Wednesday, March 14, 2007

In a wild game which saw eight errors, four balks, and a batter's interference, North Carolina State took the final game of a brief two-game midweek series from Valparaiso 9-4 on Wednesday afternoon in Raleigh, N.C.

The Wolfpack overcame six errors and the teams combined for five unearned runs in the game.

Valpo jumped in front in the opening inning as Michael Arensdorff (Eldridge, Iowa/North Scott H.S.) hit his first homerun of the season and 12th of his career to leftfield.

The Wolfpack responded with four runs in the bottom of the third. Dallas Poulk had a bases loaded triple and eventually scored himself on a groundout.

The Crusaders answered in the top of the fourth, scoring three times to knot the game at four, all on unearned runs. John Giusti (Coventry, R.I./Coventry H.S.) reached on a fielding error with two outs scoring Brian Rzepka (South Bend, Ind./Penn H.S.). Jeff Rickert (Hamilton, Ohio/Fairfield H.S.) then tripled home Giusti and Mark Schoeck (Bellefountaine, Ohio/Bellefountaine H.S.).

North Carolina State retook the lead in the bottom of the inning, scoring on a balk and a bunt single. A throwing error by the Crusaders in the sixth pushed the Wolfpack lead to 7-4. The hosts tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the seventh on back-to-back RBI doubles off the bats of Vince Gutierrez and Mike Roskopf to close out the scoring.

Arensdorff finished the game with three hits for the Crusaders, marking the 10th time in 11 contests he has had at least one hit in the game. Rickert also had a pair of hits for the Brown and Gold.

Elliott Gibbs (Munster, Ind./Munster H.S.) started and suffered the loss (0-2) for the Crusaders, allowing six runs, two of which were unearned, and five hits. Clayton Shunick (2-1) earned the victory out of the bullpen, allowing just two hits and one unearned run in 3.2 innings of work.

Valparaiso (2-9) will now be idle until Saturday when the Crusaders head to Richmond, Va. to face the Richmond Spiders. First pitch is slated for 12 p.m. CDT. The Crusaders were to have faced North Carolina-Greensboro on Thursday, but the game has been cancelled due to the Spartans' scheduling conflicts.