North Carolina State University Athletics
Baseball Holds Off Duke In 12, 7-6
5/22/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
RALEIGH, N.C. – Andrew Ciencin’s two-out double drove in Kyle Wilson with the winning run in the bottom of the 12th inning Friday night to lift NC State past Duke 7-6 in the second game of a three-game Atlantic Coast Conference series at Doak Field at Dail Park. With the victory, the Wolfpack clinched the series win and moved one step closer to securing a berth in next week’s ACC Tournament in Greensboro.
With the win the Wolfpack improved to 35-20 overall and 14-15 in the conference. The Blue Devils dropped to 29-26 and 8-21 in the ACC. Grant Sasser (3-3) got the win with 1 2/3 innings of relief, striking out three and giving up two hits. Ben Grisz drops to 3-3 with the loss.
Kyle Wilson hit his sixth home run of the year and Drew Poulk extended his hitting streak to 14 games. Harold Riggins went 2-for-4 with two home runs and a walk.
Duke swung the bats early and and often and bled Wolfpack starter Cory Mazzoni for 15 hits in 8 2/3 innings. Duke wound up with 18 hits, a season high for hits allowed by NC State.
The Blue Devils took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Second baseman Marcus Stroman led off the game with a line-drive single to right. Will Piwnica-Worms reached on a force play to shortstop, with Stroman erased at second base. Piwinica-Worms advanced to second on a Jake Lemmerman single through the left side, and Jeremy Gould singled to left to drive in Piwnica-Worms.
The Blue Devils increased their lead to 3-0 as the top of the second. Ryan McCurdy led off with a single up the middle, stole second and then advanced to third on a wild pitch. Brian Litwin singled to right-center, scoring McCurdy. Ryan Munger singled to right to advance Litwin to second. Stroman bunted back to the pitcher, with Munger retired at second base. Litwin advanced to third on the play. Litwin scored and Stroman advanced to second on Piwnica-Worms’ sacrifice fly to right field.
Riggins got the Wolfpack on the board in the bottom half of the second with a solo homer to right-center.
Duke extended its lead to 4-1 in the top of the third. Dennis O’Grady singled up the middle. Ben Grisz doubled down the left-field line, advancing O’Grady to third. O’Grady scored and Grisz went to third on an attempted squeeze bunt by McCurdy. McCurdy was out at first.
NC State tied the score 4-4 in the third. Russell Wilson walked to start the bottom half of the inning and advanced to second on an errant pickoff attempt by Blue Devils starter Eric Pfisterer. Matt Bergquist singled to right to advance Wilson to third. Kyle Wilson then tied the score with a three-run home run over the left field wall.
The Pack took the lead 5-4 in the seventh. Riggins and Pratt Maynard walked to lead off for NC State. Michael Ness entered the game in relief for Duke with runners on first and second and no outs. Chris Schaeffer’s sacrifice attempt went unfielded for an infield single to load the bases. John Gianis hit into a double play, scoring Riggins from third.
The Blue Devils took advantage of two NC State errors and rallied to a 6-5 lead in the top of the ninth. Piwnica-Worms doubled to lead off. Lemmerman then singled to right, driving in Piwnica-Worms. Lemmerman went to second on the play when the ball got past right fielder Drew Poulk for an error. Lemmerman stole third base and scored when Schaeffer’s throw got away from Andrew Ciencin at third for the second error of the inning. The run was unearned.
Riggins hit his second home run of the game and 10th of the season to tie the score at 6-6 in the bottom of the ninth and send the game to extra innings.
Kyle Wilson got the winning rally started in the bottom of the 12th with a double off the wall in left-center field. With two down, Duke intentionally walked the red-hot Drew Poulk to pitch to Ciencin, who drove a 2-0 pitch off the wall in left to drive in Wilson with the winning run.
NC State plays the final game of the series with Duke at 1 p.m. on Saturday. The game will be broadcast live on WKNC-FM and on-line at gopack.com.
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