Facing elimination, the NC State baseball team answered the bell Saturday, knocking off Northeastern with a 9-3 win at Doak Field in its second game of the Raleigh Regional.
Freshman catcher Patrick Bailey and junior first baseman Evan Edwards carried the load offensively for the Wolfpack (41-17); Bailey blasted two home runs for a total of five RBIs and Edwards chipped in three with a third-inning, base-clearing triple against the Huskies (36-21).
“When you have your back against the wall you can come out swinging or you can kind of come out tentative,” head coach Elliott Avent said. “These guys have always been swingers and sluggers. They battle; that’s what they’ve done.”
Senior starting pitcher Brian Brown earned the start on the mound for the Wolfpack. The 2018 ACC Pitcher of the Year and Golden Spikes Award semifinalist broke the NC State record with his 61st career start, and went the distance.
“That’s my goal every time I go out,” Brown said. “And especially with our season on the line, I had to step up for us. I think I did that.”
Brown cruised through his second complete game of the season, allowing just three runs on eight hits while striking out eight and walking none on 131 total pitches.
“Brian Brown, what do you say about him,” Avent said. “I talked to him before the game, I said, ‘Brian you know you need to not only give us what you’ve given us for four years; you need to give us a little more.’ He did. He went the distance and even finished the game in rain that made it very hard to throw a baseball.”
The Pack’s offense got off to a quick start in this one. After senior center fielder Josh McLain, who finished with three hits, led off with a first-pitch single up the middle, Bailey launched a rocket over the center-field wall with two outs to put NC State up 2-0.
It was nice to get going early today,” McLain said. “We scored one run last night. We wanted to get ahead early. That’s what our approach and our plan was all day. I got on base and he hit that home run; I knew that was going to get a spark for the rest of the day.
The Pack tacked on four runs in the top of the third. With the bases loaded and two outs, Edwards dropped a triple into the left-field corner, clearing the bases to put NC State up 5-0. Senior right fielder Brock Deatherage then singled home Edwards to make it 6-0 Wolfpack.
That two-out rally chased Huskies starting pitcher David Stiehl, who allowed six runs on five hits while walking two in 2.2 innings pitched.
Northeastern got on the board with a solo shot to left from designated hitter Scott Holzwasser to make it 6-1.
Bailey extended NC State’s lead in the top of the fifth, launching his second homer of the game over the left-field wall to make it 9-1. The long ball was Bailey’s 13th of the year, setting a new NC State single-season freshman record.
“It’s always fun playing in these types of atmospheres,” Bailey said. “With all the fans; we always get great crowds here. It’s always fun to just try and do what I’ve been doing all year and get a pitch I can hit.”
The Huskies made it 9-2 with an RBI triple in the bottom of the eighth, and 9-3 with a solo shot to center in the ninth.
With pouring rain in the bottom of the ninth, Brown managed to finish the game off, sandwiching three strikeouts around Northeastern’s home run.
“I took the ball with three fingers instead of two and I was just trying to throw it to the plate,” Brown said. “If they hit it; they hit it.”
NC State will face the loser of Army and Auburn’s game at 2 p.m. Sunday, once again needing a victory to stave off elimination.
