NC State stays perfect with weekend sweep of NJIT

There’s a handful of undefeated D-I baseball teams left and NC State is still among them, though the Pack’s unblemished run nearly ended on Sunday afternoon.

After getting clobbered by a combined score of 30-4 in the first two games of this series, NJIT was a bit more game in the finale, taking a 3-1 lead in the sixth, then pushing ahead 5-2 in the top of the eighth. NC State got a couple back in the bottom half, then kept NJIT off the board in the ninth, which set up Payton Green’s walk-off heroics.

Kalae Harrison singled to open the bottom of the ninth, and two batters later, Green sent NC State home happy.

(Sorry, NJIT.)

State’s pitching was excellent in wins on Friday and Saturday. Logan Whitaker went 5-2/3 IP with six strikeouts on Friday night, and while he allowed two runs, the bullpen behind him was perfect. The offense got homers from Green, Gino Groover, and Carter Trice to secure the 9-2 victory.

On Saturday, there were fireworks, from one guy in particular: Cannon Peebles, who was 6-6 with two HR, three doubles, and 10 RBI. Ten ribbies! That’s a good couple of weeks in one game. It was the first six-hit game for an NCSU hitter since 2001, and the first 10-RBI game by a State player since at least 1999.

NC State scored 21 runs on the day, and hit six homers: two by Peebles, two by Trevor Candelaria (who drove in six), one by Trice, and one by Harrison.

Matt Willadsen surrendered a two-run shot in the third but was otherwise unblemished in six innings of work; he struck out five and walked none. NJIT managed only one hit against the Pack pen in the last three innings, though if NJIT was just trying to get that game over with, I get it.

Pretty eventful weekend. It’s still difficult to assess just how good this NC State team is, given the competition, but with league play starting at Miami next weekend, we’re gonna start to find out.