NC State Held Scoreless in ACC Championship
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The NC State baseball team (30-17) came up short in a tightly-contested Atlantic Coast Conference Championship title game with Duke, 1-0, on Sunday afternoon at Truist Field in Charlotte, N.C.
The loss snapped a 67-game streak of the Wolfpack suffering a shutout, as the last time came on May 24, 2019, against Florida State in the ACC Championship (11-0 result).
The offense has been a focal point of Wolfpack’s gameplay this season. Even in losses, State has averaged about seven runs.
The low scoring has a lot to do with Duke ‘s pitcher, Cooper Stinson. Stinson a season-high of giving up seven hits and five runs.
Well below NC State‘s scoring average. In his 6 IP’s Stinson only gave NC State three hits. NC State Played a great defensive game of their own. Giving up only four hits, but Duke’s Ethan Murray slipped in on an RBI from Peter Matt.
Duke, understandably, has been on a mission made of pure determination. Aside from being on a 12-game win streak, this is their first ACC Championship.
It is no doubt hard to out-battle a team that has designed its season for battle. Their wins have not come easy either. In seven of the twelve, Duke won by four runs or less. It just looked like they simply wanted it more.
On the biggest stage in ACC Baseball, Duke and NC State fought to the death. Arguably the two hottest teams in college scrapped until the end.
Duke (32-20) did not get its only run on the board until the fourth inning.
The game-winning run for the Blue Devils came in the fourth inning via a sac fly. Ethan Murray led off the inning with a double to left field, moved to third on a fly out to deep center field, and scored on Peter Matt’s fly ball to right field.
In the bottom of the ninth, NC State sent out their best hitters to try and win the game. Jonny Butler, Tarell Tatum, Luca Tresh, and Jose Torres had no desire to lose this game and it showed. The only one to be struck out was Tatum.
Yet, even with a single by Butler and a near hit out to right-field by Torres, it just was not enough as they failed to get a run in the bottom on the ninth inning
NC State (30-17, ACC 19-14) ends its season with a 63.8 win percentage. Also, they tacked on 76 home runs and a .288 team batting average.
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