OMAHA, NE — The NC State baseball team came out on top in the opening game of the 2021 College World Series with a 10-4 win over the Stanford Cardinal. An early Wolfpack lead began to wane in the later innings, but a four-run ninth inning sealed the deal for State.

Junior first baseman Austin Murr (2-4, 2 R, 2 BB) led off the action with a first-pitch single in the top of the first. That hit made him the first batter to record a hit on the first pitch of the College World Series since 2010. The Wolfpack offense kept up the early pace when junior left fielder Jonny Butler (3-4, 2 R, 5 RBI, HR, BB) sent a ball over the fence in right-center field to give the Pack an early 2-0 lead over the Cardinal.

State kept its foot on the gas in the ensuing few innings, scoring one more run in the second inning on an RBI single by sophomore center fielder Tyler McDonough (2-6, RBI). The Pack added three more runs to its tally in the top of the fourth with a solo dinger by junior right fielder Devonte Brown (1-4, HR, BB) and a two-out Texas leaguer by Butler to bring the Wolfpack’s lead to 6-0 by the middle of the fourth inning.

Junior right-handed pitcher Reid Johnston (6.0 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, BB, 5 K) also hit the ground running from the mound, allowing only one baserunner through the first three innings in the form of a two-out walk in the bottom of the third.

“I think we played well,” said head coach Elliott Avent. “We were fortunate to get off to a good start against a pitcher of the quality of [Stanford right-handed pitcher Brendan Beck]. I think that was good for Reid, not that anything bothers Reid.”

Stanford finally got on the board in the bottom of the fourth when second baseman Tim Tawa hit a leadoff solo homer to left, the Cardinal’s first hit of any kind in the game. Johnston was unfazed by his mistake however, as he went on to retire nine of the next 10 Stanford batters.

Beck’s outing starkly contrasted Johnston’s. Although NC State piled up an early six-run lead. Beck made his team’s first seven outs via the strikeout. Beck finished the day with 10 strikeouts and only three earned runs.

That latter number is due to some poor fielding from the defense behind Beck, as the Cardinal committed two errors while Beck was pitching. With the Wolfpack hitting the ball well early in the game, the spotty Stanford defense only made matters worse for the Cardinal.

The main bat that led the charge for NC State’s offense was that of Butler, who became the first player in NC State history to drive in more than two runs in a College World Series game.

“I had a lot of confidence coming in here,” Butler said. “I thought I played really really well in the last game against Arkansas. Also there was a lot of pressure on the pitchers all game, because every time I was up I think there were runners in scoring position. I’m always comfortable in those situations knowing that the pressure is on the pitcher; he has to come to me.”

The game’s dynamic quickly switched gears in the bottom of the seventh inning. The Pack had enjoyed a lead of at least five runs for most of the ballgame, but Johnston began to waver after six innings of one-run pitching. 

A leadoff single by catcher Kody Huff was followed by a two-run shot to right that tightroped its way down the line for a home run, bringing the Cardinal within three. After Johnston gave up two more singles, junior southpaw Evan Justice (3.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 4 K) entered the game in relief. 

Justice gained the Pack two crucial strikeouts but a single to left in between them loaded the bases for Stanford. When sophomore third baseman Vojtech Mensik (2-5, 2 RBI) was unable to handle a hot grounder, the Cardinal scored another run to make it 6-4. Mensik made good on his second chance to end the inning the next at-bat, securing the pop fly to third for the third out.

“That’s something I always try to do is just pick up the guy in front of me,” Justice said. “We’ve got some great starting pitching here, especially Reid. He’s one of my good buddies… I thought he did a great job today and I wanted him to get him out of the jam. And fortunately I was able to.”

A scoreless eighth inning relieved some of the tension of the game, but that tension returned with a vengeance in the ninth. McDonough hit a leadoff double to left center field, and was immediately driven home by Butler to pad the Pack’s lead at 7-4.

NC State continued to increase its lead in the top of the ninth, thanks to a pair of in-game turnarounds by junior designated hitter Terrell Tatum (0-5, 3 K) and sophomore catcher Luca Tresh (1-5, RBI, 3 K). Both State batters entered the ninth with three strikeouts to their name, but Tatum reached base on an errant throw to second base, and Tresh ripped an RBI double to left center that brought Butler home. 

Brown then drew a walk to load the bases for Mensik, who sneaked a ground ball through the left side of the infield for a two-RBI single, making it a 10-4 Wolfpack lead.

“It’s all just to take pressure off of Evan,” Butler said. “We knew he was going to go in there and finish the game, and there’s a big difference between two runs and three runs. We were just scratching off one run at a time, and we were able to put together a big inning.”

Junior second baseman J.T. Jarrett (0-3, 2 BB) drew another base-loading walk in the next at-bat, but a strikeout by Murr and a flyout by McDonough ended the rally.

A single and an error by freshman shortstop Jose Torres (1-5) put two on with nobody out for the Cardinal, but Justice rebounded by forcing a flyout to left before a ground ball to Jarrett was called a double play on runner’s interference, ending the game. It was a veritable team effort from the Wolfpack, as each batter in the lineup reached base at least once.

“It’s always been a team win with us, that’s the way it’s been all year,” Avent said. “For the last three months, it’s no secret we’ve played pretty much nine guys every day. Murr likes to say it’s ‘nine guys from nine states’… This is a team that, throughout the lineup, can figure out how to be productive and score runs.”

The Wolfpack plays the winner of game 2 of the College World Series between the Arizona Wildcats and the Vanderbilt Commodores on Monday, June 21 at 6 p.m. CT. The game will air on ESPN.