Friday, June 25
Omaha, Neb. (TD Ameritrade Park)
2 PM ET
NC State
37-19
1
vs
3
#4 Vanderbilt (College World Series)
48-16
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Vanderbilt
0
0
0
2
0
1
0
0
0
3
6
1
North Carolina State
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
1
8
2
NC State Falls to Vanderbilt, Preps for Saturday Rematch
6/25/2021 6:56:00 PM | Baseball
OMAHA, Neb. – A resilient NC State baseball squad fell just short to No. 4 seed Vanderbilt on Friday afternoon as the Commodores took the game by a 3-1 score to force a winner-advances College World Series showdown between the two teams on Saturday afternoon.
Fielding a depleted roster against the defending national champion, NC State (37-19) out-hit Vanderbilt (48-16), 8-6, but was only able to plate one run that came in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Rookie pitcher Garrett Payne tossed a career-long five innings in his first-ever start and his seventh appearance. The true freshman allowed just two hits, one earned run and three walks after facing 23 batters in his day of work. Payne showed tremendous poise in his College World Series debut and did not surrender a hit until the fourth batter of the third inning.
Sam Highfill (3-for-4) and Devonte Brown (2-for-5) both tallied multi-hit games for NC State, with Austin Murr, Jonny Butler and Carson Falsken also securing a hit apiece.
Coming into the outing, the bottom of NC State's lineup (Falsken, Highfill, Eddie Eisert, DeAngelo Giles) had combined for zero RBIs, three hits and 27 at bats this season leading up to Friday. In the game, those four players accounted for half of the Pack's hits and the lone RBI.
Highfill notched the first hit of the outing, a leadoff single down the right field line, in his first at bat of the 2021 season, but Vanderbilt got on the board first in the top of the fourth inning. Dominic Keegan plated an unearned run after reaching base on an error and coming around to score on a two-out single, and CJ Rodriguez tacked on another run on a wild pitch with the bases loaded.
The Pack put the pressure on in the bottom of the fifth with three hits and a run coming from the bottom of the order. Giles put the Pack in the scoring column with a sac fly to left field, bringing home Falsken who reached third with a bunt, another Highfill single and a ground out to first.
In the sixth, the Commodores extended their lead to 3-1 with an RBI single by Javier Vaz, but NC State managed to work its way out of the inning despite the bases being loaded for Vandy.
NC State pitcher Dalton Feeney forced Vandy into three scoreless innings in a row in the seventh, eighth and ninth after entering the game in the sixth. It also marked the longest outing of the season for the Wolfpack redshirt-junior.
NC State and Vanderbilt will meet again on Saturday to decide the winner of 'Bracket One' and determine which team advances to next week's championship series. First pitch is set for 2 p.m. ET and will be broadcast nationally on ESPN.
Fielding a depleted roster against the defending national champion, NC State (37-19) out-hit Vanderbilt (48-16), 8-6, but was only able to plate one run that came in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Rookie pitcher Garrett Payne tossed a career-long five innings in his first-ever start and his seventh appearance. The true freshman allowed just two hits, one earned run and three walks after facing 23 batters in his day of work. Payne showed tremendous poise in his College World Series debut and did not surrender a hit until the fourth batter of the third inning.
Sam Highfill (3-for-4) and Devonte Brown (2-for-5) both tallied multi-hit games for NC State, with Austin Murr, Jonny Butler and Carson Falsken also securing a hit apiece.
Coming into the outing, the bottom of NC State's lineup (Falsken, Highfill, Eddie Eisert, DeAngelo Giles) had combined for zero RBIs, three hits and 27 at bats this season leading up to Friday. In the game, those four players accounted for half of the Pack's hits and the lone RBI.
Highfill notched the first hit of the outing, a leadoff single down the right field line, in his first at bat of the 2021 season, but Vanderbilt got on the board first in the top of the fourth inning. Dominic Keegan plated an unearned run after reaching base on an error and coming around to score on a two-out single, and CJ Rodriguez tacked on another run on a wild pitch with the bases loaded.
The Pack put the pressure on in the bottom of the fifth with three hits and a run coming from the bottom of the order. Giles put the Pack in the scoring column with a sac fly to left field, bringing home Falsken who reached third with a bunt, another Highfill single and a ground out to first.
In the sixth, the Commodores extended their lead to 3-1 with an RBI single by Javier Vaz, but NC State managed to work its way out of the inning despite the bases being loaded for Vandy.
NC State pitcher Dalton Feeney forced Vandy into three scoreless innings in a row in the seventh, eighth and ninth after entering the game in the sixth. It also marked the longest outing of the season for the Wolfpack redshirt-junior.
NC State and Vanderbilt will meet again on Saturday to decide the winner of 'Bracket One' and determine which team advances to next week's championship series. First pitch is set for 2 p.m. ET and will be broadcast nationally on ESPN.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Kumar Rocker (14-3)
L: Payne, Garrett (0-1)
S: Luke Murphy (9)
Batting:
2B: Dominic Keegan 1
RBI: CJ Rodriguez 1 ; Parker Noland 1
SH: Troy LaNeve 1 ; Jayson Gonzalez 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Dominic Keegan 1 ; Javier Vaz 1 ; CJ Rodriguez 1
SB: Javier Vaz 2
HBP: Carter Young 1 ; Spencer Jones 1
Batting:
RBI: Giles, DeAngelo 1
SF: Giles, DeAngelo 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Falsken, Carson 1
SB: Mensik, Vojtech 1
HBP: Butler, Jonny 1
PO: Highfill, Sam 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
4
R
0
H
3
RBI
0
AB
5
R
0
H
2
RBI
0
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
INF/OF
/ BaseballOF
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INF
/ Baseball
INF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
INF
/ BaseballRHP/INF
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/ Baseball
RHP
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