No. 20 NC State (25-17, 12-9 ACC) stumbles in its Tuesday-evening matchup against UNCW (29-16, 14-4 CAA), falling in 10 innings at Doak Field, 5-4.
Ryan Marohn started on the mound and allowed just one run on two hits and two walks while striking out seven Seahawks over five innings. After Shane Van Dam gave up three runs without recording an out, Jacob Dudan took over on the mound and fanned seven batters in four shutout innings. Derrick Smith (3-1, 6.38 ERA) entered the game in the 10th inning and got saddled with the loss after giving up the go-ahead run on two hits and one walk.
The Wolfpack struck early with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning. Eli Serrano, III drew a full-count walk to start the frame. Three batters later, Jacob Cozart launched his 13th home run of the season over the wall in right-center field to drive both he and Serrano home. Two innings later, Garrett Pennington drilled a solo shot to left-center, his 11th of the year, to make it a 3-0 lead.
Kevin Jones broke the shutout in the top of the fifth inning, driving Trevor Marsh with a base hit to left field. Cozart answered in the bottom half of the frame with his second home run of the evening, a solo shot off the video board in right field, to make it a 4-1 ballgame.
The Seahawks managed to tie the score in the top of the sixth inning. Marsh got the scoring started by drawing a bases-loaded walk to bring Aiden Evans home. Two batters later, Bryan Arendt hit a sacrifice fly to right field to plate Tanner Thach before John Newton took advantage of a wild pitch to score from third base, tying the game at four runs apiece.
The score would hold until the top of the 10th inning where UNCW would take the lead for good. Thach reached scoring position on a one-out double to left field. After moving to third on a groundout, the Seahawk first baseman scored on a double by Marsh.
The Wolfpack returns to conference play on Friday as NC State ventures to Tallahassee, Fla. for the first game of its three-game series versus No. 7 Florida State. First pitch from Dick Howser Stadium is set for 6 p.m.
