The NC State baseball team split the first two games of the series, but fell to Louisville, 8-1, Saturday afternoon at Doak Field in the finale of the three-game set.
The Wolfpack (13-12, 4-5 ACC) had several opportunities but failed to get into a rhythm offensively as it was shut down by the Cardinals (21-2, 8-1 ACC), who jumped out to an early lead and never looked back.
“We fought very hard,” head coach Elliott Avent said. “We just didn’t have enough today and a good team beat us.”
In the rubber match of the series, the Wolfpack turned to senior righthander Cory Wilder. After a scoreless first inning for both squads, the Cardinals put the Wolfpack in an early 1-0 hole when Louisville junior third baseman Drew Ellis launched a solo home run off of Wilder.
In the third inning, Louisville struck again, this time for three runs. Sophomore second baseman Devin Mann lifted another solo homer to put the Cardinals up 2-0. A string of consecutive hits by the Cardinals led to two more runs and a 4-0 deficit for State, but the damage was limited by Wolfpack sophomore left-fielder Jack Conley, who recorded his first career outfield assist on a throw to home to nail a Louisville runner for the final out of the inning.
After three innings by Wilder, junior left-hander Cody Beckman came on in relief. For the day, Wilder yielded four earned runs, five hits, five strikeouts and just one walk.
Beckman got into trouble early in the fourth when Louisville sophomore left-fielder Josh Stowers singled to center to start off the inning. Beckman then issued a walk while Stowers proceeded to steal second and third in the same at bat. Sophomore catcher Zeke Pinkham followed with a sacrifice fly to score Stowers from third, putting the Cardinals up 5-0. An infield single that bounced off the third-base bag and a double down the right-field line pushed the Louisville lead to 6-0.
Right-hander Tommy DeJuneas relieved Beckman with two outs in the fourth and retired a batter to end the inning.
DeJuneas continued to keep the Cardinals in check offensively through the seventh inning. Louisville scratched two more runs across in the eighth to increase its lead to 7-0.
The Wolfpack bats struggled all day against the Cardinals’ pitchers. Louisville’s starter, freshman left-hander Nick Bennett, came into the game with a 0.86 ERA in 21 innings and held NC State to just three hits and one walk in five innings.
“Their pitching staff, they just pound strikes,” Avent said. “They can pitch any pitch anytime they want to.”
The Wolfpack finally plated one run in the ninth inning thanks to an RBI double by first baseman Stephen Pitarra, but ultimately fell 8-1.
“It was tough getting down in a hole like that,” Pitarra said. “All year we’ve shown that we can fight back from deficit, we never got down on ourselves and we were always looking to fight back.”
The Wolfpack will be back on the road for a midweek contest against UNC-Charlotte Tuesday at 7:05 p.m. and will travel to Indiana to take on Notre Dame next weekend.
“The fight we showed is encouraging,” Avent said. “We’re changing some things around, we’re pushing some buttons and they seem to be responding.”
