NC State takes down Bryant, 9-2, to stay in winners bracket of Raleigh Regional

The Wolfpack are set to take on South Carolina today at 6:00pm

It took NC State’s bats a bit of time to get going, but a 3-run 3rd inning and a 4-run 6th propelled the Wolfpack to victory in their opening game of the Raleigh Regional on Friday. With the win, State will take on 2-seed South Carolina on Saturday evening.

Bryant got on the scoreboard first with a 2nd inning solo home run by Jackson Phinney on a high fly ball that just cleared the left field wall. Aside from that one ball, Sam Highfill cruised on the mound for the Pack until he left the game in the 7th inning.

While Highfill kept the Bulldog bats at bay, State’s lineup finally started pushing runs across the plate. Despite getting multiple runners on base in each of the first two innings, the Pack didn’t break through until the 3rd. Garrett Pennington led off the inning with – what else – but a double to left center. Alec Makarewicz followed up with a double of his own off the wall in the left field corner to even the score at 1.

A-Mak advanced a bag on a groundout by Jacob Cozart and then Brandon Butterworth poked a single through the right side of a drawn-in infield to bring him home.

Butters stole second base, advanced to third on an Alex Sosa double, and then scored on a Luke Nixon sac bunt to put the Pack up 3-1.

From the 3rd through 6th, Highfill only faced one batter more than the minimum thanks to a pair of inning-ending double plays in the 4th and 5th innings.

Luke Nixon led off the bottom of the 6th with a walk for the Pack. Matt Heavner bunted him over after taking a foul ball off the family jewels. Noah Soles made sure Nixon would make it home with an epic home run.

Eli Serrano kept the inning going with a single and Pennington followed with his second double of the game to put two more men in scoring position. After a pitching change, Makarewicz singled home Serrano and Butterworth singled home Pennington later in the inning to make it a 7-1 Pack advantage heading into the 7th inning.

Bryant wouldn’t go easily and back-to-back doubles to start off the 7th put an end to Highfill’s night. His final line: 6.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K on 75 pitches. It was an efficient and effective evening for The Mayor. He probably could have gone longer, but Jacob Dudan was brought on to secure the win and he did just that, tossing 3.0 scoreless, hitless frames with 6 strikeouts. The only baserunner he allowed reached via an error.

The Pack tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the 8th. Serrano reached on a strikeout thanks to a passed ball and Pennington walked. Makarewicz doubled to bring home Serrano for State’s 8th run of the evening.

With first base open, Cozart was intentionally walked for the second time in the game. With two out, Sosa walked to push across the 9th and final run of the evening.

Three State batters tallied multi-hit efforts in the game: Makarewicz (4-for-5, 3 2B, 2 R, 3 RBI), Pennington (2-for-4, 2 2B, 2 R, BB), and Butterworth (2-for-5, R, 2 RBI, SB). Soles (1-for-3, HR, R, 2 RBI, BB), Serrano (1-for-4, 2 R, HBP), Sosa (1-for-4, 2B, RBI, BB), and Cozart (0-for-3, 2 BB) also reached base safely multiple times in the game.

I’ll leave you with this: