Very good crowd last night. VCU has a lot of fans attending - good folks. A little worried about the Mayor's start in the first inning that looked a little too much like some of last year, but he definitely settled in. Van Dam can really throw hard. Had not really struck me, but nearly our entire batting order is leftes. Pennington is built lke Tommy White and can hit it hard, although I didn't really show it last night. No errors! Kid at shortstop looked good.
Photo by Steve Murphy/Inside Pack Sports
NC State Baseball
Wolfpack Opens 2024 Campaign Victorious Over VCU
Matt Heavner and Jacob Cozart go deep as No. 13 NC State rides the arms of Sam Highfill and Shane Van Dam to victory over VCU.
No. 13 NC State (1-0) started the new season with a dominant victory over VCU (0-1) Friday evening at Doak Field, 6-1.
Sam Highfill (1-0, 1.80 ERA) earned the win after allowing just one run on one hit over five innings of work. Shane Van Dam threw four shutout innings the rest of the way, yielding just two hits en route to his first save in a Wolfpack uniform. Meanwhile, Campbell Ellis (0-1, 27.00 ERA) picked up the loss after relieving Rams’ starter Everett Vaughan following three innings of work. Ellis’ tenure lasted just 1-1/3 innings with Jack Hoeymans and Jack Goleski throwing the rest of the way.
The Rams got on the board first with Chris McHugh driving Casey Kleinman home on a bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the top of the first inning. Alex Sosa tied the game in the bottom of the third with his first collegiate RBI, plating Jacob Cozart who reached base to catalyze the Pack’s two-out rally.
State broke the game open in the next inning, starting with Matt Heavner launching a solo home run over the left-field wall. A walk and a pair of base hits followed before Garrett Pennington took a pitch off his own body to drive Brandon Butterworth home. Noah Soles was the next to cross the plate on a Cozart groundout, followed by Eli Serrano, III scoring on a fielder’s choice by Alec Makarewicz to cap off scoring for the frame.
Cozart snapped a streak of three scoreless innings to tack on the Wolfpack’s final insurance run in the bottom of the eighth inning. The First Team Preseason All-American came to bat with one out in the frame and crushed a 2-2 pitch over the wall in right field for a solo home run, his 15th in an NC State uniform.
The Pack gets the chance to earn Elliott Avent his 1,000th career victory in Raleigh Saturday for the second game of the three-game series against Avent’s alma mater. First pitch from the Doak is set for 2 p.m.
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