The NC State baseball team returns to play after a nine-day break with a midweek matchup against UNC-Wilmington on Tuesday, May 11. This is the second matchup between the two teams this season.

NC State (22-14, 14-13 ACC) went 2-1 in its series against Wake Forest last weekend, which was the last time the Pack took the field. Wake Forest broke the Pack’s five-game winning streak in the second game of that series, but NC State was still able to secure the series win. The Pack’s bats were on fire all weekend with 11 home runs in the three games.

UNC-Wilmington (26-16) and NC State met once already this season in a game that brought NC State out of a losing streak. The Pack came back to win 5-3 after UNCW took an early lead.

UNCW has three batters with batting averages over .300 this season. Infielder Brooks Baldwin leads the team in batting average, home runs and RBIs, standing out as the offensive powerhouse of this team. UNCW has scored 252 runs and hit 42 homers this year. When compared to NC State’s 261 runs and 55 home runs, those amounts are substantial but not enough to cause too much worry for the Pack.

The UNCW pitching staff is composed of three consistent pitchers, all of whom have five wins. Adam Smith has started the last four games he has played and has an ERA of 2.03, the team best. Landen Roupp has started twelve games this season and pitched over seven innings in five of them. Roupp’s ERA is 2.95 so far this year. Luke Gesell has an ERA of 4.06 and started 12 games.

With UNCW on a five-game winning streak going into this week and the Pack having spent over a week out of play, the outcome of this game will come down to if NC State can keep up its intense, high-scoring offense it showed against Wake Forest.

The first pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 6 in Raleigh at Doak Field. The game can be viewed on the ACC Network.