North Carolina State University Athletics
Baseball Drops Hammer On No. 24 UNCW
4/8/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
RALEIGH, N.C. The offensive slump is over for NC State. The Wolfpack, which scored 39 runs on 49 hits in sweeping a three-game series from Wake Forest this past weekend, pounded out another 15 hits Tuesday evening at Doak Field at Dail Park and laid a 12-5 defeat on 24th-ranked UNC Wilmington.
The Pack, which has won a season-high seven games in a row, has collected double-figure hit totals in six of the seven games in that winning streak, scoring 75 runs. Since being one-hit by Marshall on March 26, the Wolfpack has batted .378 in eight games, scoring 77 runs and hitting 25 doubles and 12 home runs, and raising its team batting average 31 points, from .270 to .301. NC State hit a season-high seven doubles and added two more home runs Tuesday against the Seahawks, who fell to 23-6-1 on the season. The Pack has hit 18 doubles and seven homers in its last three games.
Dallas Poulk and Ryan Pond formed the Killer P’s at the top of the lineup for NC State on Tuesday, collecting six hits between them, scoring three times and driving in four runs. Poulk had a pair of doubles, and Pond doubled and bashed his sixth home run of the season, a majestic blast that cleared the scoreboard in left-center.
The beneficiary of the offensive explosion on Tuesday was sophomore righthander Sam Brown (2-1), who equaled his career high with five innings pitched. He allowed three runs on five hits, walked one and struck out one. Jake Buchanan pitched three innings and allowed two runs on one hit, a homer by Cody Stanley, but was outstanding after a wobbly start. Buchanan retired the last seven men he faced. Jason Zinser pitched a scoreless ninth inning.
The Wolfpack got off to a quick start, scoring twice in each of the first two innings. Marcus Jones drove in a first-inning run with a single up the middle, and Pat Ferguson got a run home with an infield single. Pond’s bomb over the scoreboard in the second inning came two batters after Drew Martin had been hit by a pitch leading off the inning.
That was all for UNCW starter Jesse Haney (1-1), who worked two innings and was charged with four runs on four hits. He struck out three and did not issue a walk.
The Seahawks made it an interesting game for a time with a pair of home runs in the third. Jes Snyder led off with a blast to left field, and Michael Rooney walked on four pitches. Brown retired Alex Hill on a foul pop-up, but Daniel Hargrave hammered an 0-1 fastball to left for a two-run shot that cut the lead to a run at 4-3. Ferguson got a run back for the Wolfpack with a two-out solo homer in the fourth, his third of the season, to make it 5-3.
Brown nursed the two-run lead through the top of the fifth, and his teammates took all the suspense out of the game with a seven-run fifth. Jeremy Synan and Marcus Jones doubled runs home with none out to get things started, and Chris Schaeffer greeted reliever Allen Flood with a one-out RBI single to left to make it 8-3. Tommy Foschi stroked a one-out, two-run double the opposite way to make it 10-3. Larry Salefsky came in to pitch for the Seahawks, but immediately gave up Poulk’s single to right and Pond’s double to left-center to drive in two more runs and make it 12-3.
Stanley’s two-run homer in the sixth accounted for the game’s final two runs.
NC State will return to action Wednesday with a 6:30 p.m. game vs. Coastal Carolina. The game will be broadcast live on WKNC-FM (88.1) and on the internet at gopack.com through the Pack Pass package.
The Pack, which has won a season-high seven games in a row, has collected double-figure hit totals in six of the seven games in that winning streak, scoring 75 runs. Since being one-hit by Marshall on March 26, the Wolfpack has batted .378 in eight games, scoring 77 runs and hitting 25 doubles and 12 home runs, and raising its team batting average 31 points, from .270 to .301. NC State hit a season-high seven doubles and added two more home runs Tuesday against the Seahawks, who fell to 23-6-1 on the season. The Pack has hit 18 doubles and seven homers in its last three games.
Dallas Poulk and Ryan Pond formed the Killer P’s at the top of the lineup for NC State on Tuesday, collecting six hits between them, scoring three times and driving in four runs. Poulk had a pair of doubles, and Pond doubled and bashed his sixth home run of the season, a majestic blast that cleared the scoreboard in left-center.
The beneficiary of the offensive explosion on Tuesday was sophomore righthander Sam Brown (2-1), who equaled his career high with five innings pitched. He allowed three runs on five hits, walked one and struck out one. Jake Buchanan pitched three innings and allowed two runs on one hit, a homer by Cody Stanley, but was outstanding after a wobbly start. Buchanan retired the last seven men he faced. Jason Zinser pitched a scoreless ninth inning.
The Wolfpack got off to a quick start, scoring twice in each of the first two innings. Marcus Jones drove in a first-inning run with a single up the middle, and Pat Ferguson got a run home with an infield single. Pond’s bomb over the scoreboard in the second inning came two batters after Drew Martin had been hit by a pitch leading off the inning.
That was all for UNCW starter Jesse Haney (1-1), who worked two innings and was charged with four runs on four hits. He struck out three and did not issue a walk.
The Seahawks made it an interesting game for a time with a pair of home runs in the third. Jes Snyder led off with a blast to left field, and Michael Rooney walked on four pitches. Brown retired Alex Hill on a foul pop-up, but Daniel Hargrave hammered an 0-1 fastball to left for a two-run shot that cut the lead to a run at 4-3. Ferguson got a run back for the Wolfpack with a two-out solo homer in the fourth, his third of the season, to make it 5-3.
Brown nursed the two-run lead through the top of the fifth, and his teammates took all the suspense out of the game with a seven-run fifth. Jeremy Synan and Marcus Jones doubled runs home with none out to get things started, and Chris Schaeffer greeted reliever Allen Flood with a one-out RBI single to left to make it 8-3. Tommy Foschi stroked a one-out, two-run double the opposite way to make it 10-3. Larry Salefsky came in to pitch for the Seahawks, but immediately gave up Poulk’s single to right and Pond’s double to left-center to drive in two more runs and make it 12-3.
Stanley’s two-run homer in the sixth accounted for the game’s final two runs.
NC State will return to action Wednesday with a 6:30 p.m. game vs. Coastal Carolina. The game will be broadcast live on WKNC-FM (88.1) and on the internet at gopack.com through the Pack Pass package.
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