Most NC State baseball fans slowly filed out of Doak Field at the start of the Wolfpack’s ninth inning against Duke. With the Blue Devils holding a looming 8-3 lead over the red-and-white, there was little hope in sight for the Wolfpack faithful who were clamoring into their cars.
Half an hour after those fans left, the ones that remained witnessed a miracle — a six-run, ninth-inning rally capped off by a booming walk-off home run from sophomore center fielder Eli Serrano III that ricocheted off the trees and into the creek behind the right field wall.
“I’m gonna be honest, I kind of blacked out,” Serrano said. “Overall it was a big win for us, starting off that ninth inning down a big, big amount, and we were like, ‘Whatever.’”
While it sounds simple, it was what NC State needed to pull off the rally. Well, that and two home runs, four total hits and a Duke error.
Before Serrano’s two-run drive into right field, the Wolfpack started cutting into the deficit in simple fashion. A couple of free passes and a hit juiced the bases and even scored junior shortstop Brandon Butterworth. Even still, the Blue Devils held an 8-4 lead and an expert pitching staff, leaving no reason for the visitors to worry.
But graduate first baseman Garrett Pennington and the Wolfpack thought otherwise.
If the Duke dugout wasn’t silenced from the crack of his bat, it was as NC State cut its deficit from four to one in just a matter of seconds. Pennington crushed a loud, three-RBI homer into left field, giving life to the fans that had stuck around for the ninth inning.
Compared to the six-run deficit, the one-run difference was nothing for NC State. A single from junior catcher Jacob Cozart put Serrano in position to walk off the Blue Devils, and walk them off he did.
“We just kind of battled and kept battling,” Serrano said. “And our mentality was just to take it one pitch at a time — that’s what we did and kind of stuck to it and it ended in our way and we’re thankful for it for sure.”
The Pack’s electric ninth inning was in stark contrast to the rest of its game. Duke’s pitching staff put NC State through the ringer for most of its bout with the Blue Devils, building a large lead throughout the game and scoring in five of the first eight innings.
Meanwhile, NC State got on the board in the fifth frame with a two-run shot from senior right fielder Noah Soles. However, Duke continued to build on its lead, scoring on the first three of NC State’s pitchers.
Redshirt senior right-handed pitcher Logan Whitaker, who started, threw a whopping 108 pitches in just four innings and gave up four runs while junior left-handed pitcher Win Scott and freshman right-handed pitcher Heath Andrews combined for four innings and four runs given up.
Late on, everyone on Wolfpack’s roster put in the extra effort required to down the Blue Devils. While sophomore right-handed pitcher Derrick Smith held Duke scoreless in the ninth, Pennington hit his first home run of the day, a solo shot, in the eighth to set NC State up for its miraculous ninth inning.
“Everybody was busting their butt and staying in the game,” said head coach Elliott Avent. “And even though the score looked so lopsided, nobody actually [gave up]. Sometimes you can see guys get down and just kind of mail in at-bats or something and that didn’t happen.”
All that extra effort set the Wolfpack up for success in the ninth. With Pennington and Serrano’s heroics, NC State secured a series win against one of the best teams in the ACC and the country with its six-run rally and walk-off homer.
The series finale against the Blue Devils is set for Sunday at 1 p.m.
