For the second time in 14 days, NC State maintained control throughout a thorough win over East Carolina, this time topping the Pirates in Raleigh by a final score of 12-2 in eight innings.
NC State took an early 2-0 lead in the 2nd inning. Ty Head led off with a bloop single and scored on a triple off the center field wall by Sherman Johnson.
One out later, Vincent DeCarlo pulled a single to left field
to plate Johnson and put the Pack up by a pair.
The lead didn’t last too long, though. Wolfpack starter Julien Peissel, who worked around a two-out walk in the 1st and a two-out single and walk in the 2nd, gave up a leadoff single to Braden Burress to start the 3rd inning, followed by a pair of walks. That prompted a pitching change, but Truitt Manuel walked two batters around a soft infield lineout to push across a pair of Pirate runs. Manuel settled in from there to strike out the next to ECU batters to end the inning.
A quick response was in order in the bottom of the 3rd, thanks to a one-out Luke Nixon walk and a big fly home run by Chris McHugh to put State up 4-2.
Head walked following the McHugh homer and then moved to third on a Sherman Johnson single before scoring on a Dalton Bargo sacrifice fly to make it a 5-2 game. The Pack never looked back.
Christian Serrano and Rett Johnson worked back-to-back one-out walks in the 4th. Nixon singled home Serrano while moving Rett to third base. Rett would score on a double-steal with Nixon to make it a 7-2 game.
The score remained there until the 7th inning, when ECU’s defense fell apart and the Pack offense took advantage. Brandon Novy walked with one out and advanced a bag on a wild pitch. Brayden Fraasman singled him home and then advanced to scoring position on a Serrano double down in to the right field corner. Rett Johnson’s hitting streak extended to 18 games on a very generously ruled infield single (it was an error on the pitcher) that scored Fraasman, while the throwing error allowed Serrano to also score. Luke Nixon then singled to first base with Rett scoring on the play all the way from second base. Gotta love the way Rett plays the game.
With an 11-2 lead heading into the bottom of the 8th, Novy again walked and Andrew Wiggins came in to run for him. Drew Lanphere singled, sending Wiggins to third base, and Wiggins would score on a Fraasman sacrifice fly on what was a great diving catch by ECU center fielder Chance Hall.
Manuel (2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K) earned the win with his relief effort, his first collegiate win. Mikey Ragusa (1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K) and Aiden Kitchings (2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K) followed Manuel on the mound and continued putting zeros on the board. It was an impressive relief effort from the three freshman arms.
Nixon (3-for-4, R, 2 RBI, BB, 1-1 SB), McHugh (2-for-5, HR, R, 2 RBI), Sherman Johnson (2-for-3, 3B, R, RBI, BB, 0-1 SB), Fraasman (2-for-4, R, 2 RBI, SF, 1-1 SB), and Serrano (2-for-3, 2B, 2 R, BB, 1-1 SB) all notched multiple hits in the game. It was the first multi-hit game of Serrano’s career, as the early-enrollee freshman earned the start in place of an injury Mikey Ryan, who is doubtful for this weekend’s Miami series with an ankle injury. Rett Johnson (1-for-4, 2 R, RBI, BB), Head (1-for-3, 2 R, 2 BB), and Novy (0-for-0, R, 2 BB) each reached safely multiple times in the game as the Wolfpack pounded out 15 hits while working 8 walks in the game.
The win moved State’s RPI up to 46th while ECU’s dropped to 30th. The Wolfpack are back in action Friday at 6:00pm to kickoff the opener of their home series with Miami, which now occupy the Pirates’ former RPI ranking of 28th.
