No. 17 NC State baseball team defeated Navy 13-8 Friday night in its first game – a six hour and 32 minute affair – of the NCAA Raleigh Regional.
All the talk leading up to Friday night’s game was about the dominance of Midshipmen (42-15-1) senior starting pitcher Luke Gillingham (8-3, 2.35 ERA), and rightfully so, but when it came to playing time, the Wolfpack (36-20) was able to hit him – hard and often. In fact, it was the other starting pitcher, Brian Brown (7-3, 3.55 ERA), who had the better performance, and looked as good as he has in a while.
“Brian Brown has been so special for us for two years,” NC State head coach Elliot Avent said. “I don’t think you expect it to be a 13-8 game. Certainly you don’t expect to get out of here at two o’clock in the morning, but that’s what it takes this time of year.”
Brown got himself in a little bit of trouble early but was able to get out of each of the first two innings unscathed. In the third and fourth, he settled down, not allowing a hit and keeping the game even for the Pack until its offense found its usual form.
After getting multiple scoring opportunities but leaving four runners on base in the first three innings, the Wolfpack finally broke through in the fourth. Sophomore right fielder Brock Deatherage led off the inning with a double to center field, followed up with a single by junior catcher Andrew Knizner to drive in the first run of the game.
Brown got into a two on, one-out jam again in the fifth inning, and with the Pack only up 1-0 Avent was forced to replace him. Freshman righty Austin Staley came in and immediately got NC State out of the inning by inducing a double play ball – the third inning-ending double play Navy hit into through the first five innings.
The Wolfpack got to the Midshipmen’s ace pitcher again in the bottom of the fifth, blasting two bombs out of the park to make it 5-0. In his four years at Navy, he had given up a total of four home runs entering the game.
Sophomore second baseman Stephen Pitarra began the breakout inning with a double to left center. Junior first baseman Preston Palmeiro belted his ninth home run of the year, while Knizner registered his fifth of the season and first since March 22 against UNC-Wilmington.
The game was suspended and the ballpark was evacuated in the bottom of the fifth inning with two outs because of lightning in the surrounding area of Doak Field.
The three hour and eight minute delay didn’t slow down the Pack one bit as freshman left fielder Brett Kinneman went yard in the first at-bat when play resumed. Two batters later, sophomore center fielder Josh McLain homered to left center, setting a NC State postseason record of four home runs in one inning, to make it 8-0.
“When we came back from that [three] hour delay, I thought we had our best at-bats of the night,” Avent said. “When Navy kept putting those runs on our bullpen, our guys kept responding offensively.”
The two teams traded a plethora of runs in the final three innings, 13 to be exact, highlighted by senior designated hitter Chance Shepard’s grand slam in the bottom of the seventh inning.
“I was really looking for something to drive, right there – something to put in the gap and get a couple guys in,” Shepard said. “Thats our focus: to answer whenever they score runs…There was three really good at-bats in front of me. I was lucky enough to get a pitch I could handle and put a good swing on it.”
The Wolfpack held off the Midshipmen to win 13-8 and return to action Saturday at 7 p.m. against Coastal Carolina.
