The NC State softball team dropped its first game in 10 days Wednesday night, falling to Duke 5-1 at Dail Softball Stadium in a nonconference game against its ACC foe.
Fresh off a 4-0 weekend in the Fairfield Crabtree Invitational, the Wolfpack (11-5) put up a dud against a Blue Devils (14-2) team that was receiving votes in the most recent polls, continuing the Pack’s streak of its losses being only to teams ranked or receiving votes.
Duke got the scoring started first with a solo home run. Sophomore starting pitcher Sydney Nester’s 1-2 fastball found too much of the plate and Blue Devils catcher Rainn Wilson took it deep for a 1-0 lead.
The Wolfpack struck back minutes later, evening things up in the bottom of the first when junior third baseman Logan Morris smoked a two-out fastball over the right-field fence. Morris’ ball got out of the stadium in a hurry, barely clearing the fence as the line drive found the net.
That would be the only run NC State scored, however, as its bats fell silent at the hands of right-handed pitcher Peyton St. George. Against a strong Wolfpack lineup, St. George mowed batters down, striking out five and allowing just the one run on only three hits and three walks.
Duke plated the go-ahead run in the top of the fourth on a throwing error by left fielder Sam Russ, and hit its second home run of the game the very next inning, a solo shot by shortstop Deja Davis. The Blue Devils added some insurance runs in the sixth and seventh innings, scoring a run on an RBI triple in the sixth and scoring on a wild pitch by senior righty Devin Wallace in the seventh.
The loss was just NC State’s second defeat in its last 11 games, as the Wolfpack was riding high following back-to-back successful weekends. It’s still yet to drop a game to a team that’s not ranked or is receiving votes, however, as NC State is still taking care of the teams it’s better than.
NC State will be back in action on Friday when it hosts the NC State Invitational. The Pack will play four games over a three-day stretch, and the first game will be at 12:30 p.m. on Friday against Lehigh.
