The baseball players started play Saturday at 10 a.m. with a 17-5 loss to Georgia Tech, but finished the day more than 15 hours later focused on an ACC Championship showdown with Florida State.
“It’s 1:30 in the morning right now, but we’re glad to get that win after how we played this morning,” senior outfielder Kyle Wilson said after the win over the Hokies. “It definitely feels good to come out and play baseball again tomorrow, that’s for sure.”
The Pack’s loss to the Yellow Jackets ended after seven innings in a game called short because of the tournament’s 10-run mercy rule. That game was postponed to Saturday morning by Friday night rain that allowed the teams to play just half an inning. After starting the day off on the wrong foot, the Pack spent the afternoon pulling for Clemson to give it a chance to redeem itself in Saturday’s late game against Virginia Tech..
“There really wasn’t much time to think because we went back to the hotel and fell asleep,” Wilson said. “What you’ve got to do is put it behind you. Obviously we didn’t play the baseball we’re capable of playing this morning.”
The Tigers did exactly what State needed them to, defeating Georgia Tech 9-3 to keep State’s hopes for a tournament title alive.
State capitalized with a 10-9 triumph of its own in an extra innings roller coaster that lasted ten innings and ended shortly after 1 a.m. Sunday morning. Early on against the Hokies, it looked as though the mercy rule might very well come into play once more. The hot bats that played such a large role in the team’s 13-5 victory over Clemson Wednesday night were at it again, giving State a 7-1 lead after three and a half innings. The Pack fell behind 1-0 in the first inning, but answered and built a six-run cushion on one run in the second, four in the third and two more in the top of the fourth.
But the Hokies battled back in what quickly became a seesaw fight for the right to take on the Seminoles in Sunday’s tournament finale.
A seven-run outburst in the bottom of the fourth put Virginia Tech ahead 8-7 and chased sophomore pitcher Cory Mazzoni. Junior Jake Buchanan came in and stopped the bleeding, recording the final out of the fourth to keep his team within one run of the Hokies. Buchanan stayed on to record all but one out the rest of the way, giving up one unearned run on six hits in six innings of work.
Sophomore first baseman Harold Riggins knotted the game at 8 apiece with a solo homerun that flew as far as any ball throughout the tournament. That blast was one of many impressive swings by Riggins, who put on a weekend-long hitting clinic for the fans in Greensboro, one that earned him tournament MVP honors.
A double, an error and a single by the Hokies in the bottom of the seventh gave them a 9-8 lead.
State looked as though it might have tied the game in the eighth, but Kyle Wilson was ruled out at home on a dramatic throw from right field and ensuing play at the plate. Senior Dallas Poulk hit the ball in front of the Virginia Tech right fielder, who quickly threw home. The Hokie catcher dove to his left and was able to catch the ball and tag Wilson in one motion to end the inning and preserve his team’s lead.
“I felt when I slid in I hit the catcher’s shin guards and he had caught the ball but he didn’t touch me which is why I was pretty heated,” Wilson said. “That’s what I felt, but the umpire made the call.”
Wolfpack coach Elliott Avent was thrown out of the game for expressing his displeasure with the umpire’s call.
“That’s the worst feeling in the world,” Avent said. “I hadn’t been ejected all year. And it wasn’t a goal not to get ejected, but being out of a ballgame is almost like leaving your team.”
But after neither team scored in the eighth, the Pack got the rally it needed to tie the game in the ninth. Senior outfielder Drew Poulk reached on a single before an error on the first base line moved him to third and allowed sophomore Andrew Ciencin to advance to second. The error occurred when Tech first baseman Ronnie Shaban lost the ball while attempting to tag Ciencin. Riggins was subsequently walked to load the bases with one out, and freshman catcher Danny Canela reached base and forced in Poulk to tie the game after an errant pitch hit him.
In the tenth, sophomore catcher Pratt Maynard singled to right with runners on first and second to put his team ahead 10-9. Buchanan recorded the final two outs of his evening in the bottom half of the inning, and with runners on first and second, junior reliever Grant Sasser got the game’s final out on a harmless fly ball to right field.
