A seven-run fifth inning powered the NC State baseball team to a 10-8 series-clinching victory over Hawaii on Sunday afternoon at Les Murakami Stadium. Sunday's series finale finished in eight innings due to a travel curfew.
After Hawaii (3-4) took its first lead with two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, Wolfpack catcher
Jacob Cozart crushed a go-ahead two-run homer off the scoreboard in right center to put NC State ahead 5-4. Cozart's towering homer to right center came just one pitch after
Garrett Pennington opened the frame with a double to left field.
Four straight singles followed Cozart's homer, including a two-RBI single from designated hitter
Drew Lanphere to stretch the Pack's lead to 7-4 with nobody out in the inning. A walk from leadoff batter
Noah Soles loaded the bases with one out before
Josh Hogue singled up the middle to plate two more to make it 9-4 Wolfpack. A sacrifice fly from Pennington, who sparked the Wolfpack's rally earlier in the frame, expanded the Pack's lead to 10-4.
The Wolfpack and Rainbow Warriors traded two-run frames in the second inning. NC State struck first for the first time in this weekend's series when
Luke Nixon drove in a pair with a single up the middle. Hawaii erased the Pack's early 2-0 advantage behind Sean Rimmer's RBI double and Kyson Donahue's sacrifice fly in the bottom half.
NC State re-established its lead in the third behind
Alec Makarewicz's RBI single. Makarewicz fouled off three pitches before delivering an RBI single on an 0-2 count to make it 3-2 Wolfpack. Hawaii then took its only lead with two runs in the bottom of the fourth when leadoff batter Elijah Ickes lofted a two-RBI single to left field.
Sophomore reliever
Shane Van Dam curtailed Hawaii's attempted rally in the bottom of the fifth, entering the game in a bases-loaded, nobody-out situation and not allowing the Rainbow Warriors to push a single run across. Van Dam struck out back-to-back batters to open his appearance before Serrano III tracked down a fly ball from Stone Miyao in center field to end the threat.
Van Dam then tossed a scoreless sixth to maintain the Pack's six-run advantage, striking out Dallas Duarte looking to end the inning. The Rainbow Warriors scored two in the bottom of the seventh to trim the score to 10-6.
Hawaii scored two more runs in the eighth inning to cut the lead to 10-8, but the game reached its predetermined curfew during the eighth frame.
Derrick Smith entered with two outs in the bottom of the eighth and induced a groundout to third base to notch his first-career save.
For the second time this weekend, the Wolfpack recorded 15 hits or more with at least six NC State batters logging multi-hit performances. Hogue, Cozart, Lanphere and Nixon each paced the Pack with two RBI apiece.
Heath Andrews, who made his first-career appearance in Sunday's game, earned the win after pitching 0.2 scoreless innings in relief of starting pitcher
Ryan Marohn.
The Wolfpack exceled in situational hitting opportunities throughout the afternoon, batting .364 (4-for-11) when batting with two outs and .385 with runners in scoring position (5-for-13).
UP NEXTNC State makes the long journey back to Raleigh and opens a 10-game homestand against Queens University of Charlotte on Wednesday afternoon. Wednesday's midweek matchup against Queens is set for 3 p.m. and will stream live on ACC Network Extra.
https://gopack.com/news/2024/2/25/baseball-seven-run-fifth-inning-powers-13-wolfpack-to-series-clinching-win-over-hawaii 
