Mazzoni Mows Down Seminoles, 7-0

May 25, 2011

DURHAM, N.C. – Floirda State’s bats simply were no contest for NC State junior Cory Mazzoni’s pitching effort Wednesday night in the opening round of the ACC Baseball Championship at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

Building on his shutout of Boston College in his final start of the regular season, Mazzoni mowed down the second-seeded Seminoles for seven strong innings to record the 7-0 victory, the Wolfpack’s sixth in a row. He struck out nine, allowed just four hits and one walk and retired 15 of 16 batters during one impressive stretch of the game.

“That was just an old-fashioned fanny whipping,” said Florida State coach Mike Martin. “It was a beautifully pitched baseball game. He not only dominated us with the fastball, he was able to get his breaking ball in there for strikes.”

Mazzoni (5-6) gave up leadoff hits in the first and second innings, but pitched out of early trouble both times. After allowing a double to FSU’s Jayce Boyd to start the second, he struck out the side. He allowed another double in the game and pitched out of a one-out jam in the bottom of the seventh to keep his shutout going.

In his last two starts, working both times on just four days rest, Mazzoni has pitched 15 innings, allowed no runs, given up seven hits, struck out 20 and walked just one batter.

“What was amazing to me,” said NC State head coach Elliott Avent, “was that it was so hot and humid when the game started, I didn’t think Maz had his best stuff. I thought it was going to affect him. When he came off the field in the seventh, he wanted to go one more inning, and I looked at our chart and he was still throwing 89-to-94 miles per hour.

“What that shows me is that Cory Mazzoni is a competitor, to pitch so strong like that when he doesn’t even have his best stuff.”

He was particularly tough on Florida State senior Mike McGee, striking out the ACC’s reigning career leader in batting average (.346), slugging percentage (.619), home runs (52) and RBIs (237) in each of his first three trips to the plate.

NC State (34-23) now prepares to play third-seeded Georgia Tech on Thursday at 7 p.m., with fifth-year senior Rob Chamra (8-2) slated as the Pack’s starting pitcher. The game will be televised on Fox Sports South, Fox Sports Florida and Comcast Mid-Atlantic.

The game will also be broadcast live on WKNC 88.1-FM and the All-Access premium service on GoPack.com.

The Wolfpack played error-free defense and gave Mazzoni some spectacular glove work. Junior center fielder Brett Williams laid out for a diving catch on the right-center field warning track, robbing Florida State’s James Ramsey of an extra-base hit in the fourth inning when the Wolfpack was clinging to a 1-0 lead.

“That was a big boost for our team, because we’d stranded some runners to that point, and that could have given Florida State an offensive spark,” Avent said.

An elated Mazzoni added: “That might have been the best catch I’ve ever seen.”

The Wolfpack bats gave Mazzoni plenty of run support against six Seminole pitchers, scoring a single run in the third, three in the fifth, two in the seventh and one more in the eighth. Five different players drove in runs for the Wolfpack, and Williams, third baseman Andrew Ciencin and second baseman Matt Bergquist had two hits apiece.

Bergquist, a sophomore from Orange Park, Fla., drove in the two runs in the seventh with his fourth home run of the season. The blast over the left-field wall and his second-inning single extended his hitting streak to 10 consecutive games, the fourth longest current streak in the ACC.

After leaving three base runners on the first two innings against Florida State starter Robert Benincasa (2-2), the Wolfpack scored an unearned run in the top of the third when Williams singled to right field and catcher Pratt Maynard hit a line drive to right field that was misplayed by Florida State’s James Ramsey. Williams scored on a sacrifice fly by 2010 ACC Championship MVP Harold Riggins.

The Wolfpack added three more in the fifth, when Maynard scored on a single by Ciencin, Tarran Senay scored on a single by Danny Canela and Ciencin scored on a misplay by the Florida State outfield.

“This team is playing with a lot of confidence right now,” Avent said.

• By Tim Peeler, tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.

 

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Team Stats

Brett Williams

Andrew Ciencin

Matt Bergquist

Pratt Maynard

Players Mentioned

Cory Mazzoni