After pulling off heroics in the 8th inning last night, NC State decided to make it even more exciting last night, shifting their heroics to the bottom of the 9th.
With #9 Duke leading 8-3 in the Bottom of the 9th inning, the Wolfpack would need a miracle, and sometimes you get exactly what you need.
Sometimes a miracle starts with a little bit of luck. With 1 out, Sophomore Josh Hogue grounded into a fielders choice, where as a result of an error, he ended up at 2nd, Senior Noah Outfielder Soles ended up at 3rd and Junior Shortstop Brandon Butterworth ended running across home plate.
Senior 1st Baseman Garrett Pennington would then hit a 3-run Home Run, cutting Duke’s lead to 2.
With 2 outs left, Sophomore Center Fielder Eli Serrano III hit a 2-run walk-off bomb, giving NC State a 9-8 series clinching win over #9 Duke.
Senior Starting Pitcher Logan Whitaker wasn’t great, but he wasn’t terrible either. He gave up 4 earned runs in 4 innings pitched.
Junior Win Scott pitched in relief for the first time since February 28th, giving up 2 earned runs in 1.2 innings pitched.
Freshman Heath Andrews was up next, pitching for the first time since March 10th, giving up 2 earned runs in 2.1 innings pitched.
Sophomore Derrick Smith picked up his first Win of the season, pitching a scoreless 8th inning.
Pennington, Serrano III and Junior Catcher Jacob Cozart all had 2 hits apiece.
Pennington had 2 Home Runs and 4 RBI’s, giving him 5 on the year.
Serranno III and Soles each had 2 RBI’s apiece, both coming off of Home Runs.
After falling out of the Top-25 on Monday, NC State has won 3 straight games against Top-15 opponents, and they will look to make that 4 straight tomorrow as the Wolfpack and Blue Devils close out the series at 1pm.
The thing is almost of ofctge guys who transfer amount to less at the school they transfer to than what they were at state. Good luck to the twins but I think it is another case of over hyped ego getting the best of these kids.
What is going on at State? Why does no one want to come to State? If Abu goes Pro, we will have only six scholarship players on the team, and that’s counting Smith. If he is as good as project, he is one and done. Looks like we will have to have a try-out of other undergraduates at school. Maybe some of the football players can play basketball.
Does anyone know if Henderson will be able to play at State for two more years?
wulfpacker I agree that I was not that overwhelmed by their ability, but right now we don’t have anyone to replace them. Kirk, Dorn, and Henderson are unknowns at this point. Rowan has to grow up and get in better shape to be our star. Smith will only be at State one year. We will only have Chris’s kid to play the point then. Wow what a future State has in basketball. Don’t let everyone get excited about the big Turkey kid, Duke and Kentucky are after him also.
wulfpacker I predicted that the 2015-2016 would suck terribly when Lacey declared last year. Well I predict that the 2016-2017 team will suck more than this year team. We have no idea that Henderson or Dorn can play at the ACC level. We saw Kirk some. What we saw was no that promising. Abu is gone and Anya will put on another 30 lbs. We will have a hard time beat Boston College or High Point College next year. Time to get rid of Gottfried. Nothing more needs to be said except goodbye Mark.
Gottfried still has life. The biggest determinant will be who does he hire this offseason to replace Rob Moxley. Also better hope Abu doesn’t get false hope or dreams at NBA combine. If Abu leaves that could be a tough hurdle to overcome. Otherwise program will be fine without Martins. Henderson, Smith, Dorn, Rowan, Kirk. Plenty of options.
This is a classic case of kids thinking they are better than they are. Everyone thinks they should be playing 30 minutes a game. These two played 25-30 minutes a game on a team that had 5 ACC wins…doesn’t sound like they are program changers. I don’t think it is a big loss at all. Neither kid was as good as they were advertised. Didn’t play good defense and wildly inconsistent offensively.
Time to get rid of Gottfried. Too many transfers. We will never have a good program again with this coach. Wake up Yow and smell what’s happening. This is not starting to get ridiculous, it is already way to ridiculous. Get rid of Gottfried now so we can find another coach before everyone leaves.
These 2 were over promoted and over rated. Yes they played better this year but they never lived up to the hype…
Probably because the twins have Henderson, Dorn, and Rowan in front of them. They don’t seem like the type that wants to come off the bench mainly as guys to spell the starters while they get a breather, especially Caleb, who enjoys to shoot the ball ALOT. Not surprised by this at all.
This is starting to get ridiculous every year we lose transfers under Gottfried somebody please explain to me what is going on with this program.