Maryland
NORTH CAROLINA STATE*
Maryland Falls, 7-4, to No. 12 NC State
4/16/2006 8:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 16, 2006
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - No. 12 North Carolina State held on to beat the Maryland Terrapins, 7-4, at Shipley Field on Sunday, completing the conference series sweep. The Terps (16-23, 6-15 ACC) put together a four-run fourth inning to close to within one but they would not get any closer thanks to a strong relief performance by the Wolfpack pitching staff.
For the Terps, shortstop Steve Braun tied a career-high with three hits in four at-bats and second baseman Joe Palumbo and leftfielder Wink Nolan each finished 2-for-4 on the afternoon. Lefty Brett Cecil, the team's usual stopper out of the bullpen, started for Maryland and yielded seven runs on 10 hits with five strikeouts in a career-high 7.1 innings en route to the loss.
Jake Cutler (1-1) became the third NC State reliever to earn a win this weekend, tossing 2.1 innings of shutout ball and striking out a pair. Right-hander Sam Walls added two scoreless innings to finish the game for the Wolfpack, picking up his sixth save of the season.
NC State scored in the first inning to take an early 1-0 advantage. Leadoff hitter Matt Camp singled on the first pitch of the game and, after moving into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt, came home on a single to center by Jon Still. Shortstop Jonathan Diaz drove in State's second run of the game off of Cecil (4-4), singling to right with two outs in the fourth.
The Wolfpack used three consecutive extra-base hits and a sacrifice fly to open up a five-run lead on in the top of the fifth. Second baseman Ramon Corona hit a leadoff homer on an 0-2 pitch before Aaron Bates and Still connected on back-to-back doubles to make it 4-0. The Pack pushed one more run across when Still came in on a deep fly to right by Matt Mangini to go up by five.
But the Terps would have an answer, scoring four runs in the bottom of the inning, all with two outs, to shrink the deficit to one. Braun started the rally with an RBI triple to right off State starter Eryk McConnell and then came in to score on an infield hit by Nolan to make it 5-2. Palumbo singled to left and Chad Durakis was hit by a pitch, setting the stage for a two-run single to left by Dan Melvin as Maryland cut the NC State lead to a single run.
After a two-run homer by Still in the seventh bumped the Wolfpack lead to 7-4, Maryland made one final try at a comeback in the bottom of the ninth.
With two down, Braun and Nolan both singled, bringing the tying run to the plate in the form of pinch hitter Taylor Baum. In his first at-bat of the year, Baum hit a dribbler back to Walls, who tossed over to first as NC State secured its eighth win in the last nine Atlantic Coast Conference games.
Next up, the Terps will play host to West Virginia on Tuesday, April 18 at 7 p.m. before heading to Winston-Salem for a critical three-game conference series against Wake Forest.
