Pitching powers Pack past Deacs, 2-1

NC State secures their fourth series win over a Top 10 opponent with the walk-off win

Chase Burns was absolutely electric for Wake Forest on Friday night in Raleigh, but NC State’s pitching staff was the better group and the Wolfpack topped the Demon Deacons by a final score of 2-1 to secure the series win.

First things first, Burns was every bit of his Top 10 draft stock on the night, striking out 13 over 7.0 innings of work, allowing just one unearned run in the process. For all that effort, though, the combination of Dominic Fritton, Andrew Shaffner, and Jacob Dudan for NC State was better. That group allowed just one run on three hits to Wake’s powerful lineup. That’s amazing work.

State’s defense came to play, too, making a bunch of huge plays to get out of jams as Wake stranded 11 runners in the game.

There was the 5-3 double play in the 3rd:

And then a 6-3 DP in the 9th:

In between there were some huge pitches, too. Shaffner came on in the 5th in relief of Fritton with a man on 2nd and 2 out. He struck out Jack Winnay swinging to keep it at a one-run game.

Shaffner hasn’t pitched near as much as was expected of him this year, but he showed up huge in this one going 1.2 scoreless innings of relief. He wasn’t perfect, but he put up a goose egg in the stat line where it mattered most, and his efforts in the win should not be overlooked.

Back to huge pitching performances, Dudan entered with two on and one out in the 7th. After walking the first batter faced (on a questionable call), Dudan responded by getting a strikeout and a groundout to get out of the jam.

Both teams notched a run in the 5th inning with Wake scoring thanks to a leadoff hit-by-pitch, a passed ball, and a Marek Houston double. NC State responded in the inning with a Luke Nixon single and stolen base, with him eventually scoring on an infield single by his older brother, Chase, when the throw to first got away from Nick Kurtz.

The score stayed there until the bottom of the 9th as Wake’s pitching had control issues for the second straight night. Brandon Butterworth led off with a four-pitch walk and he moved up to second base on a balk. Alex Sosa and Chase Nixon worked back-to-back walks to load the bases with one out. After a pitching change, Noah Soles worked a full count walk-off walk for the win.

The bat flip… lol.

In a game with eight total hits, NC State’s Chase Nixon (2-for-3, RBI, BB) and Wake Forest’s Marek Houston (2-for-2, 2B, RBI, 2 BB, HBP) were the only players with multiple hits.

With the win, NC State now owns four series wins over Top 10 teams on the season. State owns five series wins over Top 25 RPI teams, as well as a split with Florida State. As of this writing, the Wolfpack are up to 16th in RPI and should be a Regional host if the season ended today.

Assuming the weather cooperates, the series will conclude Saturday at 3:00pm with Logan Whitaker taking the mound for the Pack and Josh Hartle going for the Deacons.