NC State baseball (16-9, 4-5 ACC) dropped its series opener with Clemson (18-7, 2-4 ACC) on Friday evening at Doug Kingsmore Stadium, 14-3.
The loss snapped a five-game win streak for the Wolfpack.
Clemson jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning thanks to a Max Wagner RBI single with runners at the corners followed by back-to-back RBI fielder's choices.
The Tigers extended their lead to 4-0 in the third, stringing together three consecutive base hits from Blake Wright, Caden Grice and Chad Fairey on two outs.
In the fourth Clemson sparked for seven runs on six hits and an error, and then back-to-back bases loaded walks and a sac fly in the sixth extended the lead to 14-0.
Noah Soles put the Pack on the board in the seventh with a solo shot to right field, his second within a one-week span, to avoid the shutout.
NC State looked to cut into its deficit in the eighth when
Josh Hood,
J.T. Jarrett and
Payton Green all drew walks to load the bases up, but a pop out to first ended the threat. The squad then managed to plate a pair of runs in the ninth on
Devonte Brown's solo shot to left field, his sixth of the season, and an RBI single by
Tommy White, but the rally fell short.
Soles (2-for-4) and
LuJames Groover III (2-for-5) led the team's offense and combined for four of the team's seven hits in the contest. Groover leads the team with 13 multi-hit games, an 11-game hit streak and a 14-game reached base streak.
The teams will meet Saturday at 6 p.m. at Doug Kingsmore Stadium for game two of the series. The game will be broadcast on the ACC Network and there will be an audio stream on WKNC 88.1 and the Varsity Network App.
https://gopack.com/news/2022/4/1/baseball-pack9-drops-series-opener-with-clemson.aspx 
