Matt Moore
N.C. State used the same formula it used throughout the entire season to win Sunday’s baseball game against South Carolina: pitching. The bullpen gave up only one hit in the three regional games the team played, and Sunday night it helped the Wolfpack clinch the Raleigh regional, advancing the team to next weekend’s Super Regional.
Despite a rain delay that lasted for longer than an hour, the Pack pitchers stayed cool, and the coaches managed the bullpen to another near-perfect outing as State won 2-1.
State’s Eric Surkamp started the game, and though he had trouble early finding the plate, he settled down and allowed only one run, a leadoff homerun to shortstop Reese Havens, in four innings.
The Pack used timely hitting, grabbing the lead in the 7th inning, and the bullpen finished the job.
“They were the number-one seed in this regional and they acted like it,” South Carolina coach Ray Tanner said.
And though the Pack scored only two runs, State coach Elliott Avent noted why that was all the team needed.
“We may not have scored a lot of runs, but we did what championship teams have to do,” Avent said. “We got clutch hits, clutch plays and clutch pitching from a lot of people.”
The delay came in the bottom of the fifth inning due to lightning in the area and a light steady rain, after State had just tied the score at one. In the top half of the inning, Jeremy Synan yoked a ball well over the right field fence to tie the game. After the delay, Sam Brown took over for Surkamp and pitched on two and a third innings, giving up only the one hit. He was also credited with the win after centerfielder Matt Payne brought home the winning run in the top of the seventh inning. .
With the bases loaded with two outs, Payne grounded a hit just in between the Gamecock third baseman and shortstop in to no-man’s-land. The hit brought catcher Chris Schaeffer home and gave the Pack the lead it would need to finish the game.
State’s pitching after the delay, managed by pitching coach Tom Holliday, mixed and matched with South Carolina’s hitters in attempts to give State favorable matchups each time. Drew Taylor and Kyle Rutter each pitched for only two-thirds of an inning, neither allowing a hit.
“Coach Holliday deserves a lot of credit,” Tanner said. “They mixed and matched in their bullpen very well.”
In the eighth, Holliday went to Alex Sogard, and instead of bringing in Saturday night’s closer Eryk McConnel, Holliday kept Sogard in, who finished off the Gamecocks in order.
With the win, the Pack advances to the Super Regional for the first time since 2003, when State was knocked off by Miami. The team will wait and see where it ends up. If Georgia Tech beats Georgia on Monday, the Yellow Jackets will come to Raleigh next weekend. If the Bulldogs win, State will travel to Athens.
It’s a big win for a State team that has a lot of seniors who helped build the program, Avent said. Players from the 2003 team and teams before and after it have been on campus, talking to the current players about the opportunity to advance in the postseason.
“A bunch of the older guys have been around,” Avent said. “They’re really pulling for these guys so hard.”
Surkamp, a junior and a likely starter next weekend, checked his phone after Saturday night’s win over South Carolina. It was full of texts from past players, letting him know how much they cared about the team and how they would support him Sunday.
“This really means a lot to everyone in the Wolfpack community,” he said.