The NC State and No. 8 Florida State baseball teams slugged it out for nearly 10 hours in a 26-inning doubleheader on Sunday, March 20.
The Wolfpack (11-8, 1-4 ACC) took game one easily, winning 15-4 in nine innings to secure its first conference win of the year. The Seminoles (13-6, 4-2 ACC) eventually took game two, winning 6-5 after 17 innings of baseball.
Game one
The Pack’s first conference win of the season was spearheaded by the return of Tommy Tanks, who led the Pack with four RBIs and two home runs. After starting the year with nine home runs in eight games, freshman designated hitter Tommy White had gone nine games without a homer prior to the first game of the doubleheader.
White was one of four members of the Pack to record multiple RBIs in the game, with sophomore left fielder Dominic Pilolli and senior center fielder Devonte Brown each driving in three, and freshman catcher Jacob Cozart bringing two home.
The Wolfpack also got an excellent start from sophomore righty Matt Willadsen, who allowed three earned runs on five hits, while striking out seven in six innings of work. Junior right-hander Baker Nelson relieved Willadsen to start the seventh, recording his first save of the season. Nelson allowed one earned run on two hits in his three innings of work.
Game two
The second game of the day was far closer, with FSU taking a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth and the Wolfpack steadily whittling away that lead to head into the ninth tied 3-3. Nine innings proved to not be enough to separate the two, with the game eventually ending after 17 innings
The Seminoles’ trio of fifth-inning runs all came from a two-out bases-loaded single. While the first two runners touched home as earned runs, the runner who started the play on first made it home on a throwing error by Pilolli.
Scoring one run in each of the next three innings, the Pack got itself back into the game. Redshirt junior shortstop Josh Hood accounted for two of those runs, hitting a sac fly in the sixth and a solo home run in the eighth, while freshman third baseman Payton Green’s seventh-inning RBI single brought home the other.
Both teams managed to put two runners on base in the ninth, but neither could capitalize, sending the game to extra innings.
Brown finally broke the deadlock in the top of the 12th inning, hitting a two-run shot to center field. The lead wouldn’t last, however, as FSU responded with a two-run bomb of its own in the bottom of the frame.
After four and a half more innings of scoreless baseball, the Seminoles called game with a walkoff solo shot in the bottom of the 17th.
Redshirt sophomore righty Logan Whitaker got the start for the Pack, throwing 3.1 innings of one-hit ball, but seven different pitchers saw action in the lengthy game. Sophomore lefty Chris Villaman and freshman righty Carson Kelly did the bulk of the relief work.
Villaman struck out 12, giving up no runs on four hits in five innings of work. Kelly took over for Villaman to start the 11th, pitching three full innings and giving up two earned runs.
Sophomore right-handed pitcher Justin Lawson took the loss for the Pack.
NC State will be back in action on Tuesday, March 22 as it hosts NC A&T. First pitch is set for 6 p.m.
