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NC State Baseball

Pack's 1-0 Win Clinches Virginia Tech Series

March 31, 2018
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NC State defeated Virginia Tech 1-0 on Saturday afternoon at English Park in Blacksburg, Virginia to win the series.

Evan Edwards drove in Terrell Tatum for the game’s only run in the eighth inning to help the Pack (23-5, 9-3) win the decisive game of the series against the Hokies (11-15, 5-7).

Brian Brown continued his dominant senior season in a Wolfpack uniform. Brown threw six shutout innings while giving up four hits, walking two and striking out four. The only threat Brown faced was in the fifth inning. Virginia Tech loaded the bases on a walk, infield single and hit by pitch with one out, but Brown induced a double play to escape the jam.

Reid Johnston (3-0) pitched a scoreless seventh and got the win when the Pack took the lead in the top of the eighth.

Stephen Pitarra pinch-hit for JT Jarrett and was hit by a pitch to start the inning. On the next pitch, Pitarra stole second base, but Josh McLain was called for interfering with the catcher. Pitarra was forced back to first and McLain was called out. To add to the oddity of the play, Pitarra, returning this weekend from hamstring surgery, was hurt on the play and Tatum had to come in and run, although Pitarra appeared to be okay and removed for precautionary reasons. Brett Kinneman followed with a walk and Will Wilson hit a sacrifice fly to center, moving Tatum to third. Evan Edwards delivered the clutch, two-out knock to give NC State the lead.

Kent Klyman worked around two errors to pitch a scoreless eighth and got the first two outs in the ninth before giving up a double. Joe O’Donnell struck out Joe Freiday, Jr. to end the game and collect his sixth save of the season.

Not to be overshadowed by Brown, freshman Ian Seymour was spectacular for the Hokies. He threw six and ⅔ innings and never faced a serious threat from the Pack. He struck out seven, walked two and spread out five hits while throwing 103 pitches. Andrew McDonald (1-5) came in to relieve Seymour and eventually suffered the loss.

The series win was the fourth straight series win for the Pack to start ACC play. The last two times NC State hosted a regional (2013 and 2016) the team won six ACC series in the entire season. This team is well on its way to eclipsing that mark, and looks to have an excellent shot to not only host a regional, but even be a top eight national seed and host a super regional if the Pack win a regional.

As for ACC play, State maintains its lead, but Clemson picked up a game in the standings this weekend by sweeping Boston College and is now only one game back.

The Pack returns to action next Friday at Louisville in what will be a huge series for both teams. Louisville has lost three series in a row and is 5-7 in conference play and will view this as an opportunity to win a marquee series. For NC State, Louisville is a talented team and will play with their backs against the wall and the Pack will need to match that intensity to continue proving that it is worthy of the consensus top 10 status the team currently has. First pitch on Friday will be at 6 p.m.

Tags: Baseball
Discussion from...

Pack's 1-0 Win Clinches Virginia Tech Series

3,493 Views | 3 Replies | Last: 5 yr ago by Paniconpack
Paniconpack
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Big time! The bats are hot and the we have some arms! This has the be our best collective sports year ever. In all sports!
dmelvin
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Bats were hot Friday (14-2) win . Thursday 2 runs, and today 1 run . Bats were hot one game of three at Virginia Tech. Glad to win series .
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Dmelvin
Paniconpack
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Bats hot in general, not this series specifically as you took out of context from my general analysis of our ball club. Carry on though... Hope we keep it up!
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