If there was any hope that the N.C. State baseball team could turn its season around and make a push toward postseason baseball, it may have died at the hands of the Boston College Eagles. The Wolfpack dropped the final two games of a three-game series against the Eagles, the worst team in the ACC, to fall to 7-14 in conference play.
The Wolfpack hoped to right the ship against Boston College (14-25 overall, 5-17 ACC), but instead found itself all but sunk in the race for the 10th and final spot in the ACC Tournament.
“It hurts,” junior catcher Brett Austin said. “You know it sucks losing the way that we did today. I guess that’s just baseball though. We just have to keep grinding and keep playing and hopefully something clicks for us here.”
The weekend started off promising, with junior starting pitcher Carlos Rodon picking up his first win since March 8, in a 5-1 Wolfpack victory. The N.C. State offense finally produced run support for the struggling lefty, jumaping on Eagles’ junior starting pitcher John Gorman in the first inning and never looking back.
Freshman first baseman Preston Palmeiro ripped an RBI single to right field, scoring fellow freshman Andrew Knizner from second to put the Pack up 1-0. The Wolfpack would get another run off a passed ball to push the lead to 2-0.
The Pack broke the game open in the sixth, when Knizner laced a double into the left field corner on a hit and run play that scored both junior shortstop Trea Turner and junior centerfielder Jake Fincher.
From there it was the Carlos Rodon show. The southpaw went eight innings, allowing only one run on six hits and striking out seven, leaving no doubt of what the outcome would be.
“Carlos pitched well,” Wolfpack head coach Elliott Avent said. “He sucked it up after that one tough inning. Sometimes a win will do good for you, and this win is important.”
On Saturday, the Wolfpack handed the ball to junior lefthander Patrick Peterson to try and nail down a series victory. The lefty started the game strong but ran into trouble midway through the contest. Peterson lasted only five innings, allowing five earned runs on eight hits.
Sophomore designated hitter Chance Shepard opened the scoring in the third inning with a towering home run over the wall in left field. The Eagles would steal the lead from the Pack in the top of the fourth, but Knizner’s laced an RBI double and later scored on junior second baseman Logan Ratledge’s single to center to give the Pack a 3-2 lead.
Despite two home runs from Turner, neither Patrick Peterson nor junior pitcher Eric Peterson, who relieved his brother of duty in the sixth, could control the Eagles’ bats, and Boston College overwhelmed the State in the second game.
The final game of the series was an ugly one for the State fans in attendance on Easter Sunday. Junior righthander Logan Jernigan struggled mightily and was given the hook by Avent after two outs in the second.
The Eagles drilled four runs off Jernigan in the top of the second before the Wolfpack countered in the bottom of the inning. Shepard smashed an RBI double into the gap in right-center and later scored on Rodon’s groundout to cut the Eagle lead to 4-2. State tied the game with runs in both the third and the fourth but was unable to strike again until the ninth, when Turner scored on an error by the BC shortstop.
Back-to-back singles loaded the bases for the Wolfpack before Shepard drove in Knizner to bring the deficit to 7-6. Avent brought in junior infiedler Jake Armstrong to pinch hit, and Armstrong responded by drawing a full count walk to tie the game and send the game to extras.
However, the Eagles took control in the extras with a two-run 11th inning and took the final game, 9-7.
“Some things that happened for us last year aren’t happening this year,” Avent said. “It’s easy for things to pile up and that’s what’s happening right now. We need something good to happen.”
