The NC State baseball team lost its fifth straight ACC game Friday night, falling to Wake Forest 7-3 at David F. Couch Ballpark in Winston-Salem.
The Wolfpack (30-9, 12-6 ACC) fell behind early and couldn’t mount a serious comeback as the Demon Deacons (23-16, 10-9 ACC) picked up a much-needed ACC win.
Wake Forest struck first, scoring three runs in the bottom of the third inning off of a solo home run from outfielder Chris Lanzilli and RBI singles by catcher Brendan Tinsman and outfielder Michael Ludowig to go up 3-0.
NC State answered back in the top of the fifth inning as junior shortstop Will Wilson plated freshman infielder Vojtech Mensik on a sacrifice fly to right field, cutting the deficit to two runs.
One half inning later Wake Forest added a run back to its lead, with an RBI groundout from Tinsman plating a run and pushing the Deacs’ lead to 4-1.
NC State’s pitchers struggled to shut down the Wake Forest bats, and the Deacs a run in the sixth and seventh innings by way of two more RBI singles.
Freshman outfielder Luca Tresh launched a two-run home run to right field in the top of the eighth, scoring freshman center fielder Tyler McDonough and narrowing the lead to 7-3, but that was it for both teams and the Pack’s small rally came up short.
Redshirt sophomore starter Dalton Feeney took the loss for the Wolfpack, going 2.2 innings and allowing one earned run on four hits and two walks. Every pitcher the Pack used allowed at least one run, as sophomore left-hander Evan Justice and redshirt senior righty Nolan Clenney each allowed two runs, and junior righty Andrew Blake allowed one run and struck out six batters in 2.2 innings of work.
Led by Mensik’s 2-for-4 night at the plate, six different NC State players picked up at least one hit, but the Pack struggled to string consecutive hits together, stranding 11 runners on base.
After a historic start to the season, the Wolfpack has lost six of its last seven games and is struggling with extreme inconsistency from its pitching staff and offense. NC State has scored three or fewer runs in four of its last seven games and has allowed allowed seven or more runs in five games during that same span.
NC State will return to action in the second game of its weekend series Friday at 6 p.m. against Wake Forest back at Crouch Ballpark in Winston-Salem.
