NC State played three tight games with Boston College over the weekend in Raleigh – even if that Saturday score ended up a bit lopsided – with the Wolfpack ultimately capturing the 2-1 series win in their ACC opener. Boston College’s conference record dropped to 3-3, and the Eagles now sit at 11-8 overall while the Pack are 16-4.
Wolfpack starting pitching was strong throughout this series, and Ryan Marohn certainly set the tone in the opener on Friday. The junior lefty tossed 7.0 innings of shutout
ball, allowing just three hits, three walks, and a hit batter while striking out six. Marohn improved to 3-0 on the season as the Pack captured the 4-2 victory.
State scratched the first run of the game in the 4th inning. Mikey Ryan walked with one out and advanced a base on a Luke Nixon single. Sherman Johnson loaded the bases on a single to left field, and Brayden Fraasman brought home Ryan on a sacrifice fly.
The second run of the game for State came across in the next inning, with Rett Johnson leading off the bottom half of the frame with an infield single. Ty Head moved Rett up a bag with a sac bunt, and Dalton Bargo brought him home with a single down the right field line.
The Pack added two more in the 6th, with Nixon notching an oppo taco to start things off; an impressive drive on a rare day at Doak Field where the wind was blowing in.
Fraasman hit a one-out triple and came home an out later on a Rett infield single to make it a 4-0 Pack advantage.
Boston College broke up the shutout in the 8th inning, notching back-to-back doubles off reliever Anderson Nance. The box score sounds harsher than it really was, as the two Eagles doubles consisted both came on pitches that fooled the hitters but they managed to get a piece of the ball and the ball just happened to go into advantageous spots for them. Sometimes that happens.
The 9th inning, though, was different. Nance issued a pair of full-count walks around a spectacular catch by Fraasman to secure the first out.
The second walk from Nance (1.1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 K) brought about a pitching change with Collins Black coming in to try and finish things off. Black promptly issued a four-pitch walk (not ideal), but then got a double play to end the game on a sacrifice fly (scored a run), but a 7-3-5 putout to end things.
Poor baserunning was a theme of the weekend for BC, who had multiple players picked off across the series.
Nixon (2-for-4, HR, R, RBI), Fraasman (2-for-3, 3B, R, RBI, SF), Sherman Johnson (2-for-4, 1-1 SB), and Rett Johnson (2-for-3, R, RBI) had multiple hits on Friday. Bargo (1-for-3, RBI, BB) reached base safely multilple times.
Black (0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K) picked up his second save of the season.
Saturday saw another tight game, but a late bullpen collapse resulting in a 12-5 loss for the Pack.
It was a shame as it wasted what was another solid start from Jacob Dudan (7.0 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 1 HBP). The Dude surrendered a first inning solo home run to Nick Wang on a ball that was really just a high pop-up that the wind carried about two feet over the left field wall. A good pitch to jam Wang, but sometimes metal bats are unforgiving.
State got that run back and then some in the bottom of the 2nd. Ryan led off the inning with a single. Nixon followed with an infield single, while a throwing error by pitcher Tyler Mudd on the play moved both runners up a bag. Sherman Johnson and Fraasman followed with back-to-back sacrifice flies to plate both runners and give State a 2-1 lead. Drew Lanphere, Rett Johnson, and Ty Head strung together successive two out singles to score another run and give State a 3-1 advantage.
Boston College responded in the 4th, using a walk, an infield single, fielder’s choice, HBP, and a pair of singles to plate three runs and take the lead back at 4-3.
The Pack responded immediately, with Drew Lanphere leading off the inning with a solo shot to right field to tie the game. Rett followed up the solo shot with a single, which brought on a BC pitching change. McHugh singled to move the lead runner to second base, and Rett moved to third on a Bargo fly out. Ryan then put together a long at-bat that eventually resulted in an RBI single and a 5-4 State lead.
With Dudan’s pitch count being over 100, freshman Luke Hemric was brought on to start the 8th inning. Hemric walked the first and only batter he faced in the inning on a full count, and State brought in Black to try and get a few outs. Considering Black had pitched the day before and struggled with control in that outing, it was the one of only two questionable pitching moves on the weekend for State, and it definitely came back to bite them. The other questionable move was not having anyone else warming up in the bullpen when Black came in the game.
By the time the 8th inning ended, BC had a 12-5 lead after scoring eight runs on just three hits. The inning went: BB, BB, bunt single, E4 (run), K, WP (run), intentional BB, K, 3B (3 runs), BB, SB, HR (3 runs), 5-3 ground out.
State put two runners on in the 8th, but there was no comeback to be mounted. Black (1.0 IP, 3 H, 7 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 2 K) picked up the loss, his first of the year. Truitt Manuel (1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K) pitched the 9th inning for the Pack.
Rett Johnson (3-for-3, R, BB, 1-1 SB), Ryan (3-for-5, R, RBI), and Lanphere (2-for-4, HR, 2 R, RBI) each had multiple hits on Saturday. No other Pack batter reached base safely multiple times in the game.
Sunday was another pitchers duel, with the Pack prevailing by a 5-1 margin to secure the series win.
Like the first two games of the series, State received an excellent outing from their starting pitcher, this time with Heath Andrews (7.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 1 HBP) getting the ball. Andrews took the place of Cooper Consiglio as the Pack’s Sunday starter for the weekend, a role Andrews had going into the season before a rainout of the team’s first Sunday game of the year prompted a reshuffling of the pitching staff.
Consiglio came on in relief of Andrews in the 8th inning, and the junior lefty never allowed BC to even sniff anything of a comeback on the way to an excellent outing of his own: 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K. If Consiglio can work as a swingman for State in ACC play, working as either a high-leverage arm or a multi-inning reliever, it’s going to go a long ways to allowing the Wolfpack a great chance at winning a bunch of conference series.
The Eagles struck first on Sunday, pushing across an unearned run in the top of the 3rd inning. A two-out single followed by an ill-advised throw to second base on a groundball to third base resulted in a 1-0 BC advantage.
Thankfully, that was all they would muster offensively in the game. State tied things up an inning later with Nixon crossing the plate. The junior was hit by the first pitch of the 4th inning, advanced to second base on a walk by Fraasman, and then to third base on a flyout by Bargo. McHugh plated Nixon on a sacrifice fly to even the score.
The following frame, State took the lead for good. Sherman and Lanphere walked back-to-back to lead off the inning, followed by a bunt single by Rett to load the bases with no outs. Ryan then put the Pack ahead with a double to left.
One out later, Fraasman pulled a ball through the left side of the infield to make it 4-1 Pack.
With Andrews (improved to 2-0) and Consiglio (earned his first save of the year) shutting down Eagles batters, the game remained 4-1 until State pushed across the final run of the game in the bottom of the 8th inning. McHugh doubled with one away, remained at second base on a Head walk, and then with two outs scored on a Lanphere single (don’t ask me why we don’t have video of Lanphere’s home run from Game 2 or his RBI single in Game 3).
Rett Johnson (2-for-3, R, BB) and McHugh (2-for-3, 2B, R, RBI, SF) tallied multiple hits in the game for State, while Fraasman (1-for-3, RBI, BB, 1-1 SB), Head (1-for-3, BB), and Lanphere (1-for-2, R, RBI, BB, HBP, 1-1 SB) reached base safely multiple times.
It was a big weekend overall for Rett Johnson, who went 7-for-9 overall while being moved up to the leadoff spot for Sunday’s game. The freshman reached base safely in 9-of-11 plate appearance in the series while scoring three runs, driving in one, and stealing a base.
Lanphere (3-for-7, HR, 3 R, 2 RBI, BB, HBP, 1-1 SB) also had a nice rebound on Saturday and Sunday after not starting on Friday following Preston Bonn’s massive game last Sunday. Ryan (4-for-12, 2B, 2 R, 3 RBI, BB) also had a nice weekend, putting together some quality at-bats and coming up with a few clutch hits.
NC State will be back in action on Tuesday with a 6:00pm game at UNCW (14-6, RPI #65). That game will be on Flo College Sports, so who knows how many people will really get to watch it. The Wolfpack will travel to Florida State next weekend for an ACC road series with the Seminoles (16-3, 3-0 ACC, RPI #2).
