NC State will begin a four-game road swing Tuesday when it travels to UNCW for its penultimate midweek matchup of the season. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. at Brooks Field in Wilmington, N.C., and the game will be broadcast on FloSports ($). There will additionally be an audio stream on WKNC 88.1 and the Varsity Network App.

NC State baseball (30-15) will begin a four-game road swing Tuesday when it makes the trip to UNCW (25-21) for its penultimate midweek contest of the season. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. at Brooks Field in Wilmington, N.C.

The game will be broadcast on FloSports ($), and there will be an audio stream on WKNC 88.1 and the Varsity Network App.

STARTING PITCHERS
TBA (NCSU) vs. TBA (UNCW)

SERIES HISTORY
This will be the second meeting of the season between the Wolfpack and Seahawks, as the teams most recently met on April 12 in Raleigh. In the last meeting the Pack earned a 7-6 win in walk off fashion thanks to a three-run surge in the bottom of the ninth.

Tuesday will be the 95th meeting between the squads, as NC State leads the all-time series, 75-19.

The last time the teams faced each other in Wilmington was on March 23, 2021, and the Pack completed a 5-3 comeback win thanks to late runs in the seventh and eighth innings to break a 3-3 tie.

NC State has won 18 of the last 19 matchups with UNCW.

Four-game road swing begins tomorrow.

📰https://t.co/pgDK1Ib5wJ pic.twitter.com/9Q9PbBJKDj

— #Pack9 ⚾️ (@NCStateBaseball) May 9, 2022

Will be there cheering them on. UNCW has circled this game since blowing a 2 run lead in bottom of the 9th in Raleigh. I hope the team comes ready as this isn't going to be a cakewalk and they need it for chance at playoffs.

Marcy is starting at 1B with Groover out.

JCooke, is Groover looking ok for the stretch run?

Starters for this evening against the Seahawks. pic.twitter.com/NqdUsYQ3LS

— #Pack9 ⚾️ (@NCStateBaseball) May 10, 2022

we really need to try some different arms. have we just totally given up on Harrison? Cooper King? I assume Sipple is hurt.

Sending Nelson out there to get laser-showed every other game is just annoying at this point.

Dang! Tommy just missed #22. He smashed that one, I thought it was out.

This game is drunk.

Cozart has been damn impressive lately. Great to see his approach at the plate right now.

10-10 Middle 4

Any stream out there? Shot in the dark.

11-11 in the top of the 8th. Just from following the State baseball Twitter, this has been wild

Final. Lost 13-11. Rough last couple days.

Crazy baseball. Can't keep this up or we might not even make a regional. Hopefully we get Groover back soon, but that wouldn't have helped much tonight. Can't give up 13 mid-week. Maybe we win out

Logan Adams has been a big disappointment for me.

I think if we had last year's pitching we are probably going back to CWS despite this year's defense.

In a back-and-forth slugfest that featured a combined 23 hits and 24 runs, NC State baseball (30-16) was outlasted by UNCW (26-21), 13-11, on Tuesday night at Brooks Field.

Despite scoring five runs to start the game, the Seahawks plated 10 unanswered runs across the first three innings. The Wolfpack managed to score five more runs in the fourth to tie the game, but UNCW ultimately pushed across two late runs in the eighth to come away with the victory.

With the result, the teams split this year's home-and-home series after the Pack earned a 7-6 comeback victory in Raleigh on April 12. Additionally, the loss snapped a nine-game win streak for the Pack over the Seahawks.

The Pack got off to a fast start when Devonte Brown and Tommy White led off with back-to-back homers. It was Brown's fifth time this season leading off with a homer and 12th of the season, and for White it was his 21st of the season.

White is now one home run away from the ACC freshman home run record (22), four away from the NC State single season record (25) and five away from the NCAA freshman record (26).

J.T. Jarrett and Jacob Cozart drove in three more runs in the frame to extend the Pack's lead to 5-0. Jarrett tallied an RBI double with a hard-hit ball off UNCW pitcher Marty Gair's leg after Noah Soles and Will Marcy drew back-to-back walks, and then after Chase Nixon walked to load the bases Cozart delivered with a two-run single through the right side.

The Seahawks cut into their deficit in the bottom of the first when Brooks Baldwin hit a leadoff homer, and then plated three runs in the second thanks to an RBI double by Dillon Lifrieri and a two-run homer by Chris Thorburn in consecutive at bats to make it a one-run game at 5-4.

UNCW pushed six more unanswered runs across in the third inning, taking a 10-5 lead. After three consecutive walks loaded the bases Ron Evans laced a 2-RBI single through the left side to plate the go-ahead run, and then a sac fly from Baldwin and three-run homer by Taber Mongero scored the remaining runs in the frame.

In the fourth the Pack put up five more runs to knot the score at 10-10. With the bases loaded Jarrett drove in the first run with a sac fly to left field, and then after Nixon reached on an outfield single to reload the bases Payton Green came through with a 2-RBI double off the left field wall to make it 10-8. A sac fly from Brown to right field after Cozart drew a walk to load the bases back up made it a one-run game, and then White delivered the game-tying run with an RBI double off the left field wall.

The Seahawks once again answered in the home half of the fourth when an RBI fielder's choice by Lifrieri put his team back on top, but Cozart tied the game back up at 11-11 with his fourth home run of the season in the sixth inning, a solo shot to right field.

After a scoreless seventh by both teams, UNCW broke the tie with a pair of runs to take a 13-11 lead. Mongero's base hit and a Wolfpack error scored Baldwin for what proved to be the game-winning run after he reached on a walk, and then Ethan Baucom added an insurance run when he drove in Mongero with a double down the left field line.

The Pack attempted to rally back in the ninth when Cozart reached on a hit-by-pitch to start the inning, but three consecutive outs ended the game.

Cozart led the offense with a 3-for-3 outing with three runs batted in to match his career high. Additionally, Brown and White each tallied two hits and two RBIs, while Jarrett and Green drove in two runs apiece.

On the mound, Garrett Payne matched his career high in strikeouts with six in 4.2 innings of relief.

NC State will remain on the road this weekend when it makes the short trip to Duke for its second Tobacco Road series of the season. The teams will play Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m. at Jack Coombs Field. Friday's game will be on ACCNX while the final two games will be on Regional Sports Networks (RSN). All three games will have a radio broadcast on WKNC 88.1 and the Varsity Network App

https://gopack.com/news/2022/5/10/baseball-pack9-outlasted-by-seahawks.aspx

My observations, having been at the game last night:
- Apparently a lot of folks didn't know this, but Tommy foul tipped the second pitch he saw in the first inning into the face of the ump, which caused him to stagger and almost fall down. He was down for a good bit of time, and eventually was helped off the field and replaced by one of the umps in the field. Since there were only three umps to begin with, that left only one ump in the field and one behind the plate. I won't say that this changed the outcome of the game, but there were several close plays that I thought went against us, including a play at the plate, a grounder up the third base line, a play at first, and a questionable tag up later in the game. With UNCW having no replay, and there only being two umps, all Avent could do was plead his case to no avail.

- The wind was absolutely howling straight out of the park. Balls were flying. The one Tommy hit out looked like a lazy fly ball off the bat. It is easy to be critical of the pitching, but damn near everything hit in the air had a chance to go out. Combine that with the new homeplate ump having an, umm, irregular zone, and it was difficult on the pitchers. I was disappointed for Adams, being a hometown kid pitching in front of his family, you could tell he was frustrated. I didn't think he pitched terribly, but when they hit him, they hit him hard. The delay in the top of the first with the umpire, which ended up making that inning take 45 minutes, certainly didn't help him after already being warmed up prior to the game.

- I actually thought the defense played well, especially considering we had a different guy in LF and a guy playing 1B for the first time this year. The outfielders may some great plays, Nixon tracked down two pop ups that off the bat I thought would definitely fall. Soles had a great diving catch in RF. Marcy looked good at first base, and almost turned a really hard double play on a soft grounder hit to him. Cozart was good behind the plate and threw a guy out. UNCW's defense was stellar. Their infielders made a bunch of ridiculous plays.

- Payne looked really good for most of his outing. He really had some pop on his fastball, and he gave UNCW a hard time. They have as many left handed bats as I think I've ever seen in a lineup, and they were putting the bat on the ball a bunch before he came in.

- I thought our batters were trying too hard to hit it out of the park. White and Hood in particular were taking massive hacks, and they really didn't need to the way the ball was carrying. Tommy's HR in the first was on his more compact two strike approach, as was the one he hit off the top of the wall later in the game. When UNCW went up late, they brought in their closer, and he was throwing some nasty breaking balls that made guys look kinda silly.

- Gino didn't go through any warmups before the game, and stayed in the dugout until the anthem. He was clearly limping, and I was really surprised when he came in to pinch hit late in the game. He ran really slowly to first, and even slower back to the dugout. I don't think he'll be in the lineup come this weekend, but that's just my opinion.

- Overall, it's what you expected out of a mid week against an in-state school. Lots of arms, lots of hits, we just came up a bit short at the end. Just shake it off and get back to work for this weekend.