Courtesy: Peyton Williams/NC State Drew Taylor pitched three strong innings Tuesday to get credit for the win in NC State's 9-5 victory over Marshall.
RALEIGH, N.C. – Matt Payne’s two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the eighth gave NC State some breathing room Tuesday night as the Wolfpack came away with a hard-earned 9-5 victory over Marshall at Doak Field at Dail Park.
The Herd had scored twice in the top of the seventh to cut the Pack’s lead to two runs at 7-5 and seemed to have the momentum going into the late innings, but Drew Martin led off the eighth with a single to left and Tommy Foschi on four pitches. Dallas Poulk bunted the runners to second and third, and Marshall reliever Adam Dobies came in and struck out Marcus Jones for the second out of the inning. Payne, who earlier delivered a run with a sacrifice fly, whistled Dobies’ 0-2 pitch off the tip of the glove of second baseman Kenny Socoro for a two-run single.
Drew Taylor (2-1), who worked three innings in relief of starter Jeff Stallings, got credit for the win. Taylor allowed a leadoff single to Socorro, the first man he faced in the game, then retired seven in a row before running into trouble in the seventh. The Herd scored twice in the inning, one on a throwing error by Tommy Foschi attempting to turn a double play, and the second on an RBI single by Josh Valle. Taylor wound up allowing just the two runs, one of which was unearned, on three hits. He walked one and struck out four.
Jimmy Gillheeney retired all six men he faced on 25 pitches to record his fifth save of the season.
Marshall jumped to the early lead, scoring twice in the top of the first on Brandon Casamassima’s two-run single to left. The Wolfpack came back and scored four in the bottom of the second off starter and loser Justin Moore (0-1), who got the inning rolling by hitting leadoff hitter Ryan Pond with a pitch. Pat Ferguson reached on a one-out infield single. Chris Schaeffer drove in one run with a single to right, and Martin got a run home with a groundout to shortstop. Moore hit Foschi with a pitch to put runners on first and second, and Dallas Poulk made it 3-2 with a single to right. Foschi went to third on the play and scored on a catcher’s throwing error when Poulk stole second base.
Marshall cut the lead to a run at 4-3 when Schaeffer overthrew third base on a stolen base by Adam Teager, allowing Yeager to score, but jeremy Synan and Ferguson got that run back and added one with back-to-back RBI doubles in the bottom half of the inning. Moore was done after three innings, having allowed six runs, five earned, on five hits. He walked one and struck out two.
Payne’s sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth gave the Pack a 7-3 lead heading into the seventh.
NC State and Marshall will conclude their two-game midweek series Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on WKNC-FM (88.1) and can be heard on the internet at gopack.com through Pack Pass.
Courtesy: Peyton Williams/NC State
