Everything that could go wrong for NC State baseball did go wrong when Campbell rolled into Raleigh.
NC State failed to find its footing at the plate and suffered a mid game collapse on the mound, resulting in a 7-2 loss to Campbell. The loss marks NC State’s third consecutive loss.
“We weren’t very good tonight at all,” head coach Elliott Avent said. “Any aspect of the game, hitting, pitching, defense.”
The Wolfpack (18-7) failed to ever seize momentum in the game. While the Fighting Camels (15-9) fell behind early, they hung around ready to pounce when the first opportunity arose. Clinging to a 2-1 lead in the sixth inning, NC State collapsed and the floodgates opened — Campbell capitalized and ran away with the win.
Freshman pitcher Luke Hemric pitched five strong innings, however things went downhill in the sixth inning. Hemric surrendered a three-run homer that gave Campbell a 4-2 lead — a lead that the Camels never gave back. Freshman pitcher Sam Harris took over and stabilized things briefly.
Once into the seventh inning, the Fighting Camels figured out Harris and tacked on two quick base runners, forcing NC State to turn to sophomore pitcher Anderson Nance. The Pack’s best bullpen arms couldn’t stop the tidal wave of momentum from Campbell as the Camels earned back-to-back hits for three total runs. Down 7-2, the deficit became too much for the Wolfpack to handle.
Simultaneously, NC State went ice cold at the plate as its lead disappeared. The Pack failed to score a single run after the third inning, despite getting opportunities against Campbell’s bullpen. With the game spiraling out of control, the red-and-white struggled mightily against the Camels’ offspeed pitches and never adapted its plate approach.
“I thought we were not very good at all offensively,” Avent said. “Give a lot of credit to Campbell for that … but we’re gonna see good pitching the rest of the year so we just didn’t handle it well at all.”
The negative momentum is impacting all phases of the game. The lineup is in a serious slump and today it only worsened as the Pack went 4-33 at the plate. The Pack still found opportunities to get on base thanks to some walks, but with runners on base NC State was a measly 1-16 at the plate. Meanwhile the Wolfpack’s pitching remained inconsistent at best, folding when it mattered most.
“I don’t believe in carryover too much,” Avent said. “Carryover usually depends on the starting pitcher and their pitching pitched better than our pitchers tonight.”
The loss adds to a concerning trend. NC State is now on a three-game losing streak after suffering back-to-back blowout losses at Florida State. While Florida State is an impressive team and Campbell is playing excellent baseball, losing the last three games by five or more runs is a major setback.
Next up, NC State will hit the road for a weekend series at No. 3 Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets are the highest ranked opponent the Wolfpack will face this season.
