NC State baseball dropped the second game of the series 8-6 to UNC-Chapel Hill in another close affair at Dail Park Saturday night.
The Wolfpack (31-10, 15-8 ACC) and Tar Heels (28-13, 17-6 ACC) got into a pitcher’s duel in the early innings, but as the night grew on, a slugfest created a high scoring game that featured seven combined home runs.
“They’re a good team,” head coach Elliott Avent said. “And they are very very hot right now. I think you saw a game between two of the best in the country and two teams that I hope we hook it up at Omaha again like we did a few years ago.”
Neither team had a hit through the first three innings, but that changed in the fourth. UNC’s Michael Busch and Kyle Datres hit back-to-back home runs to give the Heels the 2-0 lead. These were the first home runs senior starting pitcher Brian Brown had given up all season.
Brown also allowed two more runners on before UNC attempted a double steal where freshman catcher Patrick Bailey’s throw to third dribbled into left field to allow another run to cross the plate.
As the story went all night, the Pack bounced back in the bottom half of the inning. The Pack scored two runs thanks to a sophomore shortstop Will Wilson double and a two-RBI single off the bat of junior first baseman Evan Edwards.
The score stayed at 3-2 until the sixth inning. Brown struggled to keep the ball in the park tonight, as he gave up his third home run to UNC’s Cody Roberts that extended the Tar Heels lead to 4-2. However, Wilson came up again in the bottom half of the inning and hit a solo home run of his own to close the gap to just one run.
“Today during batting practice it wasn’t really jumping,” Wilson said. “But it definitely felt a lot better during the game, but for both teams.”
With one man on and two outs in the seventh, junior pitcher Nolan Clenney took the ball from Brown. Brown didn’t have his best stuff, but kept the Pack in the game tossing 6.2 innings, five hits, 5 runs (four earned) and four strikeouts.
Clenney loaded the bases that inning by giving up a walk and singles to the next two batters. During the next at-bat, Clenney bounced a pitch that got by Bailey and allowed a run to come across. Luckily for NC State, he was able to get out of the inning with no further damage.
Heading to the ninth, the Pack was down 5-3, but UNC was able to get to Clenney who loaded the bases again before another ball got behind Bailey and the Heels went up 6-3. Freshman pitcher Connor Centala was brought into the jam and a single scored two more runs to extend their lead. When the inning was all said and done, NC State was behind 8-3.
UNC’s starting pitcher, Austin Bergner, made runs hard to get for the Pack. He pitched eight innings, gave up three runs on five hits and struck out 11 NC State batters.
“It was a pitcher’s duel,” Avent said. “A pitcher’s duel between two of the best pitchers in the country. I don’t like to put labels on something, but that was definitely the best game anybody has pitched against us. And I don’t want to put a label on Bergner, but that’s a big leaguer, that’s a big league arm.”
With its back against the wall, the Pack didn’t go down without a fight. NC State hit back-to-back-to-back home runs to make it 8-6. The clutch hitting came from Wilson, Edwards and Bailey who combined to go seven for 12, score five runs and have six RBIs. The only other member of the Pack to get a hit was senior center fielder Josh McLain.
Unfortunately, NC State couldn’t get anything else going and the game ended at the final of 8-6. The series loss snaps a streak of 10 consecutive ACC series wins and 13 series overall.
“I don’t think it’s going to be tough to bounce back,” Edwards said. “It’s tough to let it sink in for our first series loss, but we still got a lot of work to do.”
NC State looks to avoid the sweep against UNC on Sunday at 1 p.m. with senior Johnny Piedmonte on the mound.
