The NC State baseball team lost to Notre Dame 5-4 Friday night at Frank Eck Stadium in South Bend, Indiana in the opening game of its three-game series.
A two-run seventh inning gave the Fighting Irish (18-22, 11-11 ACC) a late lead it never relinquished, and the Wolfpack (32-11, 13-9 ACC) lost the first game of an ACC series for the third weekend in a row.
NC State drew first blood, scoring a run in the top of the second inning when sophomore infielder David Vazquez grounded out and scored senior first baseman Evan Edwards from third base.
Notre Dame answered right back in the bottom half of the inning, knocking around junior right-hander Jason Parker for two hits and drawing three walks to score two runs and take a 2-1 lead.
Freshman outfielder Luca Tresh tied the game up in the top of the fourth inning, crushing the first pitch he saw over the right-field wall for a home run, evening the game up at 2-2.
The Fighting Irish responded immediately yet again, as infielder Jared Miller took sophomore left-hander David Harrison deep to right field for a go-ahead solo home run in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Continuing the game’s back-and-forth scoring trend, redshirt junior infielder Dillon Cooper drew a one-out walk and sophomore outfielder Jonny Butler homered to right field one batter later to put NC State up 4-3.
Nursing a one-run lead in the bottom of the seventh inning, Harrison let up back-to-back singles to start the inning, and after striking out the next batter on three straight pitches, Harrison’s 2-0 offering to infielder Jack Zyska found too much of the plate. Zyska laced a double to left-center, scoring the tying and go-ahead runs for the Fighting Irish.
A two-out walk was all the Wolfpack could muster in the top of the eighth inning and in its last at-bat in the ninth, the Pack went down in order for its third straight series-opening loss.
Butler and Edwards led the Pack with two hits apiece, and Tresh, Vazquez and freshman outfielder Tyler McDonough each picked up one.
Parker and Harrison each lasted 3.1 innings, with Parker allowing three runs and Harrison ceding two.
With the loss, NC State is now 1-7 in its last eight ACC games after starting off conference play 12-2.
NC State will return to action on Saturday at 2 p.m. in the second game of the series at Frank Eck Stadium.
