North Carolina State University Athletics
Weeks Leads Miami Past Baseball, 12-5
3/14/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
The game figured to be a headliner of a game with lefthanders Eric Surkamp of NC State and Eric Erickson of Miami facing each other. Erickson piched six strong innings to hold up his end of the bargain. Surkamp, a 2007 All-ACC selection and Team USA member who brought a 2.30 ERA into the game, was uncharacteristically wild, walking five in 2 1/3 innings. Surkamp wound up allowing seven runs on six hits, but four of his runs were unearned due to three NC State errors. The deeper into the game Surkamp worked, the more trouble he had getting his offspeed pitches over the plate for strikes. The Hurricanes took advantage by sitting on his fastball for six hits and taking the offspeed stuff for walks. It was that kind of night for normally reliable Surkamp, who fell to 1-2 with the loss.
Surkamp retired the first two batters in both the first and second innings, but then struggled as the next four men reached base in each frame. Joey Terdoslavich singled home a run in the first, and Weeks and Jason Hagerty drove in runs with base hits in the second as the Canes took a 3-0 lead.
The roof caved in on Surkamp in the third. Mark Sobolewski and Adam Severino led off with singles, and Surkamp moved the runners to second and third by throwing a pickoff attempt into center field for an error. Ryan Jackson hit a fly ball to shallow right that second baseman Dallas Poulk got to and dropped for an error. Sobolewski scored on the play, which was ruled a sacrifice fly. Jackson stole second and Blake Tekotte walked to load the bases. Drew Taylor came in to face Weeks, who hit a fly ball to left that Devon Cartwright caught and dropped for a two-run error. That error also wound up being a sacrifice fly.
That made it 7-0, and Yonder Alonso’s RBI single in the top of the fifth off Taylor drove in an unearned run and gave the Hurricanes an 8-0 lead that looked very safe with Erickson (4-0) on the mound. Erickson scattered four hits over the first five innings before finally allowing a run on Russell Wilson’s pinch-single to right, driving in Matt Payne, who led off the inning with a single.
Erickson came out after six, and the Miami bullpen immediately ran into trouble. The Canes sent four pitchers to the mound in the bottom of the seventh, and three of them combined to give up four runs on two hits in two-thirds of an inning. Anthony Nalepa faced two hitters, Cartwright and Poulk, and walked them on nine pitches. P.J. Fisher saw three hitters, retiring one and surrendering a two-run single to Jeremy Synan. David Gutierrez faced two hitters, one of whom, pinch-hitter Nick Stanley, ripped a two-run triple to right-center to trim the Miami lead to three runs at 8-5.
Taylor and Joey Cutler pitched very well in relief of Surkamp. Taylor allowed just the one unearned run on two hits in 2 2/3 innings, and Cutler retired the side in order in the sixth and seventh before allowing a run in the eighth on a single to right by Weeks, a walk to Alonzo and a single to right by Hagerty. Payne threw a strike to home plate, but the ball slipped out of Stanley’s glove after he made the tag and Weeks was safe.
The Canes added three more in the top of the ninth on a walk and a stolen base by Dave DiNatale, an RBI single by Jackson, an error by Joe Florio on a grounder hit to second base by Blake Tekotte, and a two-run triple by Weeks.
Game two of the series will be at 2 p.m. on Saturday. The game will be broadcast live on WKNC-FM (88.1) and on the internet on gopack.com through Pack Pass.
