Freshman pitcher Nate Karns was taken in the 10th round of last year’s Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft by the Houston Astros, but according to coach Elliott Avent, he could’ve been taken higher had he not expressed his intent to go to college.

And today Valparaiso got to see firsthand why he was such a coveted prospect as Karns allowed just one hit in five shutout innings, while striking out seven.

“Nate was outstanding,” Avent said. “It’s easy to see why he had a chance to be a first- or second-round [draft pick]. He threw nice and easy and relaxed — just like the guy I’d heard about.”

The start was only Karns’ second appearance of the year and was quite a contrast to the first. In his first outing, against UNC-Greensboro, he gave up three runs in four innings and picked up the loss.

But Karns said Tuesday he felt completely different on the mound, both mentally and physically in the near 80-degree weather.

“The warmer climate is coming out and it loosened me up out there,” he said. “I felt a lot better this time out.”

Karns added he felt like this success would breed future success in his first season at the college level.

“Now I’m over the hump,” he said. “The first win is always the hardest. Now I’ll be more relaxed out there and more into my game.”

Whereas the pitching has been consistently reliable most of this season, the offensive side of the game has not for N.C. State. In the nine games before Sunday’s 20-3 win over Maryland, the team had averaged a mere 4.3 runs per game.

Today though, the Wolfpack got some production doing the “little things” and manufactured some of its runs. In the sixth inning alone State bunted for a hit, advanced runners on a hit-and-run and scored on a sacrifice fly ball to right field.

“Offensively we’ve needed to help out our pitchers more,” junior shortstop Ramon Corona, who hit the sacrifice fly, said. “And little things like that — hit and runs and bunts — are things we need to do to get people on and get people in.”

According to Avent, the conscious effort to play more “small ball” is directly related to the lack of offensive production the team has had so far this season.

“We haven’t exactly been an offensive juggernaut this year. And when you’re not swinging the bats the way we feel like we should be, you can see the frustration in their faces,” Avent said.

“So as a coach, you try to do some things to relax them a little bit, like give them information and let them know that they’re going to swing the bat so their heads aren’t buzzing. And hopefully that’ll loosen them up and they can do some things.”

But despite the success Tuesday, Avent said he is not a huge of fan of relying on bunting, stealing and calling hit-and-runs to spark an offense. He went as far to say that in the Maryland series it became “counterproductive” in some spots.

“It’s always been a part of what we’ve done here at N.C. State, but honestly we’ve done it a little more this year than I like to,” he said. “But I’m trying to loosen these guys up. They just need relax at the plate and do what they’re capable of doing.”

For Corona, in particular though, the changes in offensive philosophy appear to have paid immediate dividends. Before Sunday’s game he was batting .156, but since then he’s 6-for-8 with four RBI, including a 4-for-4 day yesterday.

“I just tried to simplify it a little more today — just see it and hit it,” Corona said, “and it worked out for me.”

The Pack has now won two in a row and will play the Crusaders again Wednesday at 3 p.m. in the final game of the short midweek series.