The NC State baseball team lost to No. 8 Florida State by a score of 3-2 Thursday night at Doak Field.

The Wolfpack (18-10, 6-6 ACC) entered the contest against Florida State (24-7, 10-3 ACC) on a seven-game winning streak, having outscored its opponents 79-17.

NC State starting pitcher, sophomore Cory Wilder (2-4, 3.64 ERA), had perhaps one of the best performances of his career, allowing only three hits and one run, while striking out 10 batters in seven innings of work.

“He’s just gotten better as the season has gone along,” NC State head coach Elliott Avent said. “He was outstanding tonight, pretty much dominated the game in a lot of phases.”

Florida State sophomore Quincy Nieporte started the scoring with a single to center field, driving home a run to give the Seminoles a 1-0 lead in the third inning. Wilder ended the inning with a strikeout, stranding two FSU runners on base.

In the NC State third, the Wolfpack reached base with a double from freshman Brock Deatherage. Senior Logan Ratledge followed that up with an infield hit, beating the throw to first base. But the Pack couldn’t capitalize as FSU turned a timely double play to end the inning without damage.

After giving up one run in the third, Wilder bounced back with an impressive fourth inning, striking out all three FSU batters.

Once again, the Wolfpack squandered its opportunities in the fourth, leaving two runners — both in scoring position — on board to end the inning.

Wilder continued his dominance in the FSU fifth, using only seven pitches to sit down the side.

Senior right fielder Jake Armstrong hit the first pitch of the sixth inning out of the park to tie the game at one. Sophomore catcher Andrew Knizner and senior center fielder Jake Fincher both followed up the home run by reaching base on throwing errors by the Seminole third baseman. Willard bunted to reach base and load the bases with no outs but the Pack failed to score and stranded three runners on base to end the inning.

Ratledge led off the Wolfpack seventh inning with a single to center that the fielder couldn’t handle, allowing Ratledge to advance to second. Ratledge was attempting to steal third base when Armstrong hit a single through the left side, scoring Ratledge and giving NC State a 2-1 lead.

NC State would get into a jam in the FSU eighth inning, loading the bases with only one out. Freshman pitcher Tommy DeJuneas (1-1, 0.84 ERA) would enter the game and strikeout the first batter he faced. The following FSU batter, freshman Darren Miller hit a two RBI single to right center field, giving FSU a 3-2 lead. DeJuneas would get the next batter to fly out to left field, ending the top of the eighth inning.

The Wolfpack failed to get a runner on base in the eighth and ninth innings, ultimately falling to the Seminoles 3-2.

Although disappointed in the result, Avent and the players were happy with the way the team performed against a top-10 team.

“I thought we outplayed them tonight,” Avent said. “Things didn’t go our way tonight. We played our butts off tonight. They’re a good team; we’re a good team.”

“We came out today and we played really well,” Ratledge said. “We had a couple breaks that didn’t go our way. We definitely deserved that game.”

Despite having its winning streak snapped at seven games, the Pack will have ample opportunity to return to winning ways this weekend.