BASEBALL: NC State Captures Massive Series Win
The Wolfpack went on the road and got a season-saving road series win over Notre Dame by winning the last two games of the series.
Game One
I don’t even want to talk about this one. What an incredibly frustrating game, which we’ve seen many of this year. The baserunning blunder in the 4th inning was the worst baseball play you’ll ever see. Trevor Candelaria letting Kalae Harrison try to catch a ball over his shoulder was just as bad. An absolute disaster of a game that State had no business losing, but they did, and with it, their season was on the brink.
Game Two
Who would you rather have on the mound in a do-or-die game than Matt Willadsen? He’s thrown in those games for three straight years, and he delivered once again. His 6.2 innings gave the Pack the length they needed after Lawson and Fritton threw in game one. At the plate, Gino Groover and Jacob Cozart have been their best players all year and responded once again, driving in all five runs.
Game Three
I’ve been clamoring for Sam Highfill to be in the rotation all year and it finally happened. He was as good as anybody reasonably could have expected, throwing 89 pitches to get through five innings and only allowed five baserunners. Really interested to see what the role is for Fritton down the stretch. Is he the closer or does he piggyback behind a starter? Saturday it was both, going the last four innings for the save. What a sensational freshman year he has had, as his ERA is down to 2.47. The bottom of the order did the heavy lifting at the plate as the 6-9 hitters collected five hits, five RBI, three doubles, and two home runs.
What does it mean?
It was very bleak Thursday evening but the Pack responded in impressive fashion. Thursday goes down as another missed opportunity, as a sweep would have given State some breathing room on the bubble -- but alas, no dice. You can’t overstate the significance of a road series win over a team that’s definitely in the tournament right now. That’s a huge box to check with Louisville now a train wreck and out of the postseason picture.
What now?
I said before the weekend the Pack likely needed to win all three series to feel good, and that’s still the case. The resume added some beef this weekend (RPI, quality series win), but the 10-13 ACC record is still a hurdle. It has to be 14 wins for me to feel good on Memorial Day, and obviously another quality series win would move the needle. Dom Fritton said postgame Saturday they knew this was a must win series, and that mentality must continue against UNC.
Quick glance ahead
UNC has a weird resume; not much good, not much bad… just kind of there. Vance Honeycutt ruined State’s life last year and he’s at the top of the draft boards for next year, but he’s rocking a 30% strikeout rate this year which is way too high for a player of his caliber. Mac Horvath is a possible day-one pick this year– he has a 1.100 OPS with 19 home runs. The starting rotation has thrown 164 innings with an ERA over five, but the bullpen has three guys who have thrown at least 30 innings, all with ERAs below 3.56. I don’t have much of a feel for this series (usually my feelings are wrong anyway), but I think this is a true 50/50 series with a lot on the line. Both teams could be on the bubble (or out) with a series loss while both teams might have a case to host with a sweep.