The NC State baseball team secured its first series win of ACC play with a 6-5 victory over the No. 12 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on Saturday, March 26 at Doak Field.
The Wolfpack (14-8, 3-4 ACC) used a trio of homers to outlast the Yellow Jackets (16-8, 4-4 ACC), who nipped at the Pack’s heels until the very end. Sophomore right-handed pitcher Matt Willadsen managed to hold off Georgia Tech long enough for NC State’s bats to find their rhythm before the bullpen finished off the win.
Freshman right-hander Carson Kelly was credited with the win for his 2.2 innings pitched where he gave up just one earned run on two hits. Junior righty Baker Nelson and sophomore left-hander Chris Villaman shut out the Yellow Jackets for the final five outs with Villaman notching a save to boot, his third of the season.
After Georgia Tech squeezed two runs out of a two-out rally in the third, the NC State offense came to life for a four-run fourth inning. Redshirt junior shortstop Josh Hood put the Pack on the board with a one-out solo shot to left, but the Pack engineered a two-out rally of its own to take a 4-2 lead into the fifth.
With two outs and a runner on first base, freshman left fielder Will Marcy took the payoff pitch for ball four to keep the inning alive. Freshman third baseman Payton Green capitalized on the opportunity by going yard on the next pitch, muscling the ball over the center field wall.
Georgia Tech didn’t go away quietly, however, as the Yellow Jackets scored another pair of runs in the top of the fifth to knot it up at 4-4. Sophomore right fielder Noah Soles quickly put the Pack in front for good with a solo bomb to right center in the bottom half of the inning.
NC State almost relinquished the lead again the eighth, but a seventh-inning sacrifice fly by sophomore first baseman LuJames Groover III provided a crucial insurance run as the Yellow Jackets only managed one run in the eighth while leaving two on base. The Wolfpack managed to minimize the damage of Georgia Tech’s 11 hits by forcing the Yellow Jackets to leave as many runners on base over the course of the game.
The Pack9 will get a chance at its first sweep since its series against Quinnipiac in late February when it takes on the Yellow Jackets in the series finale on Sunday, March 27. First pitch is set for 1 p.m.
