The No. 22 NC State baseball team suffered an 11-4 loss to No. 9 Notre Dame on Sunday afternoon at Doak Field. With a win on Friday then a canceled game on Saturday, the Fighting Irish’s win marked a two-game weekend sweep of the Wolfpack.

Six of Notre Dame’s (11-1, 2-0 ACC) 11 runs on the day were unearned. It was a common theme throughout the game that the Fighting Irish took advantage of Wolfpack (9-6, 0-2 ACC) errors and wild pitches. 

“We got to figure out how to grow up and toughen up a little bit,” said NC State head coach Elliott Avent. “We got to also figure out how to catch the baseball. It’s as simple as that for me.”

NC State starting right-handed pitcher sophomore Matt Willadsen (7 IP, 4 H, ER, 4 R, 2 BB, 6 K) struggled in the first inning. Three hits off Willadsen and an infield throwing error saw the Wolfpack trailing 3-0 early on. 

After the NC State bats went down in order in the first two innings, Notre Dame added to its lead in the third inning. An RBI sacrifice fly to right field off the bat of Carter Putz put the Wolfpack in an even deeper hole. 

Going into the fifth inning, NC State had not registered a base hit off of Notre Dame starting left-handed pitcher John Bertrand. Four hits later, NC State found itself down just 4-3. A two-RBI single up the middle from freshman shortstop Payton Green (1-3, 2 RBI) and an RBI single to right field from senior second baseman J.T. Jarrett (1-3, RBI, BB) did the damage. 

Willadsen bounced back from a shaky start, allowing just one hit after the first inning to give the Wolfpack a chance to win the game. Despite his pitch count reaching 122, Willadsen finished strong with a 1-2-3 seventh inning before giving way to the bullpen. 

“[Willadsen] was fine if we could catch the baseball early on,” Avent said. “I thought [Willadsen] pitched outstanding… We’re starting to figure out who needs to go out there, but we’ve got to figure out how to catch the baseball and get a little tougher, simple as that.”

With two runners on and two outs in the eighth, Notre Dame took advantage of a costly Wolfpack error. A routine fly ball looked like it would end the inning, but sophomore left fielder Eddie Eisert (1-4) misjudged it, allowing two runs to score. 

In the ninth, Notre Dame blew the game completely open with five runs. What was frustrating for the Wolfpack was that three of those runs were off wild pitches. The other two runs were scored on an RBI triple from T.J. Williams and an RBI groundout from Jack Brannigan. 

Redshirt junior third baseman Josh Hood (1-4, HR, RBI) smoked a solo home run to center field in the bottom of the frame to give Wolfpack fans something to cheer about. This was his third of the season. 

The Wolfpack will be back in action on Tuesday, March 15 for a nonconference matchup on the road at Elon. First pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m.