North Carolina State University Athletics
Clemson Salvages Finale From NC State, 6-3
5/19/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Clemson took the final game of the series after dropping the first two and improved to 36-20 overall and 18-12 in the ACC. NC State had its five-game winning streak snapped and dropped to 36-19 overall and 16-14 in the ACC. Reliever Ryan Hinson (5-2) got the win for Clemson after pitching two shutout innings. He allowed one hit, walked two and struck out two. P.J. Zocchi worked the final 2 1/3 innings, allowing no runs on two hits, to earn his first save of the season. Wolfpack starter Jeff Stallings (3-1) got tagged with his first loss of the year after allowing four runs on four hits in 2 2/3 innings. He walked three and struck out two.
Hogan was a triple shy of the cycle. He went 3-for-5, scored once and drove in three runs. Marquez Smith went 2-for-3, walked twice and scored twice. Wilson Boyd went 2-for-5 with a solo home run. Dallas Poulk led the Wolfpack with three hits in five at-bats. Ryan Pond went 2-for-2, drew three walks and scored a run.
The Tigers nicked Stallings for a run in the top of the second inning. Ben Paulsen got it started by drawing a two-out walk, and Alex Lee hit the first pitch he saw high off the wall in left field for an RBI double. Paulsen scored from first without drawing a throw home.
The Tigers continued to treat Stallings rudely in the top of the third, striking for three runs. Boyd led off with a towering home run to right field. Smith followed and dunked a single to center field. Andy D’Alessio grounded out to the right side of the infield to move Smith to second, and Stallings committed a balk to move him to third. Smith scored easily from there on Taylor Harbin’s sacrifice fly to the warning track in dead center field. Hogan came up next and tomahawked Stallings’ final pitch of the game over the wall in left for a solo homer and a 4-0 lead for Clemson.
Pond led off the bottom of the fourth with a walk and went all the way to third on Mike Roskopf’s single to right. Caleb Mangum got the run home with a grounder to shortstop, but Harbin turned it into a double play to take the momentum out of the rally. Clemson starter D.J. Mitchell got Jeremy Synan on a groundout to end the inning with the Tigers holding a 4-1 lead.
Clemson added two more runs in the top of the fifth. Boyd led off with a single over Tommy Foschi’s glove at shotstop and Smith singled through the hole on the left side of the infield. D’Alessio bunted the runners to second and third. Joey Cutler came in to pitch for the Wolfpack and got Harbin to hit a grounder to shortstop. Foschi threw home and got Boyd for the second out, but Hogan doubled down the line in right to drive in a pair and give the Tigers a 6-1 lead.
Marcus Jones led off the bottom of the fifth for the Wofpack with an infield single, Pat Ferguson walked, and Mitchell hit Foschi with a pitch to load the bases with none out. Poulk grounded into a double play to score Jones, and Ramon Corona singled to shallow right to drive in Pond and cut the lead to 6-3. Pond singled up the middle and that was that for Mitchell, who allowed three runs on six hits in 4 2/3 innings. He walked two and struck out two. Hinson came in for the Tigers and fanned Roskopf for the final out of the inning, and carried the game into the seventh inning for Zocchi to save.
Notes: The attendance for the game was 2297, lifting the attendance for the season to 37,638. That’s the second largest season’s attendance in the history of the ballpark. The record is 41,846, set in 1995.
NC State leaves for Jacksonville on Monday and will next play on Wednesday in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament. The official pairings will be announced by the conference office at 5 p.m. on Sunday and will be available on gopack.com shortly thereafter.
The top eight teams in the conference will be divided into a pair of four-team brackets for the tournament. All eight teams will play three games between Wednesday and Saturday. The two bracket winners will meet on Sunday in a single championship game.
All NC State games in the ACC Tournament will be broadcast live on WKNC-FM (88.1) and the radio broadcasts will be available live on-line at gopack.com through Pack Pass. All ACC Tournament games will be televised, half by Fox Sports Net and half by Comcast. Check your local listings.
