NC State bests ECU on the road, 4-1

Hogue sets the tone early while Nance tosses 5.0 scoreless innings in Wolfpack win

Josh Hogue set the tone early Tuesday night in Greenville, NC State squashed a few early ECU scoring opportunities, and the bullpen kept the Pirates at bay the rest of the way as the Wolfpack prevailed with a 4-1 win. The victory moves State’s RPI up to 44th while improving the Pack’s record to 22-11 on the year. ECU dropped to 20-14 on the year with an RPI ranking now down to an even 100.

As mentioned, Hogue wasted no time in posting the Pack to an early lead, hitting his second home run in the last three pitches he’s seen on the year. Unlike his walk-off shot against Virginia on Sunday, there was no doubt about whether this one was leaving the yard.

East Carolina put a man on in the bottom of the 1st inning via a walk, but Wolfpack starter Cooper Consiglio promptly picked him off, eliminating any threat before it had an opportunity to develop.

State took advantage of a defensive miscue in the 2nd to plate another run. Drew Lanphere reached on an error and advanced to third on a Trenton Lyons single. Matt Heavner did what Matt Heavner does to bring him home.

Ol’ 18V Power Wheels with his 12 sacrifice bunts on the year is well on his way to breaking the program record (at least it’s the record as far as I can tell or care to look) of 20 sac bunts set by the original Power Wheels, current Pack assistant coach J.T. Jarrett. The recognized NCAA record for most sac bunts in a season is 34, in case you were wondering, held by UC Irvine’s Ben Orloff who laid down a depressing 86 in his career. But back to the game…

The Pirates put together their best scoring opportunities over the next two innings. Braxton Trammel and Walker Barron led off the 2nd with a single and walk, respectively, before being bunted up a base each. Kenan Bowman hit a grounder to third that Heavner played excellently to gun down Trammel at the plate. After a walk to Austin Irby, Consiglio struck out Alex Bouche swinging to keep ECU off the scoreboard.

The 3rd inning again saw the first two Pirates reach base, this time on a Dixon Williams HBP and a Braden Burress single, with those two batters sandwiching a pitching change for NC State. Jaxon Lucas then induced a pair of fly outs, with the first (from Colby Wallace) moving Williams up to third base and the second (from Trammel) plating him. After a walk to Barron, Lucas induced a groundout to preserve the Pack’s lead.

ECU led off the 4th inning again with a HBP (Bowman), but new pitcher Anderson Nance induced a 4-6-3 double play after a long at-bat by Irby to end the threat. That would be the last time a Pirates batter reached base until the 8th inning. Nance (5.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 HBP, 5 K) was dominant in picking up the win, his 5th of the year. Even the one hit he did allow was a 2-out single in the 8th, which was then followed by a beautiful defensive play from Luke Nixon to end the inning.

Meanwhile, NC State extended the lead with a run in the 5th inning, again aided by a defensive miscue from ECU. Justin DeCriscio walked with two outs and then Nixon smoked a line drive out to deep right-center. It had the height and distance to clear the short fence at Clark-LeClair Stadium, but Bowman was also positioned to make the catch. Only he didn’t, and the deflection off his glove allowed DeCriscio to score on the play.

The Pack added an insurance run in the top of the 9th, this time without any assistance from the other team. Ty Head walked to lead off the frame and Hogue followed with a single. After poorly called and even poorly-er attempted execution of a sacrifice bunt, Chris McHugh bounced a grounder to first base to move the runners up. DeCriscio then brought home Head on a single. State would attempt a double steal, but DeCriscio didn’t hold up the pickle long enough to allow pinch runner Jet Gilliam to score, so the game sat at 4-1.

Jacob Dudan was up on the bump for the 9th inning and set down the Pirates in order, including a pair of strikeouts, to earn his 2nd save of the year and close out the win for the Wolfpack.

Hogue (2-for-5, HR, R, RBI), McHugh (2-for-5), and DeCriscio (2-for-3, R, RBI, BB, HBP, 0-1 SB) each had multiple hits in the game. ECU managed just three hits in the game, all singles, and only one Pirate hitter (Barron, 0-for-2, 2 BB) reached base multiple times.

The second half of the midweek series with the Pirates will take place in two weeks in Raleigh. Next up for NC State is a home series this weekend with a Louisville squad that has won six straight games and is currently ranked 14th in the country. First pitch Friday is set for 6:00pm.