State wins wild series with Louisville

The Pack have now won four of five ACC series on the year

Louisville led in every game of the weekend series between the Wolfpack and the Cardinals, but NC State prevailed by capturing wins in the bookend games of the series. State’s win puts the two squads in a tie for 5th place in the ACC with matching 9-6 records. The Pack still have series remaining against two of the teams in front of them (Clemson and North Carolina).

Friday’s series opener saw State face a 7-2 deficit heading into the bottom of the 4th inning, and it sure felt like the game was steadily heading towards a decisive Louisville win. Thankfully, the Pack rallied with a 7-run frame to capture the lead, then overcame a Cardinals rebound to again pull ahead, ultimately winning the contest by a 13-11 final score.

Louisville jumped ahead in the top of the 1st inning, scratching a run without a hit. Alex Alicea led off with a walk, moved up a base on a sacrifice bunt, and then advanced on a wild pitch before scoring on a passed ball.

State loaded the bases in the bottom half of the inning on a pair of walks and a HBP, but was unable to push a run across. The Pack did, however, briefly tie things up in the bottom of the 2nd inning. Luke Nixon and Drew Lanphere led off the inning with back-to-back walks before Matt Heavner moved them up a base each with a sacrifice bunt. Ty Head then brought home Nixon on a sacrifice fly.

That lead, unfortunately, didn’t last as Louisville plated five runs in the 3rd on four hits, a walk, a HBP, and a wild pitch. NC State starting pitcher Dom Fritton (2.2 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 1 HBP, 3 K) didn’t make it through the inning, giving way to Matt Willadsen.

The Pack cut a bit into the lead with a run in the bottom of the 3rd thanks to a two-out Alex Sosa double followed by back-to-back-to-back walks to Brayden Fraasman, Nixon, and Lanphere. Louisville, though, got that run right back in the top of the 4th.

And that’s where State took off, despite seeming rather dead in the water. Again buoyed by the lack of control of the Louisville pitchers – a common theme for the entirety of the weekend – the Pack used five walks and a wild pitch to support five hits in plating their seven runs in the frame. Head and Josh Hogue started the inning with walks, with Head scoring on a single by Chris McHugh. DeCriscio then walked to load the bases, and Sosa brought in two more runs on his second double of the game.

That was a major turning point in the game, giving State some much-needed momentum and prompting a pitching change for the Cardinals. That pitching change didn’t seem to matter much, though, as Fraasman walked to again load the bases and Nixon put the Pack ahead with a double.

Nixon would come around to score on a Head single to cap the scoring for the inning with State staked to a 9-7 lead.

Louisville, to their credit, had a fast response with a 4-run frame in the 5th inning to take back the lead. A single sandwiched by a pair of HBPs brought the end of the outing for Willadsen (1.1 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 3 HBP, 0 K) and brought on Camden Wimbish. The sophomore allowed all three inherited runners to score, as well as one of his own. By the time Wimbish (1.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K) left, Louisville was back on top 11-9.

State again had a quick response in their next trip to the dish. Sosa walked, Fraasman doubled, and Nixon grounded out to bring Sosa across and cut the deficit to a single run. Lanphere followed with a walk and Heavner put down a sacrifice bunt to plate Fraasman and tie the game. Head followed with a single to score Lanphere and put the Pack back out ahead. This time it would last.

Jacob Dudan came on for the 6th inning and it was game over for the Cardinals from there. Dudan (4.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K) set down 12 of the 13 batters he faced, with he Louisville having no answer for him. State did push across an insurance run in the 8th for good measure, but it wasn’t needed with Dudan on the bump. Dudan picked up his third save of the year while Wimbish earned his first win.

All but one NC State starter had a hit in the game with Sosa (3-for-3, 3 2B, 3 R, 2 RBI, 3 BB) and Head (2-for-4, R, 3 RBI, BB, SF) leading the charge, and all but one starter reached base safely multiple times. Needless to say, it was a productive day at the dish for the Pack, evidenced most by a 16:2 BB:K ratio in the game. Louisville hitters meanwhile had a 3:9 BB:K ratio. In a game where both teams notched 11 hits, that was the difference.

Saturday’s game was… well, let’s just not talk about it much. The Pack had all sorts of issues in getting bludgeoned, 25-8. State did have four hitters notch multi-hit games, so we’ll focus on that: Fraasman (2-for-3, HR, 2 R, 3 RBI, BB), Nixon (2-for-3, R), Trenton Lyons (2-for-2, 2B, R, 2 RBI, 2 BB), Ryan Jaros (2-for-3, HR, R, 2 RBI). Here are the Jaros homer (I wish I had a video of the Fraasman bomb, because that’s what it was):

Sunday’s rubber match started in much the same manner as the other two games, with Louisville jumping on top in the 1st inning. A single, wild pitch, and a double gave the Cards the early lead.

The game went into a pitchers’ duel from there, despite the Pack loading the bases with two outs in the 2nd inning. The Cardinals put two men on with no outs in the 3rd, but Pack starter Ryan Marohn set down the next three batters to escape unharmed.

State grabbed the lead in the 3rd inning, with McHugh reaching on a throwing error by Louisville, one of three errors on the day for the visitors. Justin DeCriscio made Louisville pay for the mistake as he put a ball into the visitor bullpen.

The Pack struck again in the 4th with a 4-run frame to blow the game open. Much like Friday’s game, the inability of the Louisville pitching staff to locate in the zone added fuel to the fire that was the State offense. Nixon walked with one out and Trenton Lyons reached on a fielder’s choice, although he had to be lifted (Ryder Woodson entered for him) from the game after pulling his hamstring running out the grounder. Jaros loaded the bases with a walk and then Head singled to first base to plate Nixon.

With two outs, McHugh reached on a fielder’s choice to shortstop to plate Woodson. DeCriscio then pushed across Head and Jaros with a single to right field, but was thrown out at second base trying to extend his hit to a double (it was a close play).

Meanwhile, Marohn was cruising on the mound, keeping the Cards bats completely at bay. Nixon decided to assist Marohn in that effort with one heck of a catch:

State added another run in the 5th thanks again to Louisville walks. Sosa and Woodson both walked around a Fraasman fielder’s choice. Woodson would score on a Jarson single to make it a 7-1 game.

Marohn’s day ended in the top of the 7th after two men reached with two outs. His final line in picking up his 4th win of the season: 6.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K. Andrew Shaffner (1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K) would take it from there. He even had a nifty defensive play:

The Pack ended the game via mercy rule in the 8th inning. DeCriscio singled to lead off and advanced to third on two wild pitches. Fraasman and Nixon both walked, with DeCriscio scoring on ball-four wild pitch to Fraasman. Lanphere walked to load the bases and Matt Heavner walked to push across Fraasman. A wild pitch moved all runners up, including scoring Nixon. Head then walked to load the bases once again. After a fielder’s choice extended the game by an out, Heavner scored on a wild pitch to end the game.

Louisville pitchers issued 13 walks and 7 wild pitches on Sunday. For the weekend, Cardinals pitchers issued 37 walks, hit one batter, and uncorked 11 wild pitches. Those are crazy figures for a pitching staff that entered the weekend with a 12.2 BB%. Defensively, the Cards committed 4 errors and had 2 passed balls on the weekend, clearly not helping themselves in that regard.

DeCriscio (4-for-5, HR, 2 R, 4 RBI) was the only Pack player with multiple hits on Sunday as State hitters mostly – clearly – just had to be patient to make the offense work. Six State players reached base safely multiple times, including four (Sosa, Fraasman, Nixon, Heavner) with multiple walks.

The weekend was a not only a success from a conference standings standpoint, it also raised State’s RPI (as of the time of this writing) to 42nd. While there’s still work to be done in terms of looking at NCAA Regional host consideration, that’s a big step in the right direction, especially with State also having an ELO ranking of 24th and some big series still remaining on the schedule.

With the Pack heading to California for an ACC series (still weird to say) next weekend, there is no midweek game on tap this week. Get some good sleep Thursday night, because Friday’s series opener with the Golden Bears is a 9:00pm EDT first pitch.