The baseball team (17-15, 6-9 ACC) rode the arm of freshman starting pitcher Cory Mazzoni to a 10-2 win over UNCW (17-11) Tuesday night at Doak Field. The right-handed Mazzoni entered the contest carrying a 12.46 ERA and an 0-3 record, but he was able to shut down a sputtering Seahawks offense, allowing just one earned run on six innings pitched and striking out five.
“He was outstanding. That’s the way he was all fall and all preseason. He got off to a rough start like a lot of us did. For a while there, he probably lost his confidence,” coach Elliott Avent said. “It’s a big boost for the team, because if we get Cory Mazzoni going, that certainly gets us a third starter for the weekend.”
Mazzoni set the tone early in the game, retiring all six batters faced in the first two innings–a feat State’s pitching staff failed to accomplish in the final six innings of Sunday’s 11-10 loss to Boston College Sunday.
“It’s really big–just to be able to throw my pitches for strikes and work ahead [in the count],” Mazzoni said. “The team got me a nice lead there and I was able to relax and really focus on my pitching.”
The Pack came into Tuesday averaging 1.74 errors per game, but did not commit a single one against the Seahawks. Avent said it was the kind of defensive performance he has expected from the team all season.
“So far we haven’t shown we’re a great defensive team, but I think we are,” Avent said. “We are certainly better than last year.”
The Pack was able to jump to an early lead with runs in the first and third innings but really piled it on in the fourth with a five run barrage at the expense of Seahawks pitchers Justin Bradley and Tyler Smith.
State entered Tuesday’s game after getting beat 14-4 by rival East Carolina Wednesday at home and then dropping two of three at Boston College over the weekend. Avent said a win is important heading into the weekend series.
“This team hasn’t had a lot of breaks,” Avent said. “It’s big for this team to win right now. I think it’s even bigger to come back after that tough loss at Boston College with a 10-2 lead.”
The Pack’s offense, which averaged 8.71 runs over the previous seven games, continued to put runs on the board. Senior Devon Cartwright, junior Drew Poulk and redshirt senior Pat Ferguson, the No. 2, 3 and 4 hitters respectively, each added a homerun as the three combined for seven RBIs against the Seahawks.
Junior centerfielder Kyle Wilson became just the eighth N.C. State baseball player to steal 20 bases in a season Tuesday as he was able to rack up three against UNCW. Avent said Wilson, who went 2-4 and an RBI, is an asset to State’s offense.
“He’s one of the best base stealers in this league,” Avent said. “I am trying, but I can’t think of a better base stealer in the league.”
Wilson was not the only one to reach a milestone against UNCW. Avent notched his 700th career win with the Wolfpack, a fact that he was unaware of. Avent said he is more concerned with the quality of baseball on the field. According to Wilson, the team showed up to the ballpark with a different attitude Tuesday.
“Ever since we got to the ball park today, there was a completely different attitude,” Wilson said. “Hopefully we ride this out and continue what we’ve been doing. This season, obviously, hasn’t been as great as we’d like it to be. People have been struggling a little bit. I think today, everybody just came to the ballpark, was relaxed and played the way they can play.”
State will head to Durham this weekend hoping to improve its ACC record against the Duke Blue Devils (20-11, 7-8 ACC). Avent said he hopes the team can continue to compete like it did Tuesday.
“It’s the first time this year I looked at our team and thought we looked like a complete baseball team,” Avent said. “We made one mistake all night. We played like the baseball team we thought we were going to be all year. We were very impressive tonight.”
