The No. 9 NC State baseball team completed its sweep of the Quinnipiac Bobcats on Saturday, Feb. 26. The Pack pulled off its first comeback of the season with a 12-10, extra-inning thriller in the first leg of a doubleheader before finishing off the series with a 16-4, seven-inning rout.
NC State (8-0) overcame two six-run deficits in the first game of the day, first going down 6-0 in the middle of the fourth inning and then 9-3 in the middle of the seventh. The Wolfpack refused to lose, however, battling back to beat the Bobcats (1-5) in a 10-inning 12-10 win.
“They came right out today and punched us in the mouth,” said head coach Elliott Avent. “But we hung around. To our credit, we hung around and did some things. And then they gave us a couple things. We took advantage and found a way to win.”
The seventh-inning stretch must have given the Pack time to reorient itself, as NC State chipped Quinnipiac’s lead to 9-4 in the bottom of the seventh before erasing it with a five-run surge in the bottom of the eighth.
Sophomore left-handed pitcher Chris Villaman held the line for NC State by notching 1-2-3 innings in the ninth and tenth including four strikeouts. The Wolfpack went down in order in the bottom of the ninth, but a bloop and a blast completed the Pack’s comeback.
Freshman shortstop Payton Green singled to lead off the bottom of the tenth, and then sophomore second baseman LuJames Groover III launched a two-run bomb over the left field fence for a walk-off home run.
“I never had a walk-off before in my life,” Groover III said. “But I didn’t go up there with that mindset. I was just going up there thinking ‘put a ball in and maybe get PG scoring around. … I recognized his pitch and I made my adjustment in my later swing and I took advantage of my moment.”
NC State kept its foot on the gas in the series finale, racking up eight runs in the first two innings on its way to a 16-4 rout. The game was called final after the top of the seventh.
Seven of those eight runs came in the second inning despite the Wolfpack’s total of two hits in the frame. Quinnipiac simply struggled to stay competitive and keep NC State off the base paths, registering two wild pitches, a fielding error, a hit by pitch and a balk.
“It’s a disappointing thing,” Avent said. “You turn around 35, 40 minutes later and you got to play again after blowing a lead like that. [It was a] cold, wet day and we were able to score some runs when they were down on staff pitching.”
The Pack put up another pair of crooked numbers in the fourth and fifth innings, scoring four runs each. The Bobcats fought back a bit down the stretch with a two-spot in the sixth and a solo homer in the seventh, but it was simply too little, too late for them as NC State remained undefeated on the season.
Most Wolfpack fans are familiar with freshman first baseman Tommy White already, but his prominence continued to grow in the doubleheader. White went 5 for 8 with two homers and eight RBIs across the two games.
“I said at the beginning of the year, he’s a baseball player,” Avent said. “He pays attention to the game. He works hard, he believes in himself. He understands the game and he plays the game a certain way on defense and offense. I’ve never seen anything like that.”
The Wolfpack will hit the road for the first time this season on Wednesday, March 2 when it travels to Buies Creek, North Carolina to take on the Campbell Fighting Camels. First pitch is at 5 p.m.
