May 26, 2007

Championship Site | Box Score | Quotes

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) - North Carolina State's Marcus Jones had four hits and scored the winning run in the top of the ninth inning to lead the Wolfpack to an 8-7 win over Georgia Tech in the only one of four games on Saturday of the ACC Baseball Champions that will not determine who plays in Sunday's championship game.

Jones led off the ninth with his fourth hit (two singles, a double and a triple) of the game. He was sacrificed to second and took third on a fly out to right field. Jones scored the winning run when Caleb Mangum's slow roller went under the glove of Tech third baseman Patrick Long for an infield single.

The see-saw game featured seven lead changes or tied scores before North Carolina State won in its final at-bat. The Wolfpack (37-21, 16-14) jumped to a 5-2 lead after two and a half innings by scoring four runs on five hits in the third inning, including Jones' RBI triple. The Pack added single runs in the fifth and seventh before pushing across the game-winner in the ninth.

Georgia Tech (32-25, 15-14) got two-run homers from Tony Plagman and Jason Haniger in the second and fourth innings to tie the game at 5-5 after four innings. But the Yellow Jackets managed to score just twice more, those runs coming in the sixth inning on an error and a fielder's choice.

Long had three of Tech's 11 hits but hit into a force play with two on and two out in the bottom of the ninth.

NC State's Eryk McConnell (3-2) threw 3 1/3 scoreless innings in relief to earn the win while Matt Wieters (1-4), who was Tech's catcher the first eight innings before pitching the ninth inning, took the loss.

North Carolina State finished with a 2-1 mark in the round-robin tournament format while Tech was 1-2.

Both teams now wait to find out their fate in the NCAA Tournament. The 64-team field will be announced Monday, May 28, at 12:30 p.m. ET. on ESPN.