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Photo by Steve Murphy/Inside Pack Sports
NC State Baseball

Wolfpack Continues To Roll

April 21, 2018
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The No. 2 NC State (31-7, 15-5) baseball team won its tenth consecutive ACC series by beating No. 9 Duke (30-10, 12-7) 2-1 on Saturday afternoon at Jack Coombs Field in Durham, NC.

Brian Brown was excellent on the mound again, Will Wilson accounted for both of the Pack’s runs and the bullpen closed out another road win for the head coach Elliott Avent.

The Wolfpack got off to a quick start, or so it seemed, with back-to-back singles from Josh McLain and Brett Kinneman to open the game. Wilson drove a ball to deep left, but Duke left fielder Jimmy Herron robbed the shortstop of a home run and the Pack didn’t score in the inning. Each team had a runner reach in the first two innings, but neither team scored.

Brown and Blue Devils starter Mitch Stallings traded shutout innings until the sixth. McLain doubled down the right field line before Wilson drove a ball to deep right-center field for an RBI triple. Wilson scored on a controversial play when Evan Edwards hit a fly ball to shallow right field. Wilson tagged up and was initially ruled out, but Avent challenged the play and won, so the run counted, momentarily. Duke head coach Chris Pollard then challenged that Wilson left third base early. It was a very close play but the umpires decided there wasn’t enough evidence to overturn the original call that he didn’t leave early. Ten minutes after Wilson was initially ruled out, the Wolfpack had a 2-0 lead.

Brown concluded his outing with two outs in the sixth. He allowed no runs on five hits, walked one and struck out five. Kent Klyman came and did what he’s done all year, throwing 2.2 shutdown innings, although he did dance in and out of some trouble, and allowed an unearned run, before handing the ball off for the final two outs to Joe O’Donnell who recorded his eighth save of the year.

Offensively, Josh McLain continued his scorching tear at the plate, with a 3-5 performance, and his batting average is now up to .365. Terrell Tatum was the only other player with multiple hits for NC State.

The Wolfpack hasn’t lost a series all year, or an ACC series since April 22-23 of last year, good for 10 conference series wins in a row. The series win over Duke is also the second road series win over a consensus top 10 opponent this year for the Pack. The Wolfpack now has a 1.5 game lead for the ACC regular season title, depending on the outcome of the Georgia Tech- UNC-Chapel Hill game. It is also significant that NC State now has the tiebreaker advantage over two of the three closest competitors, Clemson and Duke, due to series wins.

NC State will go for the sweep Sunday at 1 p.m. with Michael Bienlien on the hill. Duke has yet to announce a starter.
 

Tags: Baseball
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Wolfpack Continues To Roll

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