The No. 6 N.C. State Wolfpack defeated the Michigan Wolverines, 3-0, at Doak Field Friday in its opening match of the Irish Classic. The victory was the eighth straight for the Wolfpack, improving State to 8-1 on the season.
Junior pitcher Logan Jernigan started for the Wolfpack and hurled 7.1 innings of shutout ball to pick up his second win of the season. The right-hander from Four Oaks has pitched 15.1 straight scoreless innings. Junior right-hander Eric Peterson pitched in the ninth inning to earn his first save of the campaign.
“[Jernigan] is like 6’4”, when he pounds the ball in the zone he is almost impossible to hit,” N.C. State head coach Elliott Avent said. “He has got a good breaking ball. If you look at his numbers since he got here, he does not get hit.”
The Pack jumped out early against Michigan’s junior pitcher Trent Szkutnik (0-2 overall). State pushed a run across in the bottom of the first inning when junior catcher Brett Austin opened the frame with a double. Junior centerfielder Jake Fincher sacrificed Austin to third base and the Charlotte-native scored on a passed ball.
“They were a good team,” Austin said. “They came out and their pitcher was pretty good, and Jernigan was just better. That is what we needed to do. We came out swinging and had some clutch hits too.”
“[Jernigan] was unbelievable, probably the best I’ve ever seen him. He was just getting first-pitch outs. It was the best I’ve seen him.”
State added two insurance runs in the bottom of the second inning with three straight two-out singles. Szkutnik would settle down after that and finished with two earned runs allowed on eight hits in 6.1 innings pitched to take the hard luck loss.
“I thought [Szkutnik] was outstanding,” Avent said. “He has movement, a great breaking ball and changeup and he kept it down in the zone. It was not what we didn’t do afterwards, I thought it was what a great job we did early.”
N.C. State will return to action on Saturday at the USA Baseball Complex in Cary against defending national champion No. 19 UCLA, with first pitch set for 4:30 p.m. Last season, the Bruins edged the Pack, 2-1, in Omaha, Neb. at the 2013 College World Series, highlighted by then-sophomore Trea Turner’s long flyout that fell short of the fence in the cavernous T.D. Ameritrade Park.
“There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think about it [Turner’s flyout],” Avent said. “I thought that was gone. We win the national championship if we win that game, no doubt in my mind. If you beat them [Saturday], you still don’t win the national championship, [but] if you play with them, you know you have a chance to win the national championship.”
