NC State paves path to ACC title with Game 1 win over Stanford

An ACC title awaits the Wolfpack if they can win the last two games of the series with the Cardinal

NC State’s 7-2 win over Stanford on Thursday night coupled with a Florida State loss have put the Wolfpack in the drivers seat of the ACC title race with two games remaining. If the Wolfpack can win their final two games against Stanford, they’ll capture the program’s first ACC regular season title since 1986.

NC State is also one win away from securing a top four finish in the regular season, which would earn the Pack a double-bye at next week’s ACC Tournament in Durham. Needless to say, State has a lot to play for over the next two days.

As it sits heading into Friday’s games, the ACC standings are (these are the teams still with a shot at the double-bye):

1. NC State (17-9, .654) .607
2. Georgia Tech (18-10, .643)
3. Florida State (16-9, .640)
4. North Carolina (17-10, .630)
5. Virginia (15-10, .600)
6. Duke (16-12, .571)
7. Clemson (16-12, .571)

Here are the series involving those teams:

• Stanford @ NC State
• Georgia Tech @ Duke
• North Carolina @ Florida State
• Virginia @ Virginia Tech
• Clemson @ Pittsburgh

The Wolfpack’s 7-2 win on Thursday was a bit of a slow burn before State’s offense turned it on late, with the assistance of a key error from Stanford.

In a familiar fashion for State, the Wolfpack fell behind early via an opponent home run. Jimmy Nati turned on a high 1-2 fastball from Ryan Marohn and deposited it onto Lee Field for a 1-0 Stanford lead. Despite some loud – and long – outs from the Stanford hitters, Marohn faced just one over the minimum across the first four innings, with a little defensive help here and there, including Sosa gunning down Charlie Bates to end the 1st inning.

Marohn did run into trouble in the 5th, though. After retiring Rintaro Sasaki to start the inning, Temo Becerra turned on a 3-1 pitch for a double into the left field corner. One out later, Ethan Hott drove him home on a single into right-center for a 2-0 Stanford advantage.

Thankfully, State’s bats woke up the following inning. Despite putting runners in scoring position in both the 2nd and 3rd innings, the Pack remained scoreless until the bottom of the 5th. Brandon Novy – playing in place of Chris McHugh at first base due to a late lineup scratch – singled to lead off the inning. Matt Ossenfort followed with a single of his own with Novy advancing to third on a hustle play. Matt Heavner brought home Novy for the Pack’s first run of the night on a sacrifice fly to deep centerfield.

With two outs, Josh Hogue singled to put runners on the corners, which prompted Stanford to go to their 4th pitcher of the night (with Stanford’s only path to an NCAA Regional being a run to a title at the ACC Tournament, the Cardinal will be going Johnny Wholestaff outings the entire series). Justin DeCriscio came up huge on the first strike he saw, lining a 2-run triple into the right field corner for a 3-2 State lead.

Bates hit a one-out single in the top of the 6th, prompting the first – and (spoiler alert, but not really) only – pitching change of the evening for the Pack. Despite Marohn being relatively low in his pitch count at 89 (he had gone 99+ pitches in each of his previous four starts), the coaching staff turned to stud reliever Anderson Nance to hold the Pack’s lead.

Tatum Marsh greeted Nance with a single on what was really just an excellent piece of hitting on a down-and-in 2-2 curve ball, but Nance settled things down from there, retiring the final two batters of the inning to keep State ahead, including K’s Sasaki on a 98 mph heater to end the inning.

After Marsh’s single, Nance would only face one batter over the minimum the rest of the way. Like Marohn, he had some defensive help along the way, highlighted by this absurdly great catch from Ty Head.

State was unable to push across a run in the 6th despite loading the bases on a trio of walks, but was able to come through with a big 7th inning push, aided by a big error from Stanford. DeCriscio walked with one out, and with two down Brayden Fraasman hit what looked to be a routine groundout to third base to end the inning, only the throw was airmailed across the diamond putting runners on the corners.

Head, likely still on the high from the above catch, made that error very costly for the Cardinal.

Novy thought the freshman homering thing seemed pretty cool, so after a pitching change, he demolished the first pitch he saw for his first career home run. If you’re down in Johnston County, keep a lookout for the ball so you can get it to Novy as a keepsake.

State threatened again with a pair of runners on with one out in the 8th, but was unable to score. That didn’t really matter though with Nance on the bump and more sparkling defense behind him.

Nance also had a nifty snag of his own to end the game.

Six Pack batters reached base safely multiple times in the game: Hogue (3-for-5, R), DeCriscio (2-for-4, 3B, R, 2 RBI, BB), Head (2-for-4, HR, R, 3 RBI), Novy (2-for-3, HR, 2 R, RBI, BB), Ossenfort (1-for-3, R, BB), Heavner (1-for-2, RBI, BB, SF).

Marohn (5.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K) picked up the win to improve his season record to 7-3. Nance (3.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K) picked up the save, his first.

Dom Fritton will be on the mound for State on Friday night as the Pack looks to lock up a double-bye at the ACC Tournament while moving one step closer to a conference crown. Stanford will counter with RHP Nick Dugan. First pitch is scheduled for 6:00pm.