WILSON, N.C. - Justin Riley went 3-for-3 with three doubles, and lefthander David Hicks, making his first collegiate start as a pitcher, allowed just two runs in seven strong innings to propel NC State to a 9-4 victory over VMI on Wednesday at Fleming Stadium. The win, NC State's ninth in a row, lifted the Wolfpack to 14-4 on the season, while the Keydets dropped to 5-9.
Hicks (1-0), who made eight relief appearances as a freshman two years ago and one outing out of the bullpen earlier this year, allowed two runs on a pair of solo home runs. He yielded five hits in all, walked one and struck out seven. VMI starter Jimmy Thoms (Newport News, Va. / Denbigh)(1-1) allowed four runs, three of them earned, on four hits in three-plus innings. He walked three and struck out one.
Riley, who homered twice on Tuesday against The Citadel, hit his first double of the game, a one-out drive to left-center in the bottom of the second and scored on Marc Maynor's two-out single up the middle. Maynor came all the way around to score on the play when center fielder Ben Rand overran the ball for an error, making it 2-0, NC State.
Jon Wade (Marietta, Ga. / Harrison), the nine hitter in the VMI lineup cut the lead in half with a two-out solo homer in the top of the third, but the Pack came back in the bottom half of the inning. Matt Camp drew a one-out walk and Jeremy Dutton singled to right. The runners moved up to second and third on the play when right fielder Elliott Erbe (Portsmouth, Va. / Western Branch) overran the ball for an error. Colt Morton drew a two-out walk to load the bases, and Thoms unleashed a wild pitch to advance all three runners, with Camp scoring on the play. Morton wound up walking to reload the bases, and Conor Clougherty got the second run of the inning home on an infield single, making it 4-1.
Allen Wimmer's (Vienna, Va. / James Madison) solo homer in the top of the fourth cut the lead to 4-2, but NC State got that run back in the bottom of the bottom of the fifth when Morton singled up the middle, went to third on Riley's second double of the game, and scored on a groundout by Clougherty. The run was unearned because of a dropped foul ball during Morton's at-bat.
The Wolfpack began to pull away in the bottom of the sixth. Orvella led off and walked. Adam Hargrave sent Orvella to third on a perfect hit-and-run single, and Camp drove Orvella home with a squeeze-bunt single. Dutton followed with another bunt single to load the bases, and Joe Gaetti drove in Hargrave on a force play at second base. Morton walked to load the bases again, and Riley drove in Camp with a sacrifice fly to right, increasing the NC State lead to 8-2.
Orvella led off the bottom of the seventh with an infield single, and Hargrave walked. Orvella stole third, and scored on Camp's sacrifice fly to center field.
The Keydets got two unearned runs off reliever Nate Cretarolo in the top of the eighth. Wade reached on a one-out error by Dutton, and Ben Rand (South Boston, Va. / VCU) walked. Brandon Massenburg (Prince George, Va. / Prince George) singled to right to drive in Wade, and with two down, Kelly Sweppenhiser (Herndon, Pa. / Line Mountain) doubled down the left-field line to drive in Massenburg, trimming the Wolfpack's lead to 9-4.
VMI will next be in action on Friday when they travel to Johnson City, Tenn. for a weekend series with East Tennessee State. The opening pitch is set for 7 p.m.
