Pack Falls to Clemson, 6-3, At ACCs

May 28, 2011

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DURHAM, N.C. – NC State had the opportunity to advance to Sunday’s ACC Baseball Championship title game, but a pair of Clemson home runs in the sixth and seventh innings of Saturday afternoon’s contest at Durham Bulls Athletic Park prevented the Wolfpack from advancing to the school’s 13th title game in the 38-year history of the event.

Florida State’s victory over Georgia Tech on Saturday morning opened the door for the Wolfpack to represent Pool B in the championship game. The seventh-seeded Wolfpack needed a win against the sixth-seeded Tigers, whom it beat two out of three games in the regular season, to advance to the 1 p.m. contest. Instead, Florida State advances to the title game.

Now, the Wolfpack will await Monday’s NCAA Regional announcements, which will be broadcast live on ESPN at 12:30 p.m.

The Tigers erased the Wolfpack’s 3-1 advantage on Richie Shaffer’s three-run homer in the top of the sixth and expanded their lead with a solo homer by Chris Epps in the top of the seventh and a single run in the top of the eighth.

"We made a couple of mistakes," said third baseman Andrew Ciencin. "They took advantage of that and we left a few runners on base, as we did all week, it seemed.

"If we take advantage of those opportunities, we might be in a different situation, but there is nothing we can do about it now."

The Wolfpack, which had a day off after Thursday night's marathon 15-inning loss to Georgia Tech, relied on freshman pitcher D.J. Thomas to start the game.

Thomas, whose only start of the season was against the Tigers, pitched two innings of relief in Wednesday’s opening win over Florida State. But he silenced the Tigers for 4 2/3 innings -- the longest outing of his young career -- before running out of steam. He was replaced by sophomore Josh Easley, who also made his second relief appearance of the tournament.

"The 15-inning game cost us some pitching," said NC State coach Elliott Avent. "But we still battled and battled and battled."

Easley walked the first two batters of the sixth inning and was replaced by senior Nick Rice, who got Brad Miller to fly out to left field and Will Lamb to hit a grounder to second base. The Pack had a chance to get out of the inning unscathed with a double play on Lamb’s hopper, but he beat Wolfpack shortstop Chris Diaz’s throw to first base, leaving the Tigers with runners at first and third for Shaffer.

"Will did a great job of getting down the line on that play and extending the inning," Shaffer said. "That's something we talk about all the time -- taking advantage of the opportunities that are presented to us."

Shaffer tagged a 2-1 pitch over the center-field wall to give his team a 4-3 lead.

Avent considered bringing closer Chris Overman in to face Shaffer, but decided against it that early in the contest.

"He had thrown a few innings in that Georgia Tech game," Avent said. "Do you want to bring him in at that point in the game? I probably should have and that was a mistake on my part."

The Wolfpack’s bats were silenced by a parade of six Clemson relievers. Combined they gave up just one run and six hits in 7 2/3 innings of work. Matt Campbell picked up the victory for 2 1/3 innings of work and Scott Wiseman picked up his seventh save of the season. Rice took the loss for the Wolfpack.

Tiger starter Jonathan Meyer lasted only 1 1/3 innings, after taking a hard-hit ball off the right knee by NC State catcher Pratt Maynard, who raced to second after the ball rolled to the Wolfpack dugout for an infield double.

The Wolfpack was unable to capitalize, however, as Maynard was thrown out at the plate trying to score on a wild pitch. Clemson catcher Spencer Kieboom tracked it down, however, and threw to Meyer covering at the plate. Maynard slid into Meyer’s foot, aggravating the knee injury and causing the pitcher to limp back to the dugout.

Meyer returned for the bottom of the second but lasted only three more batters after walking Tarran Senay, giving up a towering double to Andrew Ciencin that bounced off the top of the Blue Monster to score Senay, and striking out designated hitter Danny Canela.

John Gianis singled against reliever David Haselden to score Ciencin and give the Wolfpack a 2-0 lead.

Clemson mounted a threat in the top of the third, after Jason Stolz hit a one-out double to right. But the Wolfpack got out of the inning when center fielder Brett Williams caught a fly ball and threw out Stolz with a pinpoint throw to third.

The Wolfpack scored again in the fourth inning, after Harold Riggins was hit by a pitch and Terran Senay hit a double off left-field wall that advanced Riggins, who later scored on Andrew Ciencin’s sacrifice fly.

• By Tim Peeler, tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.

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Team Stats

Andrew Ciencin

Pratt Maynard

Harold Riggins

Tarran Senay

Players Mentioned

Andrew Ciencin

Chris Diaz