The N.C. State baseball team bounced back from a rough weekend at Maryland in a big way Wednesday night, stepping out of conference and powering past UNC-Wilmington, 11-2, at Brooks Field in Wilmington.
Unlike the series in College Park, Md., the Wolfpack got its offense going early on. After junior catcher Brett Austin drew a leadoff walk, junior shortstop Trea Turner crushed a two-run homer off of Seahawk freshman starting pitcher Cory Gantz. Gantz lasted 3.2 innings and gave up three runs on four hits while striking out four and walking two, taking the loss to fall to 0-1 in the season. Turner finished the game two-for-five at the plate with five RBIs to lead State’s offensive attack.
“Over the past few games, we haven’t played well,” Wolfpack manager Elliott Avent said. “And when we have played well, we haven’t been able to come up with wins. We were scuffling a bit, so this win feels good.”
The teams traded runs in the second and third innings, with the Seahawks getting runs in the bottom of the second and the third sandwiched around a single Wolfpack run in the top of the third. Neither team scored again until the top of the sixth, when the Pack blew the game open.
After a pair of routine fly-outs to start the inning, junior infielder Jake Armstrong singled and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Freshman infielders Kyle Cavanaugh and Matt Vernon were walked, loading the bases.
Then, Armstrong made it home when UNC-W sophomore catcher Gavin Stupienski botched the throw back to the mound after a pitch, making it 4-2, in State’s favor. Austin walked again, and Turner delivered the big blow, knocking the 3-1 pitch to left-center for a double, extending State’s lead to five. Turner was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a triple to end the inning.
“We’d been trying to do a little too much offensively,” Avent said. “We tried to gain control of our bats and have better trips to the plate. When you can draw a walk or put the ball in play with two strikes, good things happen.”
State added a pair of runs in the seventh on a two-run single by Cavanaugh and two more in the ninth when freshman infielder Preston Palmeiro doubled to right for the final margin. All four of those runs came with two outs on the board.
“Everyone says two-out runs win ball games,” Turner said. “You can start a rally with anything – a hit, an error, a walk, and the team that does that best is probably going to win.”
Wolfpack starting pitcher Logan Jernigan went 2.1 innings, giving up three runs on two hits with three strikeouts and a walk. He earned the win to improve to 4-2 on the season. A trio of Wolfpack relievers, including freshman lefty Brad Stone, junior righty Eric Peterson and sophomore righty Jon Olczak held the Seahawks to just four hits over the final 6.2 frames.
“Logan was on a pitch count, and we wanted to get Brad some work after a short outing this weekend,” Avent said. “We pitched really well tonight.”
The Wolfpack will return to action Friday when ACC-foe Miami visits Raleigh to open a three-game series at Doak Field. First pitch is set for 6 p.m.
“Miami is a very good team, so it was very important to get back on track like this going into that series,” Turner said.
