NC State Baseball sweeps UNC

NC State completed a series sweep of the rival North Carolina Tar Heels on Monday, finishing off game two, 6-1, and emphatically taking game three, 8-3.

The Wolfpack never trailed on the weekend. All told, there was only one inning of the entire series where NC State wasn’t leading.

The story of the weekend for the Pack was solid pitching, error-free defense, and early offense. That started on Friday when State jumped out to a 6-0 lead after just two innings while Reid Johnston pitched a complete game. It continued Saturday with State getting out to a 3-0 lead in the 3rd while Sam Highfill pitched 7.0 innings of one-run ball.

That game was postponed heading into the bottom of the 8th inning with the Wolfpack leading 6-1. Due to inclement weather on Sunday, the continuation of Game Two was delayed until Monday afternoon. Monday - the Game Two continuation and all of Game Three - was no different story.

Matt Willadsen took the hill for NC State to finish off Game Two, throwing two scoreless frames to close out the 6-1 victory. He then started Game Three and went 7.1 innings, pitching brilliantly at times. On the day across both games, Willadsen threw 103 pitches tallying a total line of 9.1 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 K. Evan Justice pitched the final 1.2 innings for the Pack, allowing just one base runner via a walk while striking out a pair of UNC batters.

The Wolfpack bats meanwhile plated the first five runs of the game and were ahead 6-1 after three innings, never looking back.

Game Two offensive leaders:

• Austin Murr: 2-5, 3B, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI
• Tyler McDonough: 2-4, R, BB
• Luca Tresh: 2-5, 2B
• Vojtech Mensik: 2-4
• Terrell Tatum: 1-3, HR, R, 2 RBI, BB

Game Three offensive leaders:

• Austin Murr: 2-4, 2B, HR, 3 R, 3 RBI, HBP
• Devonte Brown: 2-3, R, BB
• Jose Torres: 1-3, HR, R, RBI, SacBunt
• JT Jarrett: 1-2, 2 R, BB, HBP

NC State heads to UNC-Greensboro Tuesday for a 6:00pm game on ESPN+ before taking on Clemson in a home ACC series this coming weekend.