The NC State baseball team continued its dominating start to the 2019 season and clinched its first ACC road win of the year with a 6-3 victory over Miami on Friday night in gorgeous Coral Gables, Florida.
After both teams were held scoreless for four innings, the Wolfpack (21-1, 6-1 ACC) put up five runs in the fifth inning to seize the lead behind five batters with a multi-hit game against the Hurricanes (15-7, 3-4 ACC). Freshman center fielder Tyler McDonough collected three hits and two RBIs while sophomore second baseman David Vazquez had two hits and three RBIs.
Head coach Elliott Avent’s team scored all its fifth-inning runs with two outs after sophomore outfielder Jonny Butler and junior shortstop Will Wilson struck out. Sophomore catcher Patrick Bailey and Senior first baseman Evan Edwards started the rally with back-to-back two-out doubles to take a 1-0 lead.
Bailey and Edwards have both reached base safely in every single game this season.
Edwards reached home plate on a McDonough single before a single from designated hitter Brad Debo put runners on the corners and Vazquez knocked in everyone with a three-RBI homer to left-center field. Vazquez’s second home run of the season made it 5-0.
Pack junior starter Jason Parker tied his shortest outing of the season, surviving just four innings and allowing two runs on five hits while walking two. His two runs came in the fifth inning after NC State took the lead. Sophomore Evan Justice took the ball and allowed Parker’s two runners to score but got out of the inning with no further damage.
The winning pitcher, freshman Baker Nelson, came in and allowed just one hit over the sixth and seventh innings to get to the back end of the bullpen. The Pack also scored its sixth and final run in the seventh inning to take a 6-3 lead.
Bailey led off the inning with his second double of the game and advanced to third base on an Edwards groundout to first. McDonough knocked him home with a one-out double, his second RBI.
In the eighth, junior Kent Klyman allowed a one-out solo home run to make it 6-3, then gave up two two-out walks. He was replaced by redshirt sophomore Dalton Feeney, who closed out the inning and the game.
NC State outhit the Hurricanes 13-7 but collected 12 of them against Miami start Evan McKendry, who threw 6.1 innings and allowed all six of the Pack’s runs on 110 pitches.
The Wolfpack will continue its three-game series against Miami on Saturday at 7 p.m. Sophomore Reid Johnston (2-0, 2.86 ERA) will take the hill for NC State.
