Sports!

Andy Cosgrove is proving to be a spark for NC State, which sputtered out of the gates after some lofty preseason rankings but has won four straight. The Pack nine earned their first ACC series win Saturday after waiting out a rain delay to down Miami 5-2. Cosgrove, who has wrestled the starting catching duties from Brad Debo and Jack Conley, went 3-for-4 with a double and scored a pair of runs.

Cosgrove is batting well over .300 and has been solid behind the dish as well.

Brian Brown went three strong innings, fanning three and allowing just one hit, before being shut down by the long rain delay. Tommy DeJuneas went from DH to pitcher (and later back to DH, which apparently is a thing) and worked through the middle innings with just one run allowed. Cody Beckman returned from injury with 2.1 innings and looked fairly sharp, but he was undone by a rain-aided infield hit followed by a triple in the ninth. Austin Staley came on to close and, after walking the first man he faced, got a comebacker that he turned into a 1-6-3 double play to end the game.

With the Pack trailing 1-0, Cosgrove started a State rally with a one-out single in the fifth. Following a Brock Deatherage walk, Josh McLain laced a double down the leftfield line to knot the score. Deatherage put the Pack up a run on a wild pitch. McClain finished 3-for-4, helping the Pack outhit the Canes 10-6.

Cosgrove ignited the Pack’s next rally with a one-out double in the bottom of the seventh and scored on a Deatherage single. After a McClain single, Will Wilson tripled down the rightfield line to push the Pack advantage to 5-1.

With the return of Beckman and Brown from injury, along with Sean Adler’s serviceable results and Kent Klyman’s solid freshman season so far, State now has the luxury of four lefties. The pitching is coming together, as evidenced by a team 3.79 ERA.

State goes for the sweep, and a 4-2 ACC mark, behind Dalton Feeney (2-0, 0.73 ERA) Sunday at noon. The game will be broadcast on the ACC Network Extra.

Wrestling

Kevin Jack finished third at 141 pounds at the NCAA championships to earn All-America honors for the third time in as many seasons. He was the lone Pack grappler to earn A-A status a year after three accomplished the feat. Jack finished the season 35-2 and avenged the tournament loss that derailed his title run with a pin of Bryce Meredith, who had upset Jack earlier in the tournament, in the third-place bout.

Sean Fausz and Michael Macchiavello both came up one win short of earning All-America honors. All three will be back next year. At last look, the Pack were 17^th in the team standings. (I’ll double check that in the morning, but I believe that’s after all bouts are complete).

Women’s Swimming

NC State’s women’s swimming team finished seventh at the NCAAs, the highest finish in program history. According to gopack.com, the team “collected 25 All-America honors, broke five school records and two conference records.”

Alexia Zevnik had the women’s most impressive finish, coming in the 200 backstroke, with her second-place time of 1:49.09. It’s the sixth fastest time in NCAA history and broke both the school and conference record. Zevnik, a senior, has 10 All-America honors in her career.

The men will compete for an NCAA title from March 22-25 at the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis, which is also where the women’s event was held.

Softball

The Pack ladies are showing some life. After a 6-15 start to the season, State has righted the ship in ACC play. State escaped with an 8-6 win Saturday to claim the series against Virginia despite getting outhit 17-9. The club is 4-1 in ACC play with a chance to sweep the Hoos Sunday at noon.

Molly Hutchison and Tyler Ross homered for State. Haley Finn had a couple of hits and drove in three.

Brittany Nimmo miraculously allowed just three runs despite giving up 10 hits and two walks in five innings. She got the win. Harli Hubbard was rocked in relief, so Peyton Silverman, who went the distance in game one of the series, had to come on for the save. She allowed a run but got a strikeout to end the game with the tying runs on base. Virginia left 13 runners on.