North Carolina State University Athletics
Pond Sends Baseball Past Towson, 4-3
3/18/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Pond’s homer capped a long, uphill struggle against the Tigers, who jumped to a 3-0 lead through 2 innings. Two of the runs came off Wolfpack starter Jeff Stallings, who walked two, hit a batter with the bases loaded and was unable to get out of the first inning. Greg Furmanek’s RBI groundout in the top of the third pushed the Towson lead to 3-0.
NC State got one run back in the bottom of the third on singles by Nick Stanley and Marcus Jones, a walk to Matt Payne to load the bases, and a walk to Pat Ferguson to force in a run.
Towson starter Austin Hurd made the lead stand up through six solid innings. Hurd allowed just three hits and pitched around six walks and a pair of errors. NC State got runners to second and third with one away in both the second and sixth, and he got out of the third with the bases loaded.
Hurd left after six, and the Wolfpack promptly mounted a two-run rally to tie the game in the seventh off Andrew Permison and Jon Dupski. Stanley led off with a single to right and was forced at second on a grounder by Marcus Jones. Jeremy Synan followed with a single through the right side of the infield, and he and Jones pulled a double steal to put runners on second and third for Payne, whose double down the left-field line tied the score.
After Stallings faded out in the first, Kyle Rutter and Joey Cutler came in and combined to allow just one unearned run over 5 2/3 innings. Drew Taylor took over from there and threw shutout ball over the final four frames to earn the win and even his record at 1-1. Dupski took the loss for the Tigers, despite allowing just the one run to Pond over 2 2/3 innings.
NC State and Towson will conclude their two-game series Wednesday at 3 p.m. Game time is 3 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on WKNC-FM (88.1) and can be heard on the internet at gopack.com through Pack Pass.
