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Saturday - June 3, 2006

Austin Regional - Day 2, Game 3 (North Carolina State at UT-Arlington)

As I predicted, UT-Arlington gave North Carolina State a run for their money but ended up losing 5-6 in 10 innings to be eliminated from the tournament. Both teams used lots of pitchers. The Wolfpack's starter (Eryk McConnell) went 4.1 and gave up all the UT-Arlington runs. The Maverick's starter went 2 and gave up the first three Wolfpack runs. He was replaced by Ryan Riddle who actually did a pretty good job. He went 6.1 and gave up 2 runs.

NC-State jumped to a quick 3-run lead in the top of the 2nd after UT-Arlington second baseman (Daniel Rieder) made a crucial throwing error. He actually made a really nice "ice cream cone" snag on a grounder headed to the outfield but then couldn't control his throw to 1b for the 3rd out of the inning. The throw went sailing into the NC-State dugout and two runs scored. The Mavs scored one in the bottom of the 2nd on a solo shot by Robby Winn that just cleared the lf fence. The Mavs moved ahead in the bottom of the 5th on a bases-clearing double by Collin Garner. That was followed by an rbi-single by Daniel Rieder to chase the NC-State starter. The Wolfpack scored single runs in the 7th and 8th to tie things up. In the 7th, Aaron Bates reached on a double and was brought home a couple of batters later [note: I first wrote "a couple of innings later" here...heh heh] on a single by Brian Aragon. The 8th was kind of weird. Pond singled to cf and was replaced by pinch-runner Jones. Mangum reached on a bunt single (moving Jones to 2b). Then, some of the weirdness. Diaz was trying to sac bunt the runners over and dropped the ball right at the plate. Frankly, the ball appeared to go foul and then spin into the field of play. The runners were off at the crack of the bat and the catcher made a great play to gun the lead runner down at 3b. The third baseman then threw to 1b to get Diaz out (double play). Mangum moved to 2b on the play. Camp then singled to lf to plate Mangum. Game tied. UT-Arlington threatened in the bottom of the 8th. With runners at the corners, Winn hit a come-backer to the pitcher who threw home to get the lead runner. He got caught in a run-down (1251) and was tagged out. Runners at 1b and 2b. They advanced on a balk after the first pitch to the next batter. The NC-State coach argued the balk call vehemently but lost the argument (naturally) and then yanked his pitcher. The batter at the plate then grounded out and the next flew out to end the threat. Both teams threatened again in the 9th but both threats were cut short by double plays. NC-State scored the go-ahead run in the top of the 10th on a squeeze bunt. Wow. In the bottom of the 10th, the Mavs got the tying run to 2b with one out but could not get him home (strikeout and ground out). Game over. Mavs go home.

Scoreboard at the end of the game:

Posted by Joanna at 11:10 PM