NC State baseball is barely keeping its head above water in ACC play. NC State has been up and down, to put it nicely, to start off the 2024 season. Although it is early, if it wants to establish any sort of winning consistency, it is going to need someone unexpected to step up on the mound.
In three games against Louisville (20-11, 6-6 ACC), NC State (18-11, 8-7) gave up 31 hits and didn’t have a starting pitcher last more than three innings in any of the three games. With 25 runs given up, the Wolfpack is struggling on the mound to say the least. After this series, the team has an average ERA of 6.77, the second-worst in the ACC.
Game one:
Looking to rebound off a 12-4 loss to No. 9 ECU from earlier in the week, the Wolfpack came up way short against the Cardinals on Friday. In just seven innings, Louisville run-ruled NC State 11-1.
In the first game alone, NC State used seven different pitchers compared to the Cardinals’ one. While Louisville’s pitcher Sebastian Gongora tallied a complete game with 11 strikeouts, the seven different pitchers used for State combined for just five.
The Cardinals started the game off running and never looked back. Three runs in the bottom of the first and second gave Louisville an early 6-0 lead to build off of. Freshman right-handed pitcher Heath Andrews made his first career start one to forget.
On his first pitch, he hit the batter then proceeded to walk the next one and give up a single off a bunt. With just one out in the first inning, Andrews faced bases loaded in his first-ever start. Then, with bases loaded, Andrews gave up a single through the right side and Louisville brought two runners to the plate.
After giving up another run in the first and a homer on the first batter in the second, Andrews was promptly pulled. Coming in for Andrews was freshman left-handed pitcher Cooper Consiglio who gave up a two-RBI triple in the second.
Consiglio, senior right-handed pitcher Hollis Fanning, junior left-handed pitcher Win Scott and sophomore right-handed pitcher Derrick Smith went on to blank Louisville for four straight innings. In four innings, the tag team gave up just two hits. While the pitching looked to stop its free-fall, the offense didn’t help the Pack get back into the game.
The lone run came from graduate first baseman Garrett Pennington whose solo shot to center field was the only thing to cheer about if you were an NC State fan. Pennington’s homer marks his seventh of the year and sixth in ACC play.
Just when the pitching looked to tighten up, it unraveled even faster. In the seventh, NC State proceeded to give up five more runs before the game ended early. Although the bats began to find contact in games two and three, the pitching inconsistencies persisted.
Game two:
Starting on the mound in game two was sophomore left-handed pitcher Dominic Fritton. Fritton breezed through the first inning where he faced four batters and retired three of them for a total of 12 pitches. After the first, however, it wasn’t smooth sailing for Fritton who gave up seven earned runs in the next three innings.
Throughout innings two through four, Louisville took advantage of every mistake Fritton made. Whether it was hit-by-pitch or a walk, Louisville kept getting runners on base, and when it did it kept bringing in runners off a double. Five different Cardinals players hit a double in the second game, proving that it wasn’t just one guy giving the Pack trouble.
With a five-run fourth inning, NC State temporarily had a lead when its offense finally started to click. Mainly off doubles from Pennington and sophomore right fielder Josh Hogue, NC State snatched a one-run lead. A two-run fourth for Louisville quickly put the Pack behind the eight ball.
In the next 4.5 innings, the two sides combined for just two hits. Coming in for relief, sophomore right-handed pitcher Shane Van Dam came in and held Louisville scoreless for five straight innings. Van Dam’s five innings pitched marked a career-high.
Unfortunately for the Pack, Louisville’s bullpen also held it scoreless for five innings as game two ended 7-6 in favor of the Cardinals.
Game three:
In contrast to the first two games of the series, NC State grabbed an early lead courtesy of junior shortstop Brandon Butterworth homering the first pitch he saw.
Like the previous outing, the Wolfpack didn’t hold onto the lead for very long as Louisville once again put together a strong few innings and took a 7-1 lead. A trio of singles and a two-run homer brought in seven runs between innings two and four.
For the third game in a row, the Wolfpack had given up six runs before the fifth inning started. When you start every game in a deficit, it is very hard to win games, the red-and-white can’t rely on walk-offs to win every game if it wants to have a chance in the postseason.
Two homers from Pennington and a single from Hogue got the Wolfpack within striking distance of the Cardinals, but in the eighth and ninth innings when it needed a run to tie, NC State came up short.
The Wolfpack has a one-off game at UNC Wilmington on Tuesday, April 9, at 6 p.m. in an important game to get ready for a Clemson series the following weekend.
