NC State
24-20, 10-13
Virginia Tech
20-25, 8-15
Wolfpack Baseball Clinches Series Against Virginia Tech with 8-6 Win
4/29/2017 11:30:00 PM | Baseball
Evan Mendoza hits his third homer of the season
Dalton Feeney picked up the win for NC State (24-20, 10-13 ACC) with two innings of shutout relief, while Joe O'Donnell nailed down the save for the second consecutive night. Virginia Tech's (20-25, 8-15 ACC) Aaron McGarity was charged with the loss and falls to 2-4 on the year.
The Wolfpack has now won four consecutive games and moves to 19-5 when scoring the first run of the game.
NC State struck first in the contest with three runs in the Wolfpack's first plate appearance in the bottom of the first. Freshman Brad Debo doubled down the right field line to plate Stephen Pitarra from second to score the game's first run.
Joe Dunand followed with a double off the left field wall, narrowly missing his 17th home run and fifth blast this week, as Debo raced around to score from second to make it 2-0. Dunand took third on the throw home and scored after a throwing error by the Virginia Tech catcher attempting to get him at third base to push the advantage to 3-0.
Virginia Tech countered in the top of the second with two runs to trim the NC State lead to 3-2.
The teams traded counterpunches in the fifth through seventh innings, as each team scored in their turn at the plate. The Hokies knotted the score at three with a run in the fifth, but the Pack responded with a run in the bottom half to regain the lead, 4-3, following an RBI single by Josh McLain.
In the sixth, VT leveled the score at four but NCSU answered in the bottom of the inning after an RBI triple by Evan Mendoza to take a 5-4 advantage. The Hokies plated a pair of runs in the seventh to take a 6-5 lead on the Wolfpack, their first lead of the game.
The Wolfpack loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh and pushed two runs across to grab an 8-6 lead. Dunand hit a sacrifice fly to center field and Brett Kinneman singled to right field, scoring McLain from second base.
Eight of NC State's nine players in the batting order recorded at least one hit. Mendoza paced the group with a 2-for-3 performance, highlighted by a homer and a triple, while Debo also had a pair of hits in the contest.
NC State and Virginia Tech will return to the field for the series finale at 1 p.m. Sunday afternoon.
#STATEMENT
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Feeney, Dalton (3-1)
L: Aaron McGarity (2-4)
S: O'Donnell, Joe (3)
Batting:
2B: Jack Owens 2 ; Nick Anderson 1
RBI: Jack Owens 1 ; Ryan Tufts 2 ; Nick Anderson 1 ; Rahiem Cooper 1
SH: Ryan Tufts 1 ; Marcus White 1
SF: Ryan Tufts 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Jack Owens 1 ; Tom Stoffel 1 ; JD Mundy 2 ; Mac Caples 1 ; Garrett Hudson 1
HBP: Jack Owens 2 ; Ryan Tufts 1
Batting:
2B: Pitarra, Stephen 1 ; Debo, Brad 1 ; Dunand, Joe 1
3B: Mendoza, Evan 1
HR: Mendoza, Evan 1
RBI: McLain, Josh 1 ; Debo, Brad 1 ; Dunand, Joe 2 ; Kinneman, Brett 1 ; Mendoza, Evan 2
SH: Pitarra, Stephen 1
SF: Dunand, Joe 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Pitarra, Stephen 2 ; McLain, Josh 1 ; Debo, Brad 1 ; Dunand, Joe 1 ; Wilson, Will 1 ; Mendoza, Evan 1 ; Deatherage, Brock 1
SB: McLain, Josh 1 ; Deatherage, Brock 1
