NC State Baseball Falls Short of Sweep Against #12 Clemson

Saturday, May 20

Raleigh, N.C.

1:00:00 PM

NC State

33-22, 16-14

#12 Clemson

39-17, 17-13

Clemson

NC State

Photo by: Ken Martin

NC State Baseball Falls Short of Sweep Against #12 Clemson

5/20/2017 7:27:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

Wolfpack seniors honored in pregame ceremony

RALEIGH, N.C. – After clinching the series with wins on Thursday and Friday, the NC State baseball team came up short in its search for the sweep as the 12^th-ranked Clemson Tigers won Saturday's game, 15-6, at Doak Field at Dail Park.

The Wolfpack concludes its regular season slate with a 33-22 overall record, including a 16-14 mark in Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) play. The Tigers are now 39-17 and 17-13 in league action.

NC State will be the seventh seed in the ACC Championship set to get underway next week in Louisville, Ky., and will be in the pool with Boston College as the 11 seed and UNC-Chapel Hill or Louisville as the two seed.

Dates of competition for the Wolfpack and times have not been announced yet, but a link to the bracket can be found by clicking HERE.

Clemson starter Pat Krall picked up the win and moves to 8-2 on the year, while NC State starter Michael Bienlien was charged with the loss and is 3-3.

Evan Mendoza led the Wolfpack at the plate with a 2-for-4 outing with an RBI and a run scored. Will Wilson also charted a multi-hit game, his 18^th of the season, with a pair of singles to go along with a run scored, while Josh McLain also notched two singles in the contest.

NC State catcher Andy Cosgrove singled in the game to extend his hitting streak to 10 games, the longest active streak on the squad and second longest of the season for any Wolfpack player.

The Pack plated the game's first run, as Stephen Pitarra reached on an error, advanced to third base and scored on a sacrifice fly by Brad Debo to give NC State a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Clemson countered with five runs in the top of the third to take a 5-1 advantage.

After the Tigers added a pair of runs to stretch it to 7-1, the Wolfpack rallied to score four runs in the bottom of the sixth to narrow the deficit to 7-4 and had the tying run at the plate when the inning ended. Mendoza had an RBI single in the frame, Christian Demby drew an RBI walk and Pitarra also notched an RBI single.

Unfortunately for NC State, Clemson responded with six runs in the seventh and two in the eighth to earn the win.

NC State will return to action next week at the ACC Championship. The schedule of games will be announced on Sunday morning.