Wake Forest University
N.C. State (ACC Championship Game)
Wake Forest Wins ACC Baseball Championship!!
5/20/2001 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 20, 2001
Fort Mill, SC -- Cory Sullivan led off the ACC Tournament Championship game with a home run and No. 3 Wake Forest (41-16) never looked back on its way to a 17-4 win over No. 8 NC State (32-29).
The title is the program's third in the last four years.
Sullivan did it all for the Deacons in the game. At the plate, he was 3-for-3, with three runs, five RBIs and two home runs.
On the mound, Sullivan (6-0) went eight innings, allowing four runs and seven hits to earn the win.
Reliever Dave Bush pitched the final inning for George Greer's Deacons. Bush was making his fourth appearance in the tournament. The junior right hander earned tournament MVP honors and finished the event with a 1-0 record and two saves.
Wake Forest was able to take advantage of a depleted and tired NC State pitching staff that was working in its seventh game in six days.
In six tournament games prior to Sunday's contest, the Wolfpack staff had an ERA of 3.23, one of the main reasons NC State advanced further than any other No. 8 seed in ACC Tournament history.
Unfortunately for Elliot Avent's club, the staff ran out of gas in the tournament's 16th and final game.
The Deacons posted a pair of six-run innings in the second and sixth frames.
In addition to the run support he gave himself, Sullivan received help from first baseman Jamie D'Antona and second baseman Nick Blue.
D'Antona's three-run homer in the second inning was his second of the tournament. In the game, D'Antona was 3-for-4 with two runs scored.
Blue came into the game 0-for-9 in the tournament, but was 4-for-4, scored three runs and drove in two.
NC State answered Wake's first six-run outburst with a couple of runs in the bottom half of the second inning on a double down the left field line by first baseman Justin Riley.
Riley was attempting to be a one man wrecking crew for the Wolfpack.
In the fourth, with one on, the Crestview, Fla. native sent a Sullivan pitch over the left field wall that stayed just inside the foul pole as it left the park. Riley's eighth home run of the season cut the lead to 7-4.
That was as close as the Wolfpack would ever get to the Deacons in the game.
Riley finished the game 3-for-4 and had all four of the Wolfpack's RBIs.
Despite the loss NC State left the tournament with a lot to be proud of. The Wolfpack finished the event 5-2 and eliminated teams from the tournament in all five of their wins. Two of the five wins were over nationally ranked teams, Florida State and Georgia Tech.
Notes: NC State's Sean Walsh had his 22-game hitting streak snapped in the loss ... Walsh was 0-for-2 and was hit by pitch twice ... Sullivan's lead off home run was his fifth lead off home run of the season ... Sullivan's 25th stolen base in the game gave him 48 career swipes, putting him in a tie for fifth place in school history ... the win was Greer's 512th win, he needs one more victory to tie Sam Esposito for fourth all-time in the ACC.
