Avent Wins 1,000th With NC State as Wolfpack Wins Series Over Rams

No. 13 NC State (2-1) finishes the opening weekend with a series win over VCU (2-1), coming away with the rubber-match victory Sunday afternoon at Doak Field, 5-3.

The win marked Elliott Avent’s 1,000th in his tenure as the Wolfpack’s head coach. The milestone achievement comes against his alma mater, having followed former Rams skipper Tony Guzzo from North Carolina Wesleyan in 1983 as his assistant. After amassing 224 wins at New Mexico State, Avent took the reigns in Raleigh in 1997.

Freshman Ryan Marohn (1-0, 0.00 ERA) earned Sunday’s win on the mound, striking out eight batters and allowing just two hits and three walks over five innings. After Hollis Fanning and Jaxon Lucas surrendered three runs over the course of 2-2/3 innings, Jacob Dudan locked up his first collegiate save with one strikeout and one walk over the final 1-1/3 innings.

Alec Makarewicz scored the game’s first run in the bottom of the second inning after drawing a leadoff walk, moving to second on a Drew Lanphere single, and crossing the plate on a Josh Hogue groundout. One inning later, Hogue and Luke Nixon padded the lead with RBI base hits that drove Garrett Pennington and Lanphere home, respectively.

Lanphere added to the lead again in the fifth, this time by recording his first career RBI. After Jacob Cozart drew a full-count walk to begin the frame and moved into scoring position on a Makarewicz groundout, the Wendell, N.C. native knocked a single to center field to bring the Wolfpack catcher in to score.

The Rams got on the scoreboard in the top of the sixth inning when Ethan Iannuzzi plated Chris McHugh with an RBI groundout. However, Makarewicz would respond with the aid of poor VCU defense as a throwing error on a bases-loaded fielder’s choice helped Eli Serrano, III score the Wolfpack’s final run of the game. Nic Ericsson and Iannuzzi would hit solo home runs in the seventh and eighth innings, respectively, but State’s relievers would hold the Rams in check for the rest of the game.

The Pack will venture away from Raleigh for the first time in 2024 next weekend as NC State heads to Hawaii for a three-game series beginning Friday, February 23. First pitch from Les Murakami Stadium is set for 11:35 p.m. EST.