NC State Baseball Blows Past NC Central, 24-6
3/17/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
The venerable Durham ballpark measures just 290 feet down the right-field line and 340 to the power alley in right-center. And the Wolfpack’s lefthanded hitters took full advantage, with Dallas Poulk, Danny Canela and Terran Senay (twice) going deep the short way, The only righthanded hitter to go deep for the Pack, third baseman Andrew Ciencin, went the other way with his home run, taking the ball to right-center.
NC State snapped a three-game losing streak with the win and improved to 12-4. NC Central fell to 0-15 with the defeat.
The Wolfpack and Eagles were tied at 4-4 after four innings, but it was all NC State after that, with the Pack outscoing Central 20-2 the rest of the way. The beneficiary of all that offense was lefthander John Lambert (1-0), the third of four NC State pitchers on the day. Lambert tossed two innings of shutout relief. Starter Jeff Citero (0-2), who kept the game close for four innings, got tagged with the loss after allowing eight runs, six earned, on eight hits in five innings.
Both teams scored a single run in the first. Dallas Poulk hit a one-out double in the top half of the inning, stole third and scored when catcher David Scott’s throw went sailed high and wide and wound up in left field. Nate Smith tied the game in the bottom of the inning with a solo homer to right.
Canela led off the top of the second and walked, took second on a wild pitch and third when Scott’s throw went into center field. Canela scored on Senay’s groundout to shortstop to make it 2-1. John Gianis stroked a one-out triple in the top of the third and scored on Dallas Poulk’s sacrifice fly to right field.
The Eagles used two hits, a hit batter, a stolen base, a passed ball and an error to score three times in the bottom of the third and take a 4-3 lead. Akeem Hood led off and reached on an infield single. Wolfpack starter Mike Russo hit Kurt Wilson with a pitch, and a passed ball moved the runners to second and third. Nate Smith singled to center to drive in Hood and put runners at first and third, still with none out, and Blake Murray tied the score at 3-3 with an RBI groundout. The final run scored when shortstop Chris Diaz made a low throw on Anthony Wilson’s two-out grounder to shortstop, allowing Smith to score the go-ahead run.
By the time the Eagles scored again, NC State had a seven-run lead. Senay blasted a long solo homer down the right-field line with two down in the fourth to tie the score at 4-4, and the Pack began to pull away with a four-run fifth. With two out and Dallas Poulk on first after reaching on a force play, Ciencin singled to right and Pratt Maynard walked to load the bases. Canela cleared the bases with a booming double to deep center field, and Canela scored on Drew Poulk’s single to left.
That made it 8-4, and Dallas Poulk’s one-out, three-run homer in the top of the sixth made it 11-4.
Central got its final two runs in the bottom of the sixth. Justin Goodson led lff and singled through the right side of the infield, took second on a wild pitch, and scored on Russ Plummer’s double to straightaway center field. Plummer went to third on Scott’s single to right, then scored when Hood bounced into a double play.
NC State put the game away in the late innings, starting with a six-run seventh. Drew Poulk started things off with a single up the middle and Senay made it 13-6 with a two-run shot to right-center. Russell Wilson walked and Diaz was hit by a pitch, and they pulled a double steal to put runners on second and third with none out. Gianis grounded out to drive in Wilson, and Dallas Poulk singled through the left side to score Diaz and make it 15-6. Poulk stole second, but he needn’t have bothered because Ciencin followed that with a two-run home run to right-center to make it 17-6 after seven innings.
Matt Bergquist pinch-hit for Diaz with one down in the top of the eight and singled to center field. Gianis singled through the left side to put runners on first and second, and Dallas Poulk made it 18-6 with a double to left. Bill Edwards, pinch-hitting for Ciencin, grounded to third, but that drove in Gianis with the 19th run for the Wolfpack, and Harold Riggins, hitting for Maynard, doubled home Dallas Poulk to make it 20-6. Canela then hit a moon-shot home run over the Brame Building behind the right-field wall to drive in the final two runs of the inning and make it 22-6. Anthony Tzamtzis accounted for the game’s final two runs with a two-run, pinch-hit double in the top of the ninth.
NC State returns to action on Wednesday with a 6 p.m. game at UNC Wilmington. The game will be broadcast live on WKNC-FM (88.1) and on-line at gopack.com thorugh the Pack Pass package.