Baseball Drops Heartbreaker To Elon, 4-2

Sunday, February 20

Doak Field at Dail Park

1:00 PM

NC State

1-2

Elon

2-1

Elon

NC State

2/20/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

Feb. 20, 2011

Box Score

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Elon broke a 2-2 tie with two unearned runs in the top of the ninth Sunday, handing NC State a tough-luck 4-2 defeat at Doak Field at Dail Park.

Wolfpack lefthander Grant Sasser (0-1) mishandled and dropped Cyle Rasmus's two-out, bases-empty bunt back to the mound for an error, and Grant McCoury followed with a double into the left-field corner. Rasmus scored the go-ahead run on the play, and McCoury scored an insurance run on Harry Austin's flared single to shallow right-center field.

The loss belied a strong pitching performance by NC State, which lost the season-opening series to Elon, two games to one. Starter Danny Healey allowed a run on just two hits in five innings, striking out five and walking just two. Relievers D.J. Thomas, Ethan Ogburn and Sasser allowed just one earned run in four innings of work between them.

Chris Diaz went 2-for-4 with a double and a stolen base, capping an 8-for-12 weekend. Pratt Maynard went 2-for-5 and was 7-for-13 for the series. Andrew Ciencin and Peter Bako went hitless, but each drove in one of the Wolfpack's two runs.

Elon jumped to a 1-0 lead on Seth Canipe's one-out homer to left in the top of the second. Staked to the early lead, Elon starter Ken Ferrer was perfect through the first three innings, striking out three, before running into trouble in the fourth.

Gianis led off the fourth with a single up the middle and Maynard followed with a single past first base to put runners on the corners. Ciencin's sacrifice fly knotted the score at 1-1.

The score remained tied at 1-1 until the top of the seventh. With one out, Canipe singled up the middle and Rasmus followed with a perfect hit-and-run single through the open hole on the right side of the infield. That put runners on the corners with one out, and McCoury -- playing for Ben Scott, who left the game after breaking his nose while trying to field a bad-hop grounder to first base in the top half of the inning -- lofted a long fly to the right-center-field gap, just out of the reach of diving center fielder Brett Williams. Canipe scored on the play, but Rasmus missed second base and was thrown out at third after retreating to tag second.

The Wolfpack retied the score in the bottom of the eighth. Tarran Senay led off with a single to center, and Danny Canela moved the runner over by chopping a grounder to short with the runner moving on the pitch. Senay went to third when Elon reliever Thomas Girdwood balked, the third balk of the game charged to Phoenix pitchers. Bako's pinch-hit sacrifice fly to center scored Senay to tie the contest, 2-2.

The Wolfpack almost scored the go-ahead run after that. Chris Schaeffer walked, and Diaz sent a double into the left-field corner, but Harry Austin cut the ball off just short of the wall, and shortstop Neal Pritchard's relay to the plate in time to cut down pinch-runner Cameron Conner for the final out of the inning.

Sasser was saddled with the loss after giving up the two unearned runs on two hits in 2 1/3 innings. Girdwood (1-0) got the win after giving  up one hit over the final 1 2/3 innings.

The Wolfpack travels to Myrtle Beach next week for Baseball at the Beach. NC State will take on  Pacific, California, and Coastal Carolina.