Another strong outing from graduate pitcher Johnny Piedmonte and home runs from juniors Evan Edwards and Brett Kinneman led the NC State baseball team to its fourth straight victory as it topped Furman, 9-2, at Doak Field Saturday afternoon.
The Wolfpack (6-1) scored in every inning but two and clinched the series victory against the Paladins (3-3) with one game left to play Sunday.
“The team is outstanding, we’re going to do big things,” Edwards said. “We’ve got tremendous players and everybody together as a team, so we’re going to keep playing and hope for the best.”
For his second start in a row, Piedmonte couldn’t get through the opening frame unscathed. After Furman’s Ben Anderson reached base on a leadoff single, Piedmonte struck out the next batter and induced a groundout as Anderson advanced to second base. With two outs in the inning and two strikes, the Paladins’ cleanup hitter, Brandon Elmy, singled up the middle driving in a run to put the Paladins up 1-0.
“[Piedmonte] didn’t have his best stuff today,” head coach Elliott Avent said. “But he found a way to leave with a lead, and all you need to do is leave with a lead and get us to where we need to be.”
Piedmonte managed to escape the first with no further damage done and the Wolfpack answered with a run of its own. Two singles to leadoff the game by senior center fielder Josh McLain and Kinneman put runners on first and third. An out followed, but senior first baseman Shane Shepard flew out to bring in McLain and tie the game at one run apiece.
The Pack struck again in the third inning, using two walks by Kinneman and Shepard to set the table for Edwards, who singled through the right side to score Kinneman from second and give NC State the lead, 2-1.
Kinneman, building off of Friday’s two-home run performance, launched another home run off the batter’s eye in straight-away center field, his fourth long ball of the year and his team-high 15th RBI.
Kinneman finished the game 4 for 4 with a home run and two RBIs.
Senior right fielder Brock Deatherage followed Kinneman’s blast with a single to center and Edwards smacked the first home run of his NC State career to put the Wolfpack up 5-1 in the fifth.
“It just felt great,” Edwards said. “We were so locked in. In that at bat, he threw me a curveball and I hit a curveball in the at bat before. Coach [Chris] Hart came up to me in the dugout and said, ‘You know what’s coming next,’ so it was a fastball and he didn’t get it by me.”
Edwards finished his impressive performance a perfect 3 for 3 with a home run, a walk, two singles and three RBIs.
After his shaky first inning, Piedmonte cruised until the sixth inning. After giving up a double to Furman’s Elmy, Piedmonte yielded an RBI bloop single to drive in another run, cutting the Wolfpack’s lead to 5-2 but escaped the inning without further damage.
Piedmonte was done after the sixth. He tossed six strong innings, yielding two runs on two hits while striking out five and walking just one.
“Sometimes, the days I’m not feeling the best is when my ball cuts even more and is a little hard to control,” Piedmonte said. “It almost turns into an upper-80s slider, so if I can just get that into the zone I’ll be okay with that.”
Freshman right-hander Reid Johnston, quickly becoming an important piece of the Wolfpack bullpen, came on to pitch for Piedmonte and threw three clean innings to finish out the game and pick up his second save of the year.
“He just doesn’t seem to have any nerves,” Avent said. “When he spots the ball down, he’s real impressive and I thought he got better as the game went on.”
The Wolfpack continued to pull away, scoring two runs in the seventh inning. Shepard walked to lead off the inning and Edwards followed with a single to advance Shepard to third base.
Sophomore catcher Brad Debo slashed another single to right, scoring Shepard and sending Edwards to third base, pushing the Wolfpack lead to 7-2. Debo got caught in between first and second and was tagged out. Redshirt sophomore third baseman Dillon Cooper hit a sac fly to drive in Edwards, making 8-2.
More concerning for the Pack, however, was Debo’s apparent injury suffered on the play as he came up limping as he walked off the field. He was replaced behind the dish by junior Jack Conley the next inning.
NC State plated one more in the eighth and Johnston closed it out as the Wolfpack topped the Paladins, 9-2.
NC State will go for the sweep when it faces Furman Sunday at 1 p.m. at Doak Field.
