North Carolina State University Athletics
Marshall Twirls One-Hitter At Baseball
3/26/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
RALEIGH, N.C. As Jerry Reed so eloquently put it, “When you’re hot, you’re hot; when you’re not, you’re not.” And NC State’s hitters are not hot right now. Six Marshall pitchers combined to toss a one-hit shutout at the Wolfpack on Wednesday at Doak Field at Dail Park, winning 3-0 to take a split in their two-game midweek non-conference series.
The shutout was the second against NC State in three games. Clemson’s Graham Stoneburner tossed a two-hitter at the Wolfpack on Sunday. NC State has lost three of its last four games, got a combined 10 hits in the three losses, and fell to 14-8 with the loss to the Herd. Marshall snapped a four-game losing streak with the win and improved to 9-12.
“We’re struggling offensively right now,” NC State coach Elliott Avent said afterwards. It’s not from a lack of effort. The effort today was tremendous. We came out ready to play, but we just could not hit the baseball. We have some guys whose confidence is not real strong right now, and confidence is such an important factor in a game like baseball. This is not the way we’d hoped to go into the series with North Carolina this weekend, but this is what we have to deal with, and we’ll deal with it.”
Ian Kadish, Ryan Kiel, Ben Jurevicius and Brian Mooney combined to no-hit NC State through six innings. Jurevicius had faced just one batter previously this season. The other three had ERAs of 7.50, 19.29 and 9.00, respectively. The Wolfpack had runners on first and third with one out in the second inning, and loaded the bases with two down in the second, but came away emptyhanded. Things only got worse from there. Kiel came in to start the third, faced 11 batters and retired 10 of them. Jurevicius walked the only man he faced, but Mooney worked out of a jam in the sixth, stranding runners at second and third.
“That second inning was big,” Avent said. “We loaded the bases and felt like one hit there would get us going, but it didn’t happen. And we didn’t get many more baserunners after that.”
Pat Ferguson walked with one down in the fourth, but was erased on an inning-ending double play. Matt Payne and Jeremy Synan drew back-to-back walks with two down in the sixth, but were stranded at second and third.
Marcus Jones got the only NC State hit, an infield single with one down in the seventh, but Adam Dobies got out of that inning with a pair of ground balls to third base. The Wolfpack did not have a baserunner after Jones’s infield single.
NC State’s pitching matched Marshall for the most part. Starter Sam Brown (0-1) walked leadoff hitter Adam Yeager in the first inning, and Yeager stole second, then came around to score on a pair of ground balls. Trailing 1-0, Brown took a no-hitter into the fourth before Brandon Casamassima broke that up with an infield single.
Kyle Rutter, Jason Zinser, Alex Sogard and Jake Buchanan each pitched a scoreless inning for the Pack. Only Joey Cutler did not have success out of the bullpen, and one of the two runs Cutler allowed was unearned, thanks to a throwing error on third baseman Russell Wilson in the top of the seventh.
NC State returns to Atlantic Coast Conference action this weekend with a three-game series vs. No. 3 North Carolina at the USA Baseball Training Complex in Cary. Game times are 7 p.m. on Friday, 6 p.m. on Saturday, and 1 p.m. on Sunday. All three games will be broadcast live on WKNC-FM (88.1) and can be heard on the internet at gopack.com through Pack Pass.
The shutout was the second against NC State in three games. Clemson’s Graham Stoneburner tossed a two-hitter at the Wolfpack on Sunday. NC State has lost three of its last four games, got a combined 10 hits in the three losses, and fell to 14-8 with the loss to the Herd. Marshall snapped a four-game losing streak with the win and improved to 9-12.
“We’re struggling offensively right now,” NC State coach Elliott Avent said afterwards. It’s not from a lack of effort. The effort today was tremendous. We came out ready to play, but we just could not hit the baseball. We have some guys whose confidence is not real strong right now, and confidence is such an important factor in a game like baseball. This is not the way we’d hoped to go into the series with North Carolina this weekend, but this is what we have to deal with, and we’ll deal with it.”
Ian Kadish, Ryan Kiel, Ben Jurevicius and Brian Mooney combined to no-hit NC State through six innings. Jurevicius had faced just one batter previously this season. The other three had ERAs of 7.50, 19.29 and 9.00, respectively. The Wolfpack had runners on first and third with one out in the second inning, and loaded the bases with two down in the second, but came away emptyhanded. Things only got worse from there. Kiel came in to start the third, faced 11 batters and retired 10 of them. Jurevicius walked the only man he faced, but Mooney worked out of a jam in the sixth, stranding runners at second and third.
“That second inning was big,” Avent said. “We loaded the bases and felt like one hit there would get us going, but it didn’t happen. And we didn’t get many more baserunners after that.”
Pat Ferguson walked with one down in the fourth, but was erased on an inning-ending double play. Matt Payne and Jeremy Synan drew back-to-back walks with two down in the sixth, but were stranded at second and third.
Marcus Jones got the only NC State hit, an infield single with one down in the seventh, but Adam Dobies got out of that inning with a pair of ground balls to third base. The Wolfpack did not have a baserunner after Jones’s infield single.
NC State’s pitching matched Marshall for the most part. Starter Sam Brown (0-1) walked leadoff hitter Adam Yeager in the first inning, and Yeager stole second, then came around to score on a pair of ground balls. Trailing 1-0, Brown took a no-hitter into the fourth before Brandon Casamassima broke that up with an infield single.
Kyle Rutter, Jason Zinser, Alex Sogard and Jake Buchanan each pitched a scoreless inning for the Pack. Only Joey Cutler did not have success out of the bullpen, and one of the two runs Cutler allowed was unearned, thanks to a throwing error on third baseman Russell Wilson in the top of the seventh.
NC State returns to Atlantic Coast Conference action this weekend with a three-game series vs. No. 3 North Carolina at the USA Baseball Training Complex in Cary. Game times are 7 p.m. on Friday, 6 p.m. on Saturday, and 1 p.m. on Sunday. All three games will be broadcast live on WKNC-FM (88.1) and can be heard on the internet at gopack.com through Pack Pass.
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