The NC State baseball team won a midweek clash against North Carolina A&T 5-3 on Tuesday, March 22 at Doak Field.
The Wolfpack (12-8) took an early 5-0 lead, but the Aggies (9-11) scored three unanswered runs across the fifth and sixth innings to make things interesting down the stretch.
“Looking back on Sunday, it was a super long day, but we were just talking about it, it’s some of the best baseball we played, the best baseball we played up until this point,” said redshirt junior shortstop Josh Hood. “So to be able to carry that momentum, even though we lost on Sunday, to be able to carry that momentum today, it was a good win.”
Sophomore right-handed pitcher Garrett Payne got the start for the Wolfpack, his first of the year and only the second of his career. Payne was aided by some solid defense and plenty of run support, but head coach Elliott Avent got a solid start out of the sophomore.
Across 5.1 innings of work, Payne gave up three earned runs on four hits and two walks. Payne was excellent for five innings, but stumped at the start of the sixth, walking two. Those two came around to score on a double after Payne was pulled.
The Aggies nearly scored in the top of the third, but freshman right fielder Will Marcy had other plans. The freshman tracked a well-hit ball all the way to the wall and timed his jump perfectly to snag the ball and prevent a two-out solo shot.
The visitors eventually broke through in the fifth, scoring on a one-out RBI single, and threatened to add more with runners on first and second, but senior second baseman J.T. Jarrett came up with a huge double play to end the inning.
Senior left-handed pitcher Canaan Silver replaced Payne in the top of the sixth with two runners in scoring position and one out. Silver gave up a two-out double, which scored both runners, but escaped the inning with the lead.
Silver finished the game on the mound, picking up the save. The senior lefty gave up a leadoff double and one-out walk in the ninth, but closed things out with a pair of strikeouts.
“The main thing is just try to get ahead of guys,” Silver said. “You don’t want to try to get too good of pitches and end up walking the bases loaded. So really just attack and you just have to kind of believe in yourself, that if you make the right pitch you’re gonna get good results and that’s kind of just what I focused on.”
Across 3.2 innings on the mound, Silver surrendered just two hits, striking out four.
The Pack did most of its offensive damage with a pair of home runs. Sophomore first baseman LuJames Groover III hit a leadoff solo-shot in the first and Hood followed that up with a three-run homer in the third.
Hood said he knew it was gone right as it came off the bat, but joked that he still made sure to sprint to first base.
The Pack’s fifth and final run of the day came from a double steal with runners on the corners in the fourth inning.
The Wolfpack will remain at the Doak for its upcoming weekend series, a conference showdown with No. 14 Georgia Tech. The opening pitch for game one is set for 6:30 p.m. on Friday, March 25.
