The NC State baseball team defeated UNC-Wilmington 5-3 on the road Wednesday night to end its five-game skid.
After going down 2-0 early on, the Wolfpack (5-9) battled back with 10 hits on the night and four scoreless innings from its bullpen.
In the second inning the Seahawks (12-6) opened up the scoring with back-to-back home runs from Kip Brandenburg and Matt Suggs. Both were hit to dead-center field off Wolfpack junior starting left-handed pitcher David Harrison (5 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 2 K).
The Wolfpack struggled to get the bats going for the first three innings thanks to a good pitching performance from Seahawks starting pitcher Jacob Shafer early on. However, things changed for the NC State bats in the fourth and fifth inning.
A two-out RBI triple to right-center field from junior left fielder Terrell Tatum (1-4, RBI) scored sophomore catcher Luca Tresh (2-4) to open the scoring in the fourth inning for NC State.
In the fifth inning, junior right fielder Devonte Brown (1-2, 2 BB, HR, RBI) crushed a solo home run to left field to tie the game. Later on in the frame, junior first baseman Austin Murr (1-3, RBI) scored sophomore third baseman Vojtech Mensik (2-4) on a sacrifice fly to give NC State the 3-2 lead.
UNC-Wilmington responded in the sixth inning to tie the game with a solo home run, its third of the game, this time from Cole Weiss.
NC State regained the lead in the seventh inning on a RBI groundout to second base that scored Brown. Mensik was on second with the chance to add another run, but got caught trying to steal third base later in the inning.
The Wolfpack added an insurance run in the eighth inning on a RBI single to right field from freshman shortstop Jose Torres (2-4, RBI) that scored Brown.
With the game-winning run at the plate and two outs, freshman left-handed pitcher Chris Villaman (.1 IP, 0 ER) came into the game and recorded a pop-up to first base to end the game.
NC State will be back in action this Friday, March 26 to start a three-game set at UNC-Chapel Hill. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. and the game will be streamed live online on the ACC Network Extra.
