No. 16 NC State scored three runs in the top of the ninth inning to break a 5-5 tie and beat the Diamond Heels 8-5 at Boshamer Stadium Friday night. The two teams will meet in the rubber match to decide their weekend series Sunday afternoon.

UNC played from behind for almost the entire evening, as the Wolfpack took a 1-0 lead against starter Aidan Haugh in the top of the first and added three more runs in the fifth to take a 4-0 lead.

Carolina wouldn’t get on the board until the bottom of the seventh, when Jackson Van De Brake cut the lead in half with a two-run home run. Luke Stevenson followed up in the very next at-bat with a solo shot, whittling the lead down to 4-3. After NC State added another run in the eighth, UNC fought back to tie the game with two in the bottom of the inning, taking advantage of a Wolfpack defensive miscue: Sam Angelo reached on a potential flyout which the NC State left fielder lost in the Boshamer Stadium lights, then scored on a Carter French single. French would score on a single from Kane Kepley in the next at-bat.

But NC State answered immediately against UNC’s Ryan Lynch in the ninth, as Lynch hit the leadoff batter and then tossed a wild pitch which advanced him to second base. An RBI single gave the Wolfpack a 6-5 lead, and two more singles, a sacrifice fly and one more RBI single followed in the next four at-bats to extend NC State’s lead. In total, the Wolfpack banged out 14 hits against UNC pitching. Carolina went down in order in the bottom of the inning.

The loss snaps UNC’s five-game winning streak and is just the sixth the team has suffered at home this season. The Diamond Heels are now 37-11 overall and 16-10 in conference play. The series finale with the Wolfpack is scheduled for Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m.

 

Featured image via UNC Baseball on Twitter

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