NC State baseball failed yet again to capture an ACC series away from home, this time losing a pair of games to Stanford.
The Wolfpack has had a tough time away from the Doak this season. The bats have not been the same without the home crowd energy, and the team has lost every single road series.
NC State (31-19, 13-14 ACC) took a break after its series win against Miami, canceling its matchup against NC A&T and focusing on Stanford (25-23, 12-15 ACC). That may have been a momentum buster, as the Cardinal gave the Pack major trouble.
Game 1: NC State 5, Stanford 6
In the opener, the Wolfpack looked to start the series with a bang, leading for a majority of the game behind another strong performance from junior lefthander Cooper Consiglio. The Pack held the Cardinal at bay for six straight innings, only to allow it to climb its way back into the game in the eighth frame.
Consiglio picked up eight strikeouts, just one shy of the career high he posted in the previous series against Miami, and allowed for only two runs to cross the plate. His efforts during the back half of the season have been valiant, as he is still posting career numbers despite having six losses.
The Pack held a narrow 3-2 lead over the Cardinal as it entered the bottom of the eighth. Consiglio had been retired for the day after six innings, and sophomore righty Ryder Garino came on to defend the lead.
It wasn’t an inning to remember for Garino, as he allowed four runs to cross the plate off of three hits, reclaiming a 6-3 lead for the Cardinal, and sealing the Pack off from the win.
Junior third baseman Sherman Johnson stepped up on offense and was unconscious at the plate in Game 1. After going three-for-three with a home run and three runs batted in, Johnson extended his extra-base hitting streak to eight over his last six games.
Game 2: NC State 12, Stanford 7
With its back against the wall, the Wolfpack needed to make some magic happen in Game 2, and that’s exactly what it did.
With the Cardinal coming out of the blocks fast with five early runs, the Wolfpack had to make up some major ground after the first three frames. With the bases loaded, Stanford tried a pitching change, and the Wolfpack jumped all over it. The Pack hit a pair of infield ground-balls that turned into a pair of runs and never looked back.
The fifth inning was blown wide open by NC State, as it posted five more runs to reclaim the lead 7-5. The Pack recorded 12 hits and worked deep into the Cardinal bullpen, facing eight different arms.
Sophomore centerfielder Ty Head got every single stitch of the baseball to connect with his barrel in the top of the eighth, crushing a 354-ft moonshot over the right field wall. This marks Head’s 13th homer of the season, solidifying him as the sole leader amongst the team in home runs.
Johnson was also a factor at home plate, recording back-to-back three-run games.
Game 3: NC State 5, Stanford 9
With each team having a win over the other under its belt, it was clear that Game 3 was not going to be a cakewalk for either team. The Wolfpack got off to another slow start and didn’t have enough time to mount a comeback, falling apart in the seventh inning to ruin any chances of that.
Junior right-hander Heath Andrews got the start for head coach Elliott Avent, but his time on the mound was short-lived; facing 12 batters in 2.1 innings. Andrews loaded the bases and then allowed a run to score off a single, prompting a meeting on the mound as the Cardinal struck blood first.
Andrews finished the game with two hits and two earned runs, earning his second loss of the season. In the second, the Pack was down 2-0, and sophomore righty Nance Anderson was given the mound for a large remainder of the contest. He threw two scoreless innings, but allowed five runs and seven hits, as the Cardinals figured him out in the eighth, scoring four runs and stretching the lead to 7-3.
Johnson rounded out his series with another homer. The 375-ft bomb was his seventh of the year, and the two-run homer showcased Johnson as the only player wearing red-and-white to record more than one run batted in.
The Wolfpack were too little, too late against Stanford. NC State scored runs in each of the final two innings, but it wasn’t enough to surpass the big lead the Cardinal had built.
The Wolfpack return to Raleigh for its last series of the season against No. 2 North Carolina on Thursday, May 14th, in The Doak. First pitch is set for 7 p.m.
