The last week has been a disaster for NC State baseball, beginning with the collapse against Liberty as the bullpen’s ace, sophomore pitcher Jacob Dudan, blew the first save opportunity of the season. Even after the loss, Pack fans could still gawk at the preseason rankings and hope that the loss was a fluke — maybe the Wolfpack could pick up a few wins at the JAX College Baseball Classic.

However, no wins were to be had as the Pack lost to Ohio State, Alabama and Coastal Carolina.

The losing continued Tuesday evening at Doak Field as NC State (3-5) dropped its fifth straight game in a 5-1 loss to Richmond (7-1) after a seventh-inning implosion where the Spiders scored four runs.

NC State scored 50 runs in its first four games but has scored just seven in the last four games.

“We haven’t been swinging it,” said head coach Elliott Avent. “When you’re not hitting, baseball can get to you, and when you’re not hitting, you’re a little tight and you don’t relax at the plate. And when you don’t relax at the plate, you don’t see the ball as well.”

Against Richmond, the poor offense continued as the Pack only put up one run. Even more concerning, the Pack had 21 straight batters retired. Not a single player recorded a hit from the third to the ninth inning.

The singular run came in the first inning when the Pack offense loaded the bases with just one out. Sophomore infielder Chris McHugh came through with an RBI single into left field to take the early lead. Four pitches later, sophomore infielder Matt Ossenfort grounded into a double play to end the inning, stranding three runners and blowing a golden opportunity to take early control of the game. Avent thought this at-bat was crucial for the Pack.

“You get a base hit there and make it 3-0,” Avent said. “I think that could’ve changed the whole complexion of the game — but we didn’t get it done. We just got to get better at the plate … we worked hard to get better defensively, and we’ve gotten better defensively, but we got to get better offense.”

The Pack did clean up its defensive game, making every play with a fielding percentage of 1.000 — no repeats of the defensive miscues that have hurt it in previous games. Senior shortstop Justin DeCriscio had a few crafty plays to steal an out or two. Amid such a cold stretch, the shortstop has been one of the few bright spots.

“He didn’t get on the field until the first game, and he missed the whole preseason — that’s tough to do,” Avent said. “And got out to a slow start because of the hamstring but he’s really picked it up defensively, and we’re playing much better defensively, so we gotta figure out the offense.”

Freshman righty Anderson Nance was assigned the loss after giving up the go-ahead three-run home run, but his performance was no slouch. Nance pitched 3.2 innings, only giving up three hits and no walks. In a way, he was the best, but also the worst pitcher for the Pack.

Junior righty Andrew Shaffner got the start but was pulled after giving up one run and six hits in three innings.

The Pack next takes to the diamond to face Canisius on Friday, Feb. 28 at 3 p.m. in the Doak.