The NC State baseball team beat Boston College 6-5 on Friday afternoon in Brighton, MA in game one of the ACC series.
The Wolfpack (28-3, 11-2 ACC) built leads of 3-0 and 6-3 and hung on in the bottom of the ninth to get the win against the Eagles (14-16, 5-8 ACC).
The Pack jumped out to an early lead with single runs in the second and third innings. Junior catcher Brad Debo ignited a two-out rally with a single and then advanced to second on a wild pitch. Sophomore infielder David Vazquez delivered a two-out single that scored Debo.
In the third, the Wolfpack padded its lead without hitting the ball out of the infield. Sophomore outfielder Jonny Butler, junior infielder Will Wilson and sophomore catcher Patrick Bailey reached base on an infield single, walk and an infield single, respectively. Senior infielder Evan Edwards drove Butler home with a groundout deep in the hole to second base.
Butler added an RBI double in the seventh. At that point, NC State was in cruise control, largely due to junior starter Jason Parker who was spectacular, although he wasn’t credited with the win. Parker went 6.1 innings, allowing one run on five hits with a walk and three strikeouts.
The Eagles scored two in the seventh after Parker exited the game and one in the eighth that tied the game.
NC State retook the lead in the ninth. Vazquez started the rally with a walk, redshirt junior Dillon Cooper bunted for a hit and freshman infielder Vojtech Mensik doubled to center to put the Wolfpack back in front. Bailey drove Cooper in with a single and Edwards added another RBI groundout to make it 6-3.
The bottom of the ninth is when things got weird. Back-to-back walks started the inning before a pop-up was the first out. Jack Cunningham hit a ball softly down the third base line that bounced in the air at the plate and was easily foul until it spun back into fair territory and was an infield single that loaded the bases with one out.
Next, Gian Martellini hit a ball to Edwards at first and he fired home for what looked like a routine out at the plate. Boston College head coach Mike Gambino argued the call and the umpires got together and overturned the call on the basis that Bailey bobbled it at the plate. Now the bases loaded were still loaded with one out. Then, Cody Morissette hit a ball up the middle that Wilson flipped to Vazquez at second for the second out of the inning while a run scored, but the runner on second hesitated and the Pack got him in a rundown and tagged him out for a double play and the final out of the game.
After all that, sophomore pitcher Evan Justice got the win and sophomore pitcher Canaan Silver got the save. It wasn’t the finest hour for the bullpen, which has been stellar all year, but it was enough to get the job done. In all, NC State used seven pitchers to get the last eight outs.
The Wolfpack and Eagles will play game two on Saturday at 2 p.m.
