North Carolina State University Athletics
Newcomers Shine in First Fall Series Game
10/31/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
RALEIGH, N.C. - NC State’s baseball recruiting class was ranked 11th in the nation by Baseball America, and on Friday night the Wolfpack’s newcomers made the people at BA look pretty good.
Terran Senay, Danny Canela and Ryan Mathews all homered, Felix Roque picked up a save, and Chris Diaz doubled and turned in a defensive play that reminded everyone that Diaz means shortstop at Doak Field at Dail Park.
Team Pack won the game 6-5 as the two teams combined for six home runs.
Sophomore righthander Cory Mazzoni pitched five innings and picked up the win after allowing four runs on five hits. He walked one and struck out six. Junior righthander Jake Buchanan took the loss. He worked five innings and allowed five runs on five hits. He walked two and struck out five. Roque allowed one run on two hits in the bottom of the seventh to get the save.
Team Pack got on the board first with a run in the top of the first inning. Kyle Wilson led off with an opposite-field double down the left-field line, and Pratt Maynard smoked a double into the right-center field alley. Team Pack might have tacked another run in the inning, but Diaz robbed Canela on a ground ball up the middle. Playing on the right of second base with the infield playing a shift on the pull-hitting Canela, Diaz ranged far to his right to snag the ball on the other side of the base, then made a leaping throw to first to complete the putout for the second out of the inning. Maynard had to stop at third on the play and was stranded there when Buchanan got Bill Edwards on a grounder to second to retire the side.
Senay tied the game with one swing of the bat in the bottom of the second, bashing an opposite-field homer to left. The tie was short-lived, however. Maynard drew a one-out walk in the top of the third, and Canela hit a homer to deep right field, giving Team Pack a 3-1 lead. Ryan Mathews made it 4-1 with a leadoff homer to straightaway center field in the top of the fourth.
Andrew Ciencin led off the bottom of the fourth for Team Wolf and singled through the left side of the infield. After an errant pickoff attempt by Mazzoni moved Ciencin to second base, Senay drew a walk and Cameron Conner hit a towering three-run homer to right, knotting the score at 4-4.
Again, the lead was short-lived. Drew Poulk worked Buchanan for a one-out walk in the top of the fifth and took second on a groundout by Canela. Bill Edwards hit a two-out single to right to drive in Poulk, but Team Wolf catcher Chris Schaeffer alertly cut down Edwards trying to advance to second on the throw home for the third out of the inning, avoiding further damage.
Maynard hit a one-out solo homer to right in the top of the seventh to give Team Pack an insurance run, which proved fortuitous when Dallas Poulk greeted Roque with a leadoff homer to right in the bottom of the seventh.
