N.C. State Comes Back to Beat South Carolina, 5-4

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Marcus Jones' tiebreaking RBI single in the

seventh inning Saturday night and lifted North Carolina State to a

5-4 victory over South Carolina in the Raleigh Regional.

Dallas Poulk homered and drove in two runs for the top-seeded

Wolfpack (40-20), who remained perfect in regional play and

advanced to the championship round. They did so by beating former

coach and N.C. State alumnus Ray Tanner, the veteran Gamecocks

coach who was playing his old team for the first time.

DeAngelo Mack homered for No. 2 seed South Carolina (39-22),

which slips into an elimination game against fourth-seeded James

Madison. The Dukes eliminated No. 3 seed Charlotte earlier in the

day.

With the game tied 4-all, the Wolfpack pieced together three

one-out singles off Brandon Todd (3-2), with Jones' hit reaching

right-center to bring home Matt Payne with the go-ahead run. Pat

Ferguson followed that hit with a single of his own, but Devon

Cartwright easily was thrown out at the plate and Tommy Foschi

struck out to end the inning.

Kyle Rutter (3-1) entered in the seventh and worked 1 1-3

innings for the victory. Eryk McConnell pitched a perfect ninth -

helped by two diving catches - for his first save.

Poulk helped N.C. State build a 3-1, leading off the first with

a homer - his seventh of the season - and later singling home

Foschi in the third. Ferguson made it a three-run game when he

singled down the left-field line to score Payne in the fourth.

The Gamecocks rallied to take a 4-3 lead, scoring twice in the

sixth. Disher scored on a throwing error by Foschi and Andrew Crisp

followed that with a run-scoring single that brought home Mack but

ended the inning when Parker Bangs was thrown out at the plate.

The Wolfpack tied it in the bottom of that inning when Jones

scored on a wild pitch by Todd.