NC State Avoids Series Sweep From Clemson

RALEGH, NC – NC State baseball (10-11, 5-10 ACC) avoided a series sweep on Sunday afternoon at Doak Field at Dail Park with Clemson (14-11, 8-7 ACC) thanks a crucial four-run eighth inning to secure a 9-5 victory.

After facing an early deficit, the Wolfpack managed to come back on two different occasions in the later innings of the game and earn the conference win.

NC State got the offense going in the first with Tyler McDonough’s one-out double and a single by Luca Tresh that followed to put runners at the corners. Jonny Butler then drove in the Pack’s first run of the game with a fielder’s choice, scoring McDonough from third.

Clemson answered in the second inning with three runs on as many hits, and then Alex Urban went yard to center field in the third to give the Tigers a 4-1 advantage.

The Pack responded in the home half of the third with a pair of runs to cut its deficit to one. J.T. Jarrett led off the side with a walk and then scored on McDonough’s second double of the day to right field. After a groundout moved McDonough to third, Jose Torres drove him in with a two-out single to right-center.

Devonte Brown and Vojtech Mensik got into scoring position on back-to-back hits to start the fourth inning, and pinch hitter Terrell Tatum’s sacrifice fly to left field scored a run to tie the game at four.

Austin Murr came up clutch in the sixth inning when he went yard to right field, plating the go-ahead run with his fifth home run of the season to make it 5-4 in favor of the Pack.

Clemson threatened in the seventh when it loaded the bases on two outs, but Wolfpack reliever Evan Justice got out of the jam with the punch out to keep his team in the lead. The Tigers managed to load the bases up again in the eighth, but this time they brought in a run on Dylan Brewer’s RBI fielder’s choice to knot the game back up at five.

A four-run burst in the bottom of the eighth by the Pack thanks to Tatum’s two-run single to left-center and a Clemson error gave NC State a 9-5 lead heading into the ninth. Justice then shut the door by fanning the final two batters of a 1-2-3 inning to secure the win.

Picture Credits to Lawrence Davis