There’s just something about whenever NC State and Radford meet on a diamond that leads to drama.
Exactly three weeks after NC State baseball mounted a five-run comeback over Radford in Raleigh, NC State softball put on a rally of its own in Dail Softball Stadium.
The Wolfpack (11-17) overcame a four-run deficit against the Highlanders (8-14) in an 8-7 win that was capped off by a walk-off home run by sophomore third baseman Hannah Goodwin.
Goodwin’s blast was the culmination of a comeback effort that spanned five innings after Radford scored six runs in the third to go up 6-2. The Pack crept back into it little by little, and soon enough, it was all tied up.
One wouldn’t have guessed NC State would have to dig itself out of a hole with the way the afternoon started as graduate left fielder Katlyn Pavlick opened the game with a bang, sending a two-run shot over the left field wall to give the Pack a quick 2-0 lead in the top of the first.
Radford was held off the board early on thanks to the play of freshman right-handed pitcher Rylee Wyman, who got the start on the mound and didn’t allow a hit through the first two innings.
It all started to go south in the third inning when the Highlanders exploded for six runs, five of which came on base hits and the other on a wild pitch. That ended up being the end of the day for Wyman, who made it out of the inning after giving up seven hits but only being credited with two earned runs allowed due to an error during the third run of the inning.
Suddenly down 6-2, the Pack made up some ground in the bottom of the third on a two-run home run by redshirt junior first baseman Libby Whittaker, making it 6-4.
Freshman right-hander Wynne Gore came in to replace Wyman at the start of the fourth, allowing one run before holding the Highlanders off the board in the top of the fifth. In the meantime, NC State scored one run in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI single by junior catcher Haley Haislip, cutting it to 7-5 after five innings.
Tag-teaming in relief with Gore, redshirt junior right-hander Aisha Weixlmann came on in the sixth and closed out the game by keeping Radford off the board for the final two innings, recording three strikeouts in the process.
With the strong relief play by its pitchers, it was all up to the NC State offense to get the job done, and the bats came through clutch. Freshman pinch hitter MaKayla Marbury led off the bottom of the sixth with a solo home run, the Pack’s third of the game until that point, and with two outs and a runner in scoring position, Whittaker recorded her third RBI of the day on a single that brought home the tying run.
Despite giving up two hits and having a runner in scoring position in the top of the seventh, Weixlmann kept Radford off the board, setting up a potential walk-off scenario for the Pack. Goodwin wasted no time, sending the ball out of the park on the first pitch to give NC State its second consecutive walk-off win after beating Boston College in similar fashion on Sunday.
Of Goodwin’s team-leading three hits on the day, none were bigger than the final one.
The Pack will look to keep the good times rolling when it hits the road for an ACC series on March 24-26 against Louisville. The three games are set to begin at 5 p.m. on Friday, 4 p.m. on Saturday and noon on Sunday.
