North Carolina State University Athletics
No. 12 Pepperdine Pops Baseball, 5-2
3/4/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
GREENVILLE, N.C. – No. 20 NC State managed just four hits as No. 12 Pepperdine defeated the Wolfpack 5-2 on Sunday at the Keith LeClair Classic. Caleb Mangum hit a RBI single for the Wolfpack but the Wave’s pitching staff was too much for the offense. Jimmy Gillheeney took the loss for NC State, as he gave up four hits and three runs in three innings of relief.
Danny Worth went 2-for-5 with a RBI and two runs scored for the Waves as they managed 11 hits off of the Wolfpack arms.
NC State starter Eric Surkamp went six innings and allowed seven hits and one earned run. He struck out seven batters and walked just one in strong outing.
Pepperdine’s Donald Brown doubled to start off the second and moved to third with two outs on a sacrifice bunt. Surkamp got Trent Diedrich to fly out to left to end the inning.
The Waves then jumped on top in the third inning off to take an early 1-0 lead. Danny Worth homered to left field, his first of the season, to get an early run off of Surkamp.
Brown started another scoring opportunity in the fourth with a one-out single and moved to second on a single from Ryan Heroy. Luke Salas flied out to shallow right to move Brown to third, but Dietrich flied out to end the threat.
The lead moved to 2-0 in the fifth as Denny Duron scored from second on an error in right by Ryan Pond after Duron singled earlier in the inning.
The Wolfpack bats strung together a two-out rally in the sixth to tie the score. Ramon Corona walked after a pair of groundouts to get things started. Jeremy Synan singled through the right side and Joe Florio drew a pinch-hit walk to load the bases. Pond hit a grounder behind the second base bag, but the Waves’ Denny Duron booted it to allow Corona to score and keep the bases loaded. Caleb Mangum followed with a clutch RBI single to right as pinch runner Marcus Jones scored, but Florio was thrown out at the plate.
Gillheeney retired the first four batters he faced as he came on in relief in the seventh, but he hit Heroy with a pitch with one out in the eighth. Heroy moved to second on a failed pickoff attempt and error on Gillheeney. Diedrich hit a two-out RBI single for a 3-2 lead.
Pepperdine would add two more runs on three hits in the ninth, getting a RBI double from Chase D’Arnaud and a RBI single from Heroy for the final margin.
Waves’ closer Jason Dominguez picked up his fifth save by pitching 1.1 innings of hitless relief, including fanning the side in the bottom of the ninth.
