North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State Baseball Completes Sweep Of La Salle, 15-9
2/21/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
February 21, 2010
For immediate release
Contact: Bruce Winkworth
RALEIGH, N.C. — The game was far more competitive, but NC State pulled away at the end to hand La Salle a 15-9 defeat and complete a three-game sweep in the season-opening series for both teams.
With the 15 runs scored, the Wolfpack set a new school record for runs in a three-game series with 65, setting the old record of 61, set in 2002 vs. Coppin State.
La Salle, which lost the first two games 32-3 and 18-3, took the early lead and was tied with the Wolfpack heading into the bottom of the fourth inning. But NC State scored four runs in the fifth and seventh innings to take charge of the game.
Reliever Vance Williams (1-0) got the win for the Wolfpack after allowing two runs on one hit and two walks in two innings of work. Explorers starter Cody Weiss wound up with the loss after allowing six runs on six hits in 3 1/3 innings. He walked six and fanned one.
La Salle coach Mike Lake made a change in his lineup for Sunday’s game, putting Brendan Norton in the leadoff spot. Norton, who reached base all six times he went to the plate, ignited a three-run first inning off Wolfpack freshman starter Danny Healey. Norton led off the game with a double into the left-center-field gap and went to third on Jeff Flax’s single to center. John Malloy drove in both runners with a two-run triple into the right-field corner, and Jon Gyles made it 3-0 with a sacrifice fly to right field. Healey recovered and avoided further damage, retiring Kevin Jones on a foul pop-up and striking out Brian Meagher looking.
Healey ran into trouble again in the second, walking leadoff hitter Jim Tarabocchia and then issuing a two-out walk to Norton. Lefthander Nate King came on in relief and got Flax to foul out to catcher Danny Canela to end the inning.
NC State got to Weiss in the bottom of the second. With onoe away, John Gianis and Tarran Senay walked. Dallas Poulk lined a double into the right-field corner to drive in Gianis, and Senay scored on Matt Bergquist’s single to left field. Poulk stopped at third on the play, and unfortunately for the Wolfpack, Bergquist was halfway between first and second base when the throw from the outfield came to second base. He was tagged out in a rundown for the second out, with Poulk holding at third. Weiss got out of the inning on a force play off the bat of Andrew Ciencin.
Pratt Maynard led off the bottom of the third with a walk, went to second on a wild pitch and took third when catcher Adam Kammler’s throw to second slipped from his hand and rolled into left-center field for an error. Drew Poulk got the run home with a sacrifice fly to right field, tying the score at 3-3. Canela followed with an infield single and gave NC State the lead when he scored all the way from first on Gianis’s triple to right-center. Gianis scored on a wild pitch to make it 5-3.
La Salle came right back and tied the game at 5-5 with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth. Dan Klem led off an walked. Norton singled to left to put runners on first and second, and Klem scored and Norton went to third when Maynard was unable to catch the throw from third base on Flax’s sacrifice bunt. Malloy followed with a sacrifice fly to left to drive in Norton with the tying run.
Kyle Wilson broke the tie with a one-out solo homer in the bottom of the fourth. Ciencin followed with a walk, and that was all for Weiss.
Christian Schultz, who pitched two scoreless innings Saturday, replaced Weiss and gave up a pair of runs thanks to four walks. Gianis and Senay drew walks to start the fifth, and Dallas Poulk drove in Gianis with a double to left-center. Joe Vincent replaced Schultz and immediately gave up a sacrifice fly to Bergquist, making it 8-5. Wilson walked to put runners on first and second with one down, and Vincent hit Ciencin with a pitch to load the bases, A wild pitch scored Poulk and moved Ciencin and Wilson to second and third, respectively, and Maynard got Wilson home to make it 10-5 with a groundout to shortstop.
Klem and Norton led off the top of the sixth with walks and moved to second and third when Flax grounded to second. Nick Rice replaced Williams and struck out Malloy for the second out, but Gyles laced a single to center field to drive in both runners and cut the Wolfpack lead to 10-7.
Gianis, asking for time on the pitch but not getting it called, doubled down the left-field line with one down in the bottom of the sixth, then stole third. Harold Riggins, batting for Senay, drove a fly ball to deep center field, scoring Gianis to make the score 11-7.
Meagher led off the top of the seventh and reached on an error. Joe Bennie belted a pinch-hit double down the right-field line to put runners on second and third. Mark Schoch drove in Meagher with a groundout, and Klem hit a sacrifice fly to center to drive in Bennie and cut the Wolfpack lead to 11-9.
Friday starter Kevin Fuqua came in to start the bottom of the seventh for La Salle, no doubt hoping to atone for a difficult outing on Friday. Didn’t happen. He began by walking Wilson, Ciencin and Maynard to load the bases with none out. Drew Poulk hit a dribbler down the third-base line that skipped over the bag for a fair ball and into foul territory. Wilson and Ciencin scored on the play to make it 13-9, and break the school record for runs in a three-game series with 63, and counting.
Russell Wilson pitched the final two innings for the Wolfpack, allowing no runs on two hits. Both hits were seeing-eye ground balls, and he got all three outs in the ninth inning on groundouts.
NC State will return to action Tuesday against Campbell. Game time is 3 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on WKNC-FM (88.1) and on-line on gopack.com via Pack Pass.
