NC State baseball weekend recap: Pack falls short in slugfests

NC State baseball came close to landing what would have been a huge road series win at Louisville, but a couple of big innings in the last third of games one and three by the home team sparked the Cards to take two of three instead.

The Wolfpack led 4-1 going into the bottom of the seventh in game one, but a nine-run seventh inning changed the complexion of the game. Louisville would prevail 11-4.

Game two saw NC State jump out to an 8-3 lead going into the bottom of the sixth, but Louisville’s explosive offense responded with seven runs over the new two innings to take a 10-9 advantage. NC State had the last answer, however, scoring five times in the eight and once more in the ninth for a 15-10 win.

The series finale may have stung the most for the Pack. NC State led 7-6 going into the bottom of the eighth, but a hit batter and two infield singles loaded the bases up with no outs for the Cards. That opened up a big five-run inning that provided the Cardinals with an 11-7 win.

In the process, Louisville is tied with Notre Dame, who swept Wake Forest, for first place in the ACC Atlantic Division at 11-7 with NC State in third at 11-9. Since Louisville also swept Notre Dame earlier in the season, the Cards have a commanding tiebreaker advantage over its two nearest rivals.

NC State baseball falls to 25-13 overall on the season, while Louisville is 27-12.

At The Plate For NC State Baseball

Freshman designated hitter Tommy White stole the show with four home runs, three of which were mammoth shots. Two of those had Louisville left fielder Cameron Masterman almost frozen in place, with Masterman simply turning around to see how far the homers would travel.

For the season, White has 18 home runs and 53 runs batted in, the former doubling the next closest Pack batter and the latter almost doing so.

Also having a big weekend was super senior second baseman J.T. Jarrett, who had six RBI with a double and homer on Saturday and added a three-run blast on Sunday.

On the negative, both sophomore right fielder Noah Soles and sophomore first baseman LuJames Groover III saw their respective lengthy hitting streaks snapped. Soles went hitless in the final two games while Groover was 0 for 5 on Sunday.

On The Mound

NC State baseball received a solid game one start from redshirt sophomore righty Logan Whitaker, who went 6.0 innings and allowed three earned runs on three hits and three walks while striking out seven, putting the Wolfpack in position for the win.

Sophomore righty Justin Lawson had a huge outing in relief Saturday, tossing 3.2 scoreless innings and allowing just one hit with three walks while striking out four to get the victory.

Super senior lefty Canaan Silver once again got the nod Sunday and after allowing four earned runs in the first settled down to give up just two over the next five innings.

ACC Standings And Weekend Results

Atlantic Division

Team	ACC W-L	Pct.	Overall W-L	Pct.
Louisville	11-7	.611	27-12	.692
Notre Dame	11-7	.611	26-7	.765
NC State	11-9	.550	25-13	.658
Florida State	11-10	.524	24-15	.615
Wake Forest	10-11	.476	28-12	.700
Clemson	6-11	.353	26-14	.650
Boston College	3-18	.143	15-25	.375

Coastal Division

Team	ACC W-L	Pct.	Overall W-L	Pct.
Miami	15-3	.762	31-9	.775
Virginia Tech	12-7	.632	28-9	.757
Virginia	13-8	.619	31-10	.756
Pittsburgh	10-10	.500	22-16	.579
Georgia Tech	10-11	.476	25-16	.610
North Carolina	8-13	.381	23-17	.575
Duke	8-13	.381	18-22	.450

Weekend Series Results

Louisville 2, NC State 1

Notre Dame 3, Wake Forest 0

Virginia Tech 3, Boston College

Duke 2, Georgia Tech 1

Virginia 3, North Carolina 0

Miami 2, Pittsburgh 1

Clemson 2, Florida State 1

NC State Baseball Midweek Preview

Tuesday evening will be a significant home non-conference matchup with East Carolina.

NC State baseball defeated the Pirates on the road earlier in the season, 2-0. Four Wolfpack pitchers combined to limit East Carolina to just three hits.

ECU has overcome a slow start to be 24-17 overall and 8-4 in the American Athletic Conference, although it lost two of three at Tulane over the weekend. D1Baseball.com currently has East Carolina as a three seed in the NCAA Tournament, while the same site has NC State a two seed (playing at No. 9 seed Stanford’s regional).

The game will be televised by the ACC Network at 7 p.m.

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