NC State advances to Raleigh Regional final with 6-4 win over South Carolina

Wolfpack will play for a Super Regional berth on Sunday at 6:00pm

NC State used the long ball, some key defensive efforts, and quality pitching to take down South Carolina by a final score of 6-4 on Saturday night in the Raleigh Regional. The win moves the Wolfpack to within one win of advancing to a Super Regional for the first time since 2021.

Garrett Pennington was the star of the show on Saturday for the Wolfpack, and he put the home team up early with a first inning solo shot to left field.

South Carolina would tie it on a solo home run of their own courtesy of 9-hole hitter Will Tippett in the top of the 3rd inning. The Wolfpack quickly responded in the bottom half of the frame, again thanks to a long-ball from Pennington. Eli Serrano singled with one out which brought up the Wichita State transfer for his second big blast in as many plate appearances.

Dylan Brewer, starting in place of an injured Ethan Petry, accounted for the next score in the game with a solo home run in the 5th inning.

Serrano deposited the second pitch of the bottom half of that inning into the NC State bullpen to push the lead back to two for the Pack.

Unfortunately, Brewer responded again in the 7th with his second home run of the game. The Clemson transfer notched his third career two-homer game against NC State, having also done so last year in the ACC Tournament and also in 2021 in Raleigh. All told, he has 5 home runs in 8 career games against Wolfpack pitching spanning 28 at-bats.

With a freshly tied game and new life for the Gamecocks, the inability of their relief corps to throw strikes finally caught up with them. Serrano singled to start off the bottom of the 7th and Pennington followed with a four-pitch walk. Jacob Cozart worked a one-out walk and Alex Sosa then worked a five-pitch two-out walk to push across the go-ahead run for the Pack.

NC State added an insurance run in the bottom of the 8th. Matt Heavner put down a beauty of a bunt for hit to start the inning for the Pack and then moved to 2nd base on a sac bunt from Noah Soles. After a Serrano groundout, Pennington was intentionally walked, a move that would come back to bite.

With a 1-2 count, Pennington stole second base. South Carolina catcher Dalton Reeves faked the throw down to the second base and had Heavner leaning heavily toward home off third base. Reeves throw, however, plunked Heavner in the back of the head and ricocheted into foul ground allowing Heavner to score. Wild stuff, but it led to a 2-run lead for State.

Things got a little interesting in the 9th thanks to a leadoff single from Reeves, but Derrick Smith set down the next three Gamecocks batters in order to close out of the win for the Pack. With the win, NC State advances to the Raleigh Regional final at 6:00pm Sunday where they will take on the winner of South Carolina vs James Madison (at 12:00pm Sunday). As this is a double-elimination format, should the Wolfpack falter on Sunday it would set up a winner-take-all game on Monday.

Pennington (2-for-3, 2 HR, 2 R, 3 RBI, 2 BB, SB) and Serrano (3-for-5, HR, 3 R, RBI) led the way offensively for the Pack. Sosa (1-for-3, RBI, BB), Heavner (1-for-3, R, BB), and Cozart (0-for-2, 2 BB) also reached base safely multiple times in the game.

NC State starting pitcher Dom Fritton didn’t have his best stuff, but he was effective nonetheless, sporting a final line of 5.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 3 K.

As mentioned before, a few key defensive plays made a huge difference in this one, including a couple double plays. One of those was to end the 4th inning.

The other was to help squash a South Carolina threat in the 6th.

Cooper Consiglio relieved Fritton and pitched well aside from the one mistake pitch to Brewer in the 7th. Consiglio’s final line: 2.1 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K.

Derrick Smith came on with one out in the 8th and retired five of the six hitters he faced, including four via strikeout. He went heavy on his slider in the game which had exceptional bite on the evening. His final line in earning his 6th save of the year: 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K.

Logan Whitaker is set to man the bump on Sunday night for NC State with Ryan Marohn also available for the Pack. Jacob Dudan will likely also be available for the contest. First pitch is scheduled for 6:00pm.