Marissa McHugh
Junior Austin Murr swings at the baseball game against James Madison on Saturday, Feb. 15 at Doak Field. In 2019 Murr was named an All-American at Des Moines Area CC.
The NC State baseball team took game two of its three-game series with James Madison 9-6 on Saturday afternoon behind an eighth-inning comeback.
Despite equaling its hit and run totals from the night before in just two innings the Wolfpack (2-0) trailed going into the eighth due to a strong third inning by the Dukes (0-2) and the Pack’s 10 runners left on base.
“Play the game for the fun of it. Play the game, because that’s what you do, and the mentality is the game is never over,” said head coach Elliott Avent. “Just really proud of how relaxed the dugout was. Can’t say they knew they were coming back, but they just kept playing the game and things happened. That’s a pretty good team out there in James Madison.”
After pinch hitters junior J.T. Jarrett and sophomore Marek Chlup reached base on back-to-back singles, the latter of which was pinch ran for by his countryman sophomore Vojtech Mensik, the two were put in scoring position by a balk and eventually brought home by a double in the gap from junior first baseman Austin Murr. Those two runs tied the game at 6-6, but the Pack wasn’t done there.
Sophomore Tyler McDonough singled to put runners on the corners and junior Patrick Bailey followed that up with his fourth walk of the day, loading the bases. Junior outfielder Jonny Butler then brought the two home with a hard-hit grounder down the first-base line, giving the Wolfpack its first lead since the fourth third inning.
“I’m feeling really good,” Butler said. “It helps that I’ve got a lot of great batters in front of me that have been getting on. It’s a lot harder for a pitcher to be throwing when he’s got runner on, so they’ve been a big help to me.”
A wild pitch brought home junior outfielder Devonte Brown for a ninth and final run before pinch hitter junior Vazquez flew out to right field. The Pack closed it out with a three-up-three-down final frame and senior lefty Kent Klyman earned his second save of the weekend.
However, the Wolfpack got its offense fired up early than the night before with Murr starting the game off with a lead-off home run on just the third pitch he saw. Junior center fielder Jonny Butler followed up Murr a few at-bats later, scoring junior catcher Patrick Bailey who had reached on a walk.
“Took me a few at-bats early, yesterday, to get the jitters out and get going,” Murr said. “Something we’ve been working on all year is to have a smooth approach at the plate… [The pitcher] tried to go in on the second pitch, so I adjusted my body a little bit and he threw another in that I was able to get to.”
Murr followed up his home run with an RBI single in the second inning, then freshman shortstop Jose Torres scored on a wild pitch to bring the Wolfpack’s lead to four, but it would not last long.
The Dukes put up four runs in the third inning to tie the game up, all four off freshman starter Matt Willadsen. Willadsen gave up three hits and a hit by pitch in five batters, allowing three runs to score with one out before giving the ball to junior Evan Justice. Justice allowed the last Willadsen base runner to score on a third strike that went to the backstop.
Then, in the fourth inning, James Madison tacked on a go-ahead run with a pair of singles. Justice pitched through the fifth inning, allowing just one and three hits.
The Pack was poised to take the lead back in the fifth inning, loading the bases with no outs. With two lefties coming up in the order, Avent decided to pinch hit for both of them and both of those players struck out. That brought Torres to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs, but he also struck out, stranding three runners on.
The score stayed stagnant until the eighth inning, thanks in large part to freshman pitcher Sam Highfill, who pitched three innings, allowed three hits and a run, and got the win.
“[Willadsen] went out there early, got first and third rolled a ground ball double play. [Willadsen and Highfill are] very composed for freshmen, and freshmen from right here, it makes it a little different,” Avent said. “You’re in your hometown, guys you grew up with, family, aunts here, stuff like that. Lot of eyes on you. I thought they’re both very composed and both pitch very well. Sam Highfill gets his first college W, he won’t forget that.”
As he often does early in the season, Avent shuffled around his lineup from the night before. Mensik and Jarrett both went to the bench and were replaced by senior Lawson McArthur and Tarrell Tatum who slotted into the corner outfield positions. Brown and McDonough slid to third base and second base, respectively, and Butler moved from right to center field.
“We’ve got a lot of [versatility] which is good,” Avent said. “It also gives me a lot of decisions that sometimes I don’t want to make. Sometimes you can out-think yourself or out-decision yourself so I try not to do that but we do have some flexibility and today it showed up.”
Although it wasn’t the prettiest win, the Pack continues its comeback mentality from last season and will try to sweep the home series Sunday at 1 p.m. Follow @TechSports on Twitter for updates.