NC State baseball beat Radford 9-7 in dramatic fashion, surviving the upset in its wild second midweek game of the week.
The Wolfpack (9-0) found itself in a hole early, going down by as many as five to the Highlanders (2-7). However, a magical seventh inning put the Cardiac Pack on top 9-7, and NC State would hang on to remain unbeaten.
Radford opened the game with a bang, loading the bases with its first three batters, and a bases-loaded walk followed by a pair of sacrifice groundouts gave the Highlanders a 3-0 lead. The early gut punch had the Pack reeling as the team failed to respond in the first two innings.
“You want to give Radford credit; they had a long drive to get here and had a game yesterday just like we did,” said head coach Elliott Avent. “They showed up ready to play, and we showed up. Whether or not we were ready, you don’t know since we got off to such a bad start.”
Junior lefty Rio Britton started on the mound for the Pack. The Oregon transfer lasted two innings before being pulled for redshirt senior righty Baker Nelson, who pitched a clean third inning in which he retired all three Radford batters.
In the bottom of the third, NC State found its first run off an RBI single from junior third baseman LuJames Groover. The rally was short lived, however, as the Pack failed to score again until the fifth.
Pitching woes returned in the fourth as Radford scored a trio of runs. With the bases loaded, the Highlanders scored on a two-run RBI, and they scored one more run before NC State made another pitching change, bringing in junior righty Sam Highfill, who steadied the ship. Down 6-1, the Pack’s perfect record looked like it was in jeopardy.
A triple by junior second baseman Kalae Harrison to lead off the fifth looked like a spark for the Wolfpack — and potentially the start of a comeback, but while Harrison made it across home plate, the Pack couldn’t do any more damage and ended the frame still down by four. A Radford run in the seventh made the score 7-2, setting up a dire situation for the Wolfpack.
The Pack caught a break in the bottom of the seventh when sophomore shortstop Payton Green blasted a two-run home run, energizing the team and its fans. Only down two, the Wolfpack struck again as junior designated hitter Dominic Pilolli’s base hit tacked on another run, putting the game within reach.
With the bases loaded, sophomore catcher Jacob Cozart blasted a double that drove in two more runs, giving NC State its first lead. The Wolfpack added one more run for good measure, and the inning ended with the red-and-white on top 9-7 heading into the eighth.
“We were just trying to play inning by inning,” Green said. “Sam and J-Law did an amazing job for us today holding it down for us. We were just trying to have good, quality at-bats, and then it happened in that inning.”
Avent elected to close the game with junior right-handed pitcher Justin Lawson, who delivered in the final two innings, ending the Highlanders’ hopes of an upset with three consecutive strikeouts in the ninth inning. With the win, NC State dodged a bullet to remain one of only a handful of undefeated squads in the country.
“We know that we’re a good team, we know that we’re better than them,” Lawson said. “We just stayed together and the rally came.”
The Pack will take the diamond again this Friday, March 3 against NJIT. First pitch is set for 3 p.m. and the game can be found on ACC Network Extra.
