Pack9 tops #16 Coastal Carolina, 6-4; takes on Queens Wednesday

In the toughest test to date, #13 NC State took down #16 Coastal Carolina by a final score of 6-4 in Raleigh.

The Wolfpack certainly didn’t play the cleanest game, but after administering a slew of beatdowns to overmatched teams, the grit showed by State to overcome a deficit and then respond to a late Chanticleers comeback was a welcomed sign. The Pack improve to 11-1 on the year with the win while Coastal falls to 7-5.

For Coastal, it was their third loss in four games in the midst of a brutal finishing kick to their non-conference schedule. Playing in a tournament in Houston this past weekend, the Chanticleers lost to #3 Texas and #25 UTSA before beating Ole Miss. Following today’s game they’ll head home for a three-game series with East Carolina and then host #15 Wake Forest next Tuesday before beginning Sun Belt play.

For NC State, this was all about overcoming adversity and surviving a late gut-punch. It also helps to have Chris McHugh blast a pair of long balls.

The Chanticleers struck first with a Blagen Pado solo home run with two outs in the first, clearing the visitor bullpen. The homer came on an 0-2 pitch from Heath Andrews that was simply too good for the count. Thankfully, McHugh was quick to respond in the bottom half of the inning, winning on a 1-2 up-in-the-zone challenge fastball.

Coastal went down in order in the 2nd while State failed to make the most of a Brayden Fraasman leadoff infield single. Fraasman advanced to third base in the inning, but couldn’t cross the plate.

A pair of one-out singles appeared to have Coastal in business in the 3rd inning, but a nice cutoff by Mikey Ryan on a solid throw from Fraasman in right field towards third base gunned down Dean Mihos who tried to take second base on the throw. A flyout ended the frame for Coastal.

Rett Johnson laid down a beautiful bunt single to start the bottom of the 3rd, but after a Ty Head sacrifice bunt, State was again unable to score the man in scoring position and left the inning without plating a run.

A two-out HBP was all that was doing for the top of the 4th while State again squandered opportunities in their half of the frame. Fraasman singled with one out and Ryan did the same with two outs, but a foul out behind home plate again left the game tied at one run each.

A pair of two-out walks led to Coastal taking the lead on a single in the 5th inning. Thankfully, Andrews was able to strike out Pado to end the inning, stranding two runners. That would mark the end of the day for Andrews (5.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 1 HBP), who pitched well but was only hurt by the early too-good offering on an advantaged count and then the two walks in his final inning. Aside from the home run and a deep fly out, Coastal failed to square him up much in the game. While not his best, it was another solid outing for the junior righty.

State went down in order in the bottom of the 5th while Anderson Nance came on to pitch for State in the 6th and did the same to the Chanticleers. That was helped by a great defensive play from Luke Nixon.

The Pack squandered another excellent scoring opportunity in the bottom of the 6th thanks to some poor baserunning. Nixon singled to start the inning and advanced to second when Sherman Johnson was hit by a pitch. Fraasman then lofted a soft liner towards the second base bag that hung up long enough to be a clear out, but it seemed to confuse both base runners and Johnson ended up being doubled off of first base. Andrew Wiggins and Ryan followed with a pair of walks that would have pushed a run across, but ended up doing nothing as a infield pop out ended the inning.

Nance set down the Coastal side in order in the 7th including two via strikeout. Meanwhile, State finally broke through in the bottom of the 7th. Head hit a ground-rule double with one out that bounced over the wall running down the left field line. McHugh followed with a walk; however, Head was caught stealing on the pitch. He beat the throw but just barely ended up oversliding the bag (thanks to a tag from the Coastal third baseman that pushed his hand off the bag, but the call was upheld on replay).

Nixon thankfully doubled down into the right field corner on a 1-1 pitch in the following at bat and McHugh hustled around as the tag went between his hand and his head, allowing him to score on the play and tie the game up and 2-2.

Sherman Johnson walked and stole second base, setting up a huge Fraasman double to right center field to plate two runs and give the Pack their first lead of the game at 4-2.

For whatever reason, Nance (2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K) wasn’t sent back out for the 8th inning. Redshirt-freshman Truitt Manuel came on the first pitch he threw was sent over the visitor bullpen to cut the Pack lead to one. Manuel is highly talented and is going to be great, but in his first taste of a pressure at the collegiate level, it got the best of him as he followed with a full count walk to Blake Barthol.

Collins Black replaced Manuel and retired Pado on a poor bunt attempt that resulted in a pop out, capped by a nice sliding catch by McHugh. Unfortunately, Black allowed an early steal to Barthol, who advanced to third on a groundout and then scored on a Walker Mitchell single up the middle. Barthol likely would have scored either way as Rex Watson followed Mitchell with another single, but it would have at least set up a play at the plate. Either way, the game went to the bottom of the 8th all tied.

Drew Lanphere led off the inning with a four-pitch walk. Rett Johnson attempted to bunt him over but failed and ended up striking out. Head flied out and things looked a little bleak, but thankfully McHugh was there to answer the call with a 110.7 mph piss missile over the visitor bullpen.

Nixon and Sherman Johnson followed with singles, but no more runs crossed the plate for the Pack. The 6-4 lead was plenty, though, as Black (2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K) set down the Chanticleers in order in the 9th to wrap up the victory and notch the win.

McHugh (2-for-4, 2 HR, 3 R, 3 RBI) was the big bat in the game for State, while Fraasman (3-for-5, 2B, 2 RBI) and Nixon (3-for-5, 2B, R, RBI) also came through huge with multi-hit games. Sherman Johnson (1-for-3, R, BB, HBP) and Ryan (1-for-3, BB) also both reached base safely multiple times.

NC State has five games remaining until ACC play starts March 13th at home against Boston College. First, they’ll face off with Queens, Lafayette, and Elon. Speaking of…

Queens comes to Raleigh Tuesday

Game Time 3:00pm (ACCNX | Stats)

In their 8th year of D1 baseball play and already on their 3rd coach, this was expected to be a rough year for the Royals. Here’s what was said in the preseason preview about Queens:

The returning production from last year is lackluster – of the six returning hitters with 50+ PA last year, only one hit over .216 – and the team will try to rebuild with a mix of JUCO and lower-division transfers. That’s going to provide more upside than last year’s group, but not without obvious risk. The pitching staff returns just six arms from a year ago and adds five transfer arms to try and shore things up. This is likely going to be another rough season, especially in a top-heavy Atlantic Sun Conference.

That hasn’t been entirely untrue as Queens currently sits at 4-7 heading into Wednesday’s game in Raleigh, but that’s not the complete picture. Eight of their 11 games have been decided by three runs or fewer and the Royals are 4-4 in those games, so this has been a competitive team. Plus, one of those four wins is a 9-8 victory at South Carolina.

That’s despite an offense that’s hitting a collective .211/.308/.347, 17 2B, 8 HR, 9.1 BB%, 27.7 K%, 17-23 SB. Redshirt-freshman CF Bradley Brown (.303/.368/.576, 4 2B, 1 HR, 10.3 BB%, 20.5 K%, 4-5 SB) has been the real star of the lineup thus far while JR 1B Grayson Childers (.250/.516/.500, 2 2B, 1 HR, 26.5 BB%, 23.5 K%, 3-4 SB), a JUCO transfer from Broken Arrow, OK, has put together an intriguing season so far.

The pitching staff has struggled with control (13.0 BB%, 22 HBP) while not missing a ton of bats (15.0 K%), but they’re getting solid starting pitching from rJR LHP Joey Ruller (0-2, 4.34 ERA, 18.2 IP, 9.5 BB%, 20.3 K%) and SO RHP Matthew Eagen (1-1, 3.18 ERA, 17.0 IP, 6.9 BB%, 13.9 K%) which has lessened the reliance on a shaky bullpen. That’s been the key to success when the team has found it, including in the win over the Gamecocks when Adrian Quezada (1-1, 7.36 ERA, 11.0 IP, 9.3 BB%, 16.7 K%) provided 6.0 innings of 3-run ball despite some iffy peripherals (8 H, 2 BB, 2 HBP). Staying out of the bullpen is what the Royals need to do to win.