Sophomore Ryan Pond took the mound as a collegiate starting pitcher for the first time Tuesday afternoon, and he had immediate success, pitching five innings in a 9-3 N.C. State win over North Carolina A&T.

Pond walked only one batter and struck out four, while giving up one run on six hits in his five innings of work. He said he was happy to start a game.

“It feels good to get out there on the mound. I haven’t pitched a lot since I came here. It felt great,” Pond said.

Despite winning by six runs, coach Elliott Avent was not entirely pleased with his team’s performance.

“I hate to say this because we won 9-3, and we beat a very good baseball team, but we were flat,” he said. “I haven’t seen us play with that low of intensity all year. Sometimes that’s going to happen, but I am very surprised we didn’t get beat today. I think if a couple of things would have happened differently, we would be sitting here looking at a loss.”

However, Avent was pleased with Pond’s performance.

“He’s pretty competitive,” Avent said. “As a matter of fact, if it hadn’t of been for Pond today, this could have been a totally different game. He kept them at bay for a long time.”

State opened the scoring in the bottom of the first inning when Jonathan Diaz, who led off the inning with a walk, came in to score on a passed ball. Ramon Corona reached base with a double to right field, and an Aaron Bates sacrifice fly drove in Corona after he reached third on a passed ball.

The game remained tight until the fourth inning when the Wolfpack broke the game open; scoring five runs in the bottom half of the inning. Pond helped his own cause by leading off the inning with a single and later scoring on a Corona sacrifice fly.

Matt Payne followed Pond with a walk. He then advanced to second on Matt Camp’s sacrifice bunt and to third on Corona’s sacrifice fly. Payne then scored on a Bates single.

The Aggies got on the scoreboard in the top of the fifth inning when Ronald Phelps scored, and they added a run in both the sixth and seventh inning.

Pitcher Travis High halted the Aggie comeback in the eighth, and the Wolfpack offense added two more runs in the bottom of the inning to make the score 9-3.

Ammer Cabrerra closed out the game in the ninth by striking out all three batters he faced.

Ryan Sellers took the loss for the Aggies.

The Wolfpack resume action this Friday against West Virginia at 1:30 p.m. in Greenville.