The NC State baseball team lost the series finale 5-4 and was swept by UNC-Chapel Hill Sunday afternoon at Doak Field.
Senior right fielder Brock Deatherage had a monster game, but NC State (31-11, 15-9 ACC) couldn’t get the timely hits it needed behind a stellar performance from the bullpen. The Tar Heels (31-13, 18-6 ACC) took advantage of defensive mistakes to hold off the comeback.
“Just try to use it to evaluate our ball club,” head coach Elliott Avent said. “And they will evaluate themselves. I think Carolina is one of the best teams in the country; I think they are hot as fire right now, playing as good as they’ve played all year.”
NC State’s starting pitcher, graduate Johnny Piedmonte, couldn’t keep the Heels off the board in the early innings. After a couple of hits in the first inning, freshman second baseman J.T. Jarrett caught a pop fly in shallow right field and fired home to get the runner tagging from third.
The throw led junior catcher Jack Conley into the baseline where he dropped the ball and collided with the UNC runner. Tempers flared and the benches cleared, but the players were separated quickly by the umpires and coaches.
UNC scored another run that inning on a wild pitch, so they get an early 2-0 lead.
Deatherage started his day off with an opposite field home run in the second inning that gave the Pack its first hit of the game. However, NC State allowed another run across in the third inning on an RBI single. Piedmonte was taken out of the game after the hit for sophomore Kent Klyman.
“We know our pitching staff right now,” Avent said. “Pitching is really thin; we know that. Johnny Piedmonte gave us everything he had, he’s just had some back issues”
After a throwing error from redshirt sophomore third baseman Dillon Cooper, UNC executed a hit and run to right field to put two runners in scoring position. An RBI ground ball and RBI single pushed two more runs across for the Heels and extended their lead to 5-1.
The Pack bounced back in the bottom half of the inning thanks to the bat of Deatherage, who hit a two-run home run after a walk to freshman designated hitter Patrick Bailey. Deatherage ended the day 3 for 4 with two home runs, a double and three RBIs.
Deatherage’s first career multi-homer game made the score 5-3, and he was the fourth NC State player to have a multi-homer game this season.
“I try to have a strong backside approach,” Deatherage said. “See the ball as deep as possible and I tried to make an adjustment today from the past couple days and it worked out well. Stayed on it and swung at good pitches.”
Redshirt senior pitcher Joe O’Donnell came in for the final three innings and shut down the UNC lineup, giving up only one hit and not allowing a run. The Pack a chance to come back late in the ball game.
In the eighth inning, senior second baseman Stephen Pitarra doubled down the left-field line and later scored on a wild pitch to make the score 5-4. Pitarra had one of the six hits NC State scored all afternoon.
The Pack didn’t go down without a fight in the ninth inning. WIth two outs, NC State earned walks from Deatherage, and pinch hitters sophomore Brad Debo and freshman Terrell Tatum. With Pitarra back at the plate, he could not come through and flew out to right field to end the game.
The Pack left 14 runners on base, committed two errors and could not take advantage of nine walks from the UNC pitchers.
“We came back in all three games with a chance to win all three games,” Avent said. “And that’s all you can ask. Just didn’t get that big hit.”
NC State will try to bounce back on Wednesday at Dail Park when it hosts Campbell in a 6 p.m. game.
