to Joe Florio behind the bag at third that went for an infield single and tied the game at 1-1. Rutter hit Ben Carruthers with a pitch to force in the go-ahead run, and shortstop Ramon Corona was unable to record an out after picking up Bryan Kervin’s grounder up the middle, scoring Arnold to make it 3-1. Steglich scored the fourth run of the inning when catcher Caleb Mangum’s pickoff attempt at first base caromed off the runner and into foul territory for an error. Steven Trout grounded back to Rutter for the third out on what was probably the hardest-hit ball of the inning.
TCU added an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh when Austin Adams hit a two-out single to right, went to second on a groundout and scored when Corona overthrew first base on Matt Vern’s infield single.
The Wolfpack picked up a pair of unearned runs in the top of the eighth off of Demel. Florio and Gutierrez drew one-out walks. Demel struck out Corona for the second out, and got got Synan to ground to shortstop, but the ball kicked off of Bryan Kervin’s glove for a two-base error that allowed both baserunners to score, cutting the lead to 5-3.
NC State will return to action on Tuesday with a ome game against UNC Wilmington. Game time will be 3 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on WKNC, 88.1 FM.
