Baseball ACCtion: Sunday, April 20 :: Full slate of baseball ACCtion includes Miami clinching the series over Florida State.

April 21, 2008

No. 1 Miami Holds Off No. 2 FSU, 11-10, to Clinch Series

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Junior first baseman Yonder Alonso belted two home runs including his first career grand slam and junior closer Carlos Gutierrez recorded a strikeout in the bottom of the seventh to end the game as No. 1 Miami held off No. 2 Florida State, 11-10, Sunday afternoon in a game shortened due to a travel curfew. Sophomore lefty Eric Erickson returned after a month off to pick up his sixth win for the Hurricanes (33-4, 17-2 ACC) who clinched the Atlantic Coast Conference series.

Erickson (6-0) tossed four innings and allowed three runs all coming on solo home runs. He held FSU to five hits, walked three and struck out three. Carlos Gutierrez tossed 1 1/3 innings and recorded his ninth save.

Alonso knocked in five runs and finished 2-for-3 with three runs scored. Blake Tekotte, Dennis Raben and Mark Sobolewski each had two hits. Buster Posey drove in three runs for the Seminoles while Jack Rye, Mike McGee and Stephen Cardullo also each finished with a pair of hits.

Weather Forces Duke and Clemson to Finish With a 6-6 Tie

DURHAM, N.C. - Clemson, who scored four runs with two outs in the ninth inning to tie the score, took an 8-6 lead in the 11th inning on Kyle Parker's two-run homer, but inclement weather forced the game to revert back to the end of the 10th inning, resulting in a 6-6 tie.

With the tie in front of 854 fans at Jack Coombs Field on Sunday afternoon, Clemson's record went to 19-20-1 overall and 7-13-1 in the ACC. Duke's record went to 27-13-1 overall and 6-13-1 in ACC play. The series was tied 1-1-1 as well.

In the fourth inning, Wilson Boyd led off with a double to left-center. After Doug Hogan flied out to the warning track in left field, Ben Paulsen reached on a fielding error by shortstop Jake Lemmerman. Chris Epps walked to load the bases and Matt Sanders drew another walk after being down in the count 0-2 to score Boyd. Stan Widmann followed with a hard line-drive up the middle, but Jonathan Foreman got a glove on the ball, picked it up behind the mound, and threw to home for the force out. Mike Freeman then grounded out to Foreman to end the inning.

The Tigers had many other opportunities to put runs on the scoreboard through their first six innings, but they left eight runners on base, including six in scoring position due to going 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

No. 16 Virginia Scores 11-Inning Win Over Wake Forest

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - Jarrett Parker (Fr., Stafford, Va.) hit a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 11th inning to score Corey Hunt (So., Charlottesville, Va.) and give the No. 16 Virginia baseball team a 3-2 win over Wake Forest Sunday in the rubber game of a three-game series at Davenport Field.

Starting pitchers Andrew Carraway (Jr., Marietta, Ga.) of Virginia and Ben Hunter of Wake Forest locked up in tight battle throughout, with each allowing just two runs. Carraway pitched seven innings, while Hunter went eight.

Michael Schwimer (Sr., Alexandria, Va.) earned the win for Virginia and improved to 2-1 after tossing a season-high 3.1 innings and allowing a hit and two walks with one strikeout. Carraway went seven innings and gave up two earned runs and seven hits. He struck out four and did not walk a batter.

Jackets Top Terrapins, 9-6, in Rain-Shortened Game

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Brad Feltes hit his fourth grand slam of the season and Zach Von Tersch worked out of a fifth-inning jam to help No. 21 Georgia Tech (28-12, 10-11 ACC) to a 9-6, five-inning win at Maryland (24-18, 7-14 ACC) Sunday afternoon.

The Yellow Jackets avoided a series sweep by getting in the required five innings against the Terps in the series finale. The two teams agreed to begin the game at 12 noon in an effort to complete at least five innings, but still had to sit through a 42-minute rain delay before the first pitch was thrown at 12:38 p.m.

With the Yellow Jackets leading, 4-0, in the top of the fourth inning, Cole Leonida reached on a leadoff double and moved to third on a bunt single by Charlie Blackmon. Blackmon stole second base and the Terps intentionally walked hot-hitting Luke Murton to load the bases before a passed ball plated Leonida and allowed the other two runners to advance a base. Tony Plagman was hit by a pitch to load the bases again before Feltes smacked the second pitch he saw over the center field wall, making the score 9-0 in the Jackets' favor.

No. 4 Tar Heels Top Boston College For Ninth Straight Win

CARY, N.C. - No. 4 North Carolina closed out its second straight Atlantic Coast Conference sweep and extended its season-best winning streak to nine games Sunday with an 8-2 win over Boston College at Cary's USA Baseball National Training Complex. Shortstop Garrett Gore drove in a game-high three runs and was one of four players with multi-hit efforts for the Tar Heels (34-7, 16-4 ACC).

On the mound, freshman right-hander Matt Harvey (6-2) earned his second win of the week and matched a career high with eight strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings. He allowed just one earned run on six hits and three walks.

Brian Moran, Rob Wooten and Nate Striz combined for 3 2/3 shutout innings of relief, as Carolina lowered the nation's best earned run average to 2.15. Wooten, who allowed just two hits over 2 1/3 innings, entered with the bases loaded in the sixth and stranded all three runners and also worked out of a jam in the seventh to leave the bases full.

In addition to Gore, who was 2-for-3 with an RBI single in the second and a two-run single in the sixth, Seth Williams went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI. Tim Federowicz and Ben Bunting added two hits apiece.

Wolfpack Wipes Out Virginia Tech 11-5 In Series Finale

BLACKSBURG, Va. - NC State scored unearned runs in the seventh and eighth innings to tie the game and then take the lead, and tacked on six more runs in an ugly ninth inning to defeat Virginia Tech 11-5 and win the final game of a three-game Atlantic Coast Conference series at English Field.

The Wolfpack won the series two games to one and improved to 27-12 overall and 12-8 in the ACC. NC State has won 13 of its last 16 games. Virginia Tech fell to 17-23 with the loss, 4-17 in the ACC.

Eryk McConnell got the start for NC State, but was at less than his best. McConnell was charged with four runs, three earned, on four hits in six innings of work. He walked two and struck out two. The first batter he faced in the bottom of the first inning, Sean O'Brien, took McConnell the opposite way with a solo home run to left field and a 1-0 Hokies lead.