Baseball Roundup: N.C. State falls at Louisville; Duke knocks off FSU again
Ninth-ranked Louisville strung together six hits during the fifth inning Saturday and used the outburst to propel the Cardinals to a 4-2 ACC baseball victory over No. 13 N.C. State at Jim Patterson Stadium.
The Wolfpack (32-16, 13-11) kept the Cardinals (41-10, 18-8) scoreless through four innings, but then tey got to starter Brian Brown (7-2) to grab a 4-0 lead.
N.C. State, which has dropped the first two games of the weekend series, managed to trim the lead in half in the seventh on RBIs from Evan Mendoza and Joe Dunand. The Pack's best opportunity to grab the lead came in the eighth, when a towering Chance Shepard sent a drive to the track in left-center with two runners aboard. The ball, however, stayed in the park and was caught.
Louisville closer Zack Burdi struck out the side in the ninth to secure the victory.
Mendoza extended his hitting streak to 22 games, now the third-longest in N.C. State history. Andrew Knizner went 2-for-3 and Stephen Pitarra 2-for-4. Brock Deatherage contributed a pair of bunt singles, but the Wolfpack couldn’t string enough together late to overtake Louisville.
Drew Harrington (10-1) went seven innings for the Cardinals to earn the win. Brendan McKay and Danny Rosenbaum each had two hits for Louisville.
Duke 3, No. 7 Florida State 1: Trent Swart (3-2) held the Seminoles (32-17, 14-8) to one run and six hits in six innings at Durham Bulls Athletic Park as the Blue Devils chalked up their seventh consecutive victory and won a series from Florida State for the first time since 1994.
Jimmy Herron helped get the Duke offense going with a 3-for-4 performance, including doubles in each of the first two innings. Herron also drove in a run.
The Blue Devils (31-20, 12-14), who have won the first two games of the series, scored in each of the first two innings before adding insurance on Justin Bellinger’s fifth homer of the season in the sixth.
Notre Dame 3, North Carolina 1: Matt Vierling’s first home run, a two-run shot, highlighted a three-run sixth that carried the Fighting Irish (27-23, 11-13) past the host Tar Heels at Boshamer Stadium. Cody Roberts’ solo shot in the sixth provided North Carolina’s (32-19, 11-15) only run.
The Tar Heels’ only other rally came in the seventh. Tyler Ramirez and Logan Warmoth started the inning with with back-to-back infield singles, but Michael Hearne retired the next three batters to keep Notre Dame ahead. Sean Guenther retired all six batters he faced to pick up his first save of the year.
Virginia Tech 20, Wake Forest 13: The visiting Deacons (30-20, 12-14 ) jumped to leads of 2-0, 6-5, 9-7 and 11-10, but the Hokies (19-32, 6-20) scored 10 consecutive runs to pull away late.
Gavin Sheets recorded his first three-hit game of the season to become the ninth Wake Forest player to record a 20-game hitting streak. Sheets had two doubles and three RBIs.
From news releases
This story was originally published May 14, 2016 at 9:45 PM with the headline "Baseball Roundup: N.C. State falls at Louisville; Duke knocks off FSU again."