Throughout the season, NC State baseball has fared well against ranked ACC opponents. In fact, the Wolfpack hasn’t dropped a ranked conference series all season. However, the red-and-white hasn’t been able to secure the coveted series sweep.
That is, until now.
It all seemed too similar to how the Pack’s previous ACC series had gone in its regular season finale against No. 8 Wake Forest, who held a 5-1 lead through four innings and threatened to ward off the series sweep by running away with the Saturday afternoon contest.
But on Senior Day, the Wolfpack (32-19, 18-11 ACC) flipped the script on the Demon Deacons (36-19, 15-15 ACC), mounting an 8-1 comeback run through the final five innings. The comeback included three runs in the eighth to seal the deal and complete the sweep at Doak Field with a 9-6 win over one of the best teams in college baseball.
“We’re just playing like we know we’re the best team out there,” said junior catcher Jacob Cozart. “This team — as people have been saying all year long — we’re resilient. I mean, I don’t care what the score is going into the back end of the game, I feel like we have a shot.”
Like its other ranked ACC series, NC State had already clinched the series with two wins in the previous two days in walk-off fashion. While those wins seemed to have solidified NC State as a host for the NCAA Regional round, there was still plenty to play for heading into Saturday’s game, including an opportunity to lock up an all-important top-four spot in next week’s ACC Tournament with a win.
If the Pack was going to get one of those top four spots, it was going to have to come back from a 5-1 deficit, which the Deacs created after scoring three runs in the third inning and adding one more in the fourth.
The spark for the comeback came in the bottom of the fifth inning from none other than Cozart. After an RBI single by graduate first baseman Garrett Pennington cut the lead to 5-2, Cozart stepped to the plate with two men on base with a chance to tie the game. Like he has done 15 other times this season, Cozart smoked a home run, knotting the score at 5-5 and bringing a new sense of life into the Doak.
“We just have all the trust in the world for each other knowing that if we don’t get our job done, the next person is going to pick you up,” Cozart said. “I mean, that’s the way this team has been built all year, this is the kind of team that Avent has programmed us to be.”
Wake responded with another run to regain the lead at 6-5 in the top of the sixth, but that lead didn’t last for long as freshman designated hitter Alex Sosa hit the Pack’s second home run in as many innings, a solo shot off the scoreboard that tied it back up 6-6.
One full scoreless inning later and the Pack had a chance to take its first lead with two men in scoring position in the bottom of the eighth. The opportunity fell on the shoulders of sophomore center fielder Eli Serrano, who hit a seemingly simple grounder to shortstop but reached first base on a throwing error, allowing Sosa to run home for the go-ahead — and eventual game-winning — run.
But NC State wasn’t done there. The next batter, Pennington, hit a double down the right field line, scoring Serrano and senior right fielder Noah Soles to give the Pack a comfortable 9-6 lead heading into the ninth.
“Arguably, we play our best baseball towards the end,” Cozart said. “Which, usually it’s the opposite, you play your best at the beginning but this team plays better and better as the game goes on. We just never give up. We always know there’s a chance.”
The man on the mound for the Pack up until that point, freshman left-hander Ryan Marohn, had given his team a chance to win the game, letting up just one earned run and throwing four strikeouts in four innings of the comeback. But now the time came for NC State to go to its closer, sophomore right-hander Derrick Smith, who came with the heat.
Smith showed no mercy towards the Deacs, striking out the side, the top of Wake Forest’s lineup with pitch speeds high into the 90s to close out the series sweep for the Pack.
The win clinched a third-seed in the ACC Tournament for NC State, who will play in Pool C with Duke and Virginia Tech in Charlotte. The Pack will just need to beat the winner of the game between Duke and Virginia Tech to advance to the semifinal on Saturday.
“We know our end goal is to win championships and go to Omaha,” Cozart said. “I mean, we put ourselves in a great position to be in the three-seed going into the ACC Tournament and get that bye game. So I mean that just puts us in a great position to go out and win it and plus we’re playing really good as a team right now.”
The Pack also celebrated an emotional senior day before its win. NC State’s nine seniors were honored and celebrated overcoming adversity throughout the entire season as well as the Wolfpack’s impressive run it has made during conference play.
“You don’t have to win on senior day, but these seniors will never forget this game and how it happened,” said head coach Elliott Avent. “And then they’ll reflect back to how this weekend happened. And then they’ll reflect back how they started this season and how they stuck through things. And what they were able to do, what they’ve done the last six or seven weeks has been nothing short of amazing.”
NC State now sets its sights on the ACC Tournament in Charlotte and could play as early as May 22 in the Queen City.
