NC State baseball completed the series sweep over NJIT on Sunday, walking off the Highlanders 6-5.
The Wolfpack (12-0) got off to a quick start by taking the lead in the first inning, but the Highlanders (4-6) — perhaps motivated by a blowout loss yesterday — recovered and kept the Pack at bay, taking the lead in the back end of the game. However, the Pack mounted a comeback capped off by sophomore shortstop Payton Green to prevent the upset.
“Every time it seemed like we were coming back and got the game in control, something would happen,” said head coach Elliott Avent. “It could have been easy for us to say ‘Well, we won 11 in a row, so it’s just not our day.’ But they kept grinding and grinding, and if you keep grinding, sometimes the sun’s gonna shine on you and sometimes it won’t. But it shone on them pretty brightly at the end.”
Perhaps still feeding off the energy leftover from the previous game, which saw seven batters walked, the Pack immediately got on base as junior right fielder Carter Trice drew a walk to lead off the bottom of the first. Not long after, graduate center fielder Trevor Candelaria drove him in to give NC State a quick 1-0 lead.
Despite the early lead, NC State was held scoreless for the next five innings as the NJIT pitching staff locked in. In the meantime, freshman left-handed pitcher Dominic Fritton was largely on point for the Pack as he helped limit NJIT’s production. Through five innings pitched, he recorded five strikeouts and was not credited with an earned run until after he was taken out in the sixth inning.
Hoping to close it out, junior righty Sam Highfill relieved Fritton in the sixth. However, in 2.2 innings pitched, he could not seal the game, allowing four runs despite recording four strikeouts.
In the top of the eighth, junior righty Justin Lawson came in to finish the game. With the momentum already beginning to shift back toward the Wolfpack, he was on point from the mound, getting the final out of the eighth and holding Highlanders scoreless in the ninth to set the stage for a Wolfpack comeback.
“I just tried to stay ahead of the count, just throwing strikes,” Lawson said. “I believe I have good enough stuff that if I throw it in the zone, you’re gonna get a ground ball or an out.”
In the seventh inning, the Pack found itself down 3-1 and in need of an answer quickly, which came as Trice smacked a double that drove in sophomore first baseman Will Marcy to cut the deficit to one.
As the game moved to the eighth inning, NJIT pushed its lead back to three, but the Pack did not flinch as junior third baseman LuJames Groover scored on a single by sophomore catcher Jacob Cozart and a subsequent error by NJIT. The next at-bat saw freshman designated hitter Cannon Peebles hit a single to bring home Cozart, and as the inning came to a close, the score sat at 5-4 in favor of the Highlanders.
“The first pitcher gave us a little bit of trouble, but I think the offense had confidence in ourselves that we were gonna battle back,” Green said. “One guy after another put together a quality at-bat and we just started scrapping in some runs.”
After the Highlanders were prevented from scoring in the top of the ninth, the Pack had the opportunity for a walk-off home run heading into the bottom of the inning. To set up the tying run, junior second baseman Kalae Harrison started by picking up a single. Two at-bats later, Green stepped up to the plate and drilled a two-run walk-off homer to seal the game for the Pack.
“I wasn’t trying to do too much. I kinda struggled with fastballs for the most part of the game today so I was just looking at trying to drive a fastball and that’s pretty much it,” Green said. “I worked really hard this offseason and just going out there knowing that I can put any ball in play and really no one can get me out is kind of my mindset that I have right now.”
With only one game before ACC play begins, NC State has shown its ability to rally around each other as a team. Whether it’s the pitching staff or its batters, the team has been able to perform at a high level so far this season.
“We got so many new guys to get to know each other in a short period of time. So to get these guys to believe in one another and care about each other is what we’re trying to do,” Avent said. “Right now it seems to be a lot of that going on. So that’s a good sign but we got a long, long season ahead of us.”
The Pack will open a four-game road stretch on Tuesday, March 7 as it travels to UNC-Greensboro. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. on ESPN+.
