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N.C. State Outlasts No. 3 Virginia Baseball, 10-7
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May 12, 2007
CHARLOTTESVILLE – North Carolina State jumped out to an 8-0 lead and never trailed in downing the Virginia baseball team, 10-7, Saturday night in front of a crowd of 2,545 at Davenport Field.
Matt Packer (Germantown, Tenn.) started for Virginia and took the loss to fall to 3-3 this season. He went 1 2/3 innings, giving up three earned runs and five hits. Jimmy Gillheeney (4-2) tossed 2 2/3 innings of relief for N.C. State to earn the victory. Eryk McConnell pitched the final 2 1/3 innings for his ninth save.
Sean Doolittle (Tabernacle, N.J) had a home run and four RBI for Virginia, while Tim Henry (Fairfield, Conn.) added two hits and two RBI. Dallas Poulk had a career-high four hits, including two triples, to lead the Wolfpack offense. Marcus Jones and Matt Payne added three hits each.
N.C. State (32-18, 13-13 ACC) scored in each of the first four innings to take a commanding 8-0 lead. Poulk led off the game with a triple and scored on a Ramon Carona sacrifice fly. Jones added a run-scoring triple to give N.C. State a 2-0 lead. In the second, the Wolfpack scored a run on a Poulk single, and the Pack added two more in the third inning off reliever Andrew Carraway (Marietta, Ga.) on a two-run homer by Pat Ferguson.
The Wolfpack scored three more in the fourth inning. Corona opened the scoring with an RBI single. Caleb Mangum followed with a sacrifice fly and Jones hit a run-scoring single to push the advantage to 8-0.
Virginia (39-11, 17-8) started chipping away at the lead with three runs in the fourth inning on a two-run single by Henry and an RBI single by Doolittle.
The Wolfpack added a run in the sixth on a Ferguson double, but Virginia countered with two in the bottom of the inning on two-run homer to right field by Doolittle, his sixth long ball of the year.
N.C. State tacked on another run in the seventh, but the Cavaliers again responded as Brandon Marsh (Alpharetta, Ga.) and Doolittle each drew bases-loaded walks to force home runs.
Virginia had several opportunities to rally even further, but the Cavaliers stranded 12 baserunners while leaving the bases loaded twice.
The teams will play the rubber game of the series at 1 p.m. Sunday. Senior Day activities will begin at 12:30 p.m.