The NC State baseball team is heading north to Boston College for a three-game series this weekend after giving up a walk-off home run in a 10-8 loss to South Carolina in its midweek matchup.
The Pack (27-3,10-2 ACC) came back from another deficit to tie it up on Tuesday against the Gamecocks after being down 7-4 in the first inning but couldn’t complete the comeback, failing to get a run in the ninth inning despite getting two runners on.
It marked the third loss of the season for head coach Elliott Avent’s team after losing one game each to ACC opponents Virginia and Florida State. Even Avent said that no team is able to keep up the pace they have been, but it’s still a little shocking when this team loses.
This weekend, the bounce-back opportunity is with the Eagles. Boston College is 14-14 overall and 5-7 in conference play, taking one game of each series from Clemson, Wake Forest and Louisville. However, they did take two out of three from Florida State, outscoring the Seminoles 21-11 in three games.
NC State is coming off a series win over Virginia last weekend after losing the Friday game 4-3. Junior Jason Parker wasn’t quite as sharp in that game, giving up four runs on eight hits in 4.1 innings but junior Andrew Blake came in and pitched excellently. He went 4.2 innings and gave up just four hits.
On Saturday, sophomore Reid Johnston had the best outing of his career, pitching a six-hit complete-game shutout in a 3-0 NC State win. Freshman Tyler McDonough and senior Evan Edwards both had two hits while no other player had more than one hit.
In the rubber match, NC State used seven pitchers, a theme that the Pack has seen a couple of times this year, including in the loss against South Carolina, where it pitched eight. Fortunately, junior Will Wilson led the Pack with three doubles and two RBIs. McDonough and junior Jonny Butler both collected two hits.
It will be really interesting to see how the pitching staff, particularly Parker, bounces back. Parker has had two rough starts in a row, but before those, he was dominant. Johnston almost certainly won’t have the same sort of success from last weekend, but it does seem like he is starting to get it together.
On the other hand, the Wolfpack is still looking for its Sunday starter. In past series, it’s been sophomore Canaan Silver and junior Alec Barger, but both of them struggled against South Carolina, recording one out each. The Sunday starter for this week is completely up in the air.
There is no worry about the offense, especially against an Eagles team with a 5.19 ERA which is tied for 11th in the ACC. For reference, NC State is second in the ACC behind Louisville with a 3.62 ERA.
NC State starts the series on Friday at 4 p.m., followed by a Saturday game at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.
