The NC State baseball team dropped the No. 8 Florida State Seminoles 11-7 in the finale of the teams’ three game series over the weekend. The Wolfpack unleashed a barrage of offense, mashing 19 hits, including four home runs.
Game three of the series did everything possible to stray from the defensive battles that had marked the first two games of the series. Neither of the starting pitchers, sophomore right-hander Johnny Piedmonte for NC State and freshman right-hander Cobi Johnson for Florida State lasted ‘til the fifth inning, with Johnson taking the loss.
Seniors center fielder Jake Fincher, second baseman Logan Ratledge, sophomore catcher Andrew Knizner, and junior shortstop Ryne Willard all homered for the Wolfpack, which has won eight of its last ten ballgames.
The Wolfpack offense, which had been stellar during its seven-game winning streak but had sputtered in the first two games of the series, jumped on the Seminoles right from the start and kept the pedal down for the entirety of the game.
The Wolfpack drew first blood in the first inning, as two wild pitches by Johnson scored Fincher and Ratledge.
The Seminoles threatened in the third but Piedmonte was able to escape with only one run scoring on an RBI groundout by junior left fielder DJ Stewart.
Fincher, who was moved up to the leadoff spot in the lineup today, had the second of his four hits in the second inning, a towering fly that found its way over the wall in left field. Ratledge crushed his home run in the fifth inning, a two-run bomb that pushed the Wolfpack lead to 5-2.
Florida State would keep battling, but the real blows would come in the sixth and seventh innings with Willard and Knizner both homering in the sixth to give the Wolfpack a comfortable advantage, before the Pack broke the game open in the seventh.
However the lead shrunk back down in the seventh as the Seminoles began to batter the NC State bullpen.
Freshman right hander Tommy Dejuneas, a pitcher that the Wolfpack has relied on consistently to get outs in pressure situations, gave up three runs in the 8th inning on a soaring home run by senior catcher Danny De La Calle on a hanging breaking ball, following by two runs scoring on an error by sophomore first baseman Preston Palmeiro.
Wolfpack head coach Elliott Avent was forced to tap into his bullpen once again for junior left hander Will Gilbert, who wiggled his way out of the threat before pitching a scoreless ninth inning to preserve the Wolfpack victory.
Gilbert even got the job done with the bat, reaching on an error in the bottom of the eighth inning.
After the heart breaking losses the Wolfpack endured on Thursday and Friday night, it was refreshing to see Wolfpack get some breaks offensively and earn a hard fought win in the finale.
