It’s State and Carolina for the ACC championship. What more do you want?
With its win over the Pitt Panthers in the semifinal of the ACC tournament, the NC State baseball team set up a date with North Carolina for the ACC championship on Sunday, May 29.
To get there, the Wolfpack (36-20, 14-15 ACC) scored five runs off three home runs in the first inning alone and scored another three runs in the fourth to hold off the Panthers (29-27, 13-16 ACC).
After hitting four home runs in a win over Miami earlier in the week, the Pack picked up right where it left off against Pitt with a ridiculous first inning.
Senior center fielder Devonte Brown got the game started with a leadoff home run, and shortly after, freshman designated hitter Tommy White did what he does best, hitting his 27th home run of the season to put the Pack up 2-0.
With his homer, White set the NCAA record for most home runs in a season by a freshman, after he had already set the NC State single season home run record with his three-homer performance against Miami.
But that was just the beginning of the Pack’s exciting inning. With runners on second and third, senior second baseman J.T. Jarrett hit a groundout that drove in redshirt junior shortstop Josh Hood, and as the next batter up, sophomore left fielder Dominic Pilolli hit the third home run of the inning, a two-run blast that scored sophomore right fielder Noah Soles, giving the Pack a commanding 5-0 lead.
Meanwhile, senior left-hander Canaan Silver was working on the mound, allowing two hits through the first three innings, and most importantly keeping the Panthers off the board. But the Panthers finally woke up in the fourth, scoring two unearned runs off an RBI single to make it 5-2.
NC State was quick to respond, however, scoring three runs in the bottom of the inning. After the Pack loaded the bases, sophomore first baseman LuJames Groover III hit a sacrifice fly that scored freshman third baseman Payton Green. Later, Soles hit a two-RBI single that scored Brown and freshman catcher Jacob Cozart to give the Pack an 8-2 cushion.
NC State avoided a Pitt scoring threat in the sixth as the Panthers loaded the bases, with sophomore right-hander Justin Lawson coming in for Silver to get the final out. The Panthers scored one more run on a solo homer in the seventh, but that was all as sophomore left-hander Chris Villaman entered in the ninth and got the final three outs on just 12 pitches.
With the win, NC State has now won a staggering 14 consecutive games against Pitt since the Panthers joined the ACC, including a win in last year’s ACC Championships.
This now sets up what should be a very interesting matchup between the Wolfpack and the Tar Heels in Sunday’s ACC championship game. While it isn’t a meeting between two highly-ranked teams, the matchup between two in-state rivals is sure to be entertaining and filled with drama.
Earlier in the season, the Heels won two of three games against the Pack in Raleigh and have since won eight out of their last nine games against ACC opponents.
The two programs have been pretty evenly matched over the last ten years in what is a rather underrated college baseball rivalry as the two programs have met on stages as big as the College World Series.
Perhaps the most memorable matchup in recent years between the Wolfpack and Tar Heels came in the 2013 ACC Championships when the two teams played 18 innings of baseball before the Heels ultimately emerged victorious.
With bragging rights, a championship, and NCAA Tournament positioning on the line, you can’t ask for much more than this.
The championship game is scheduled for 12 p.m. at Truist Field in Charlotte and will be televised on ESPN2.
