Florida State 7-7, N.C. State 3-8

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Posted 7:11AM on Sunday, May 28, 2006

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Caleb Mangum and Ramon Corona each stroked four hits to pace a 16-hit North Carolina State attack, leading the Wolfpack Saturday night to an 8-7 win over Florida State and gain a spot in Sunday's championship game of the Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball Tournament. No. 7-seeded N.C. State earned its third trip to the tournament finals in the past six years and will meet either Clemson or Georgia Tech. The Wolfpack (38-20) pounded out 16 hits and scored in five of the first seven innings. Mangum and Corona spearheaded the offensive attack, combining for half of the team's hits, scoring three times and driving in three runs. N.C. State turned a 5-3 deficit into a one-run advantage in the fifth inning as the first four batters hit safely. Jonathan Diaz opened the inning with a single, Matt Camp brought him home with a triple and Corona and Aaron Bates followed with singles for another run. The final run of the inning came in on a double play grounder. Florida State (42-19) tied it at 6-6 in the bottom of the fifth on a hit, a walk and a run-scoring single from Danny Diaz. N.C. State took the lead for good after scoring single runs in the sixth and seventh innings to hold an 8-6 lead in the seventh inning. Matt Payne (2-0) allowed one run on five hits in 2 1/3 innings of relief to gain the win while Travis Burge (1-1), who allowed one run in 1/3 of an inning, took the loss. Earlier Saturday, Travis Anderson and Buster Posey each had three hits, and reliever Brent Marsh threw 5 2-3 scoreless innings to help Florida State beat North Carolina State 7-3. Florida State's win forced a second game between the clubs. The Seminoles (42-18) took the lead for good in the fourth inning with a pair of runs. Anderson scored the eventual gamewinner on Tony Thomas's single, and after a throwing error Thomas came all the way around to score on the same play for a 5-3 lead. Anderson doubled and scored in the second, then hit a solo homer in the sixth. He hit .245 in 30 games before the ACC tournament, but was 7-for-9 in the conference playoff after Saturday's game. N.C. State starter Ryan Pond (2-1) allowed seven earned runs and 10 hits in 5 1-3 innings. Corona had a two-run homer for N.C. State (37-20), which scored three times in the first three innings, then was silenced by Marsh who yielded only four hits. (Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)