The NC State baseball team completed the three-game sweep of arch-rival UNC-Chapel Hill with a 8-3 win Monday evening after rain delayed the final game.
All series, the Wolfpack (8-9, 4-8 ACC) got great starting pitching and it was no different in game three. Freshman right-handed pitcher Matt Willadsen (7.1 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 2 K) kept the Tar Heel (13-9, 8-7 ACC) batters off balance all day. He also pitched the last two innings of game two that was finished before game three started.
Offensively, NC State had two players with two hits, junior first baseman Austin Murr (2-4, 3 RBI, HR) and junior right fielder Devonte Brown (2-3, BB). The Wolfpack had eight hits total in the series finale.
The Wolfpack wasted no time in getting started offensively scoring two runs in the first inning. First, sophomore catcher Luca Tresh (1-5, RBI) scored Murr with a single to left field. Later in the inning, junior left fielder Jonny Butler (0-4, RBI) scored sophomore center fielder Tyler McDonough (1-5) with an RBI fielder’s choice to second base.
NC State kept it going in the second inning with three more runs. One was on an RBI double to right-center field from Murr that scored Brown. The other two runs were given to NC State on a wild pitch and a throwing error from the pitcher that scored Murr and then later junior second baseman J.T. Jarrett (1-2, BB) to give it a 4-0 lead.
The Tar Heels got in on the scoring with a run of their own in the second inning with an RBI single to center field from Eric Grintz.
The Wolfpack answered with an immediate response in the third inning as freshman shortstop Jose Torres (1-3, RBI, HR) smoked a solo home run to right-center field.
In the fifth inning, UNC responded with its second home run of the game. This time it was from Hunter Stokely to right field.
NC State got its last runs of the game on a smoked two-run home run from Murr to right field that scored Jarrett. The Tar Heels got their last run of the game on another RBI single to center field from Grintz.
Junior left-handed pitcher Evan Justice (1.2 IP, 2 K, 0 ER) came into the game in the middle of the eighth inning and shut down the Tar Heels to close out the sweep for the Wolfpack.
The Wolfpack will be back in action Tuesday at UNC-Greensboro for a nonconference midweek tilt. NC State will be looking to avenge a 16-13 loss against the Spartans earlier this season. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. with the game being streamed on ESPN+.
