NC State’s Strong Season Ends in NCAA Regional Final Against Auburn

RALEIGH, N.C. – The NC State baseball team advanced to the NCAA Regional Final for the fourth consecutive season but saw its strong 2018 season come to a close with a 15-7 loss against the Auburn Tigers on Sunday night at Doak Field at Dail Park.

With the win, the Tigers advance to the NCAA Super Regionals to face the winner of the Gainesville Regional.

The Wolfpack concludes the season with a 42-18 overall record and Auburn moves to 42-21. NC State recorded the program’s first 40-win season since 2013 and matched the program record with 19 ACC wins.

NCSU won eight of its 10 conference series, highlighted by three road series wins against top-25 opponents.

Avent’s Additions
Overall thoughts…
“First thing I’m going to do is congratulate the Auburn Tigers,” said head coach Elliott Avent. “Butch Thompson has done an incredible job since he got to Auburn. He’s an old friend of mine and we had some good words there at the end. They got a good ball club, a really good offensive ball club and they’re sound defensively.

“I’d like to congratulate these guys lined up here; these are our seniors. You always remember what’s the latest on your mind, but you’d be hard pressed to find a group of seniors from NC State baseball that’s as classy. They got their work done on the field and off the field; academics, the whole nine yards. They represented this university and the baseball program in a way people have no idea. I’d like to thank our fans, they been great all year. I think we sold out season tickets six or seven years in a row and they love watching these guys play, we love watching these guys play. I’d like to thank our fans and these guys really respect them.”

Quick Hits
– Auburn struck first when Will Holland scored on a sacrifice fly to right field by Brendan Venter in the first inning. Holland drew a leadoff walk, then advanced to third by way of a Steven Williams single and a sac bunt by Brett Wright.
– The Tigers added three runs in the second and two in the third to take a 6-0 lead, but NC State answered in the fourth inning scoring three runs to make it a 7-3 game.
– Brett Kinneman walked to lead off the frame and scored on a double to left center by Patrick Bailey. After a single from Evan Edwards, Brock Deatherage tripled to plate Bailey and Edwards, cutting the Auburn lead to four.
– The Tigers tacked on a run in the fifth to make it 8-3 before NC State loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh.
– Shane Shepard pinch-hit for the Wolfpack and worked a leadoff walk, Stephen Pitarra followed with a bunt single and Josh McLain single to load the bases but unfortunately a called strikeout ensued to end the threat.
– Auburn carried that momentum over to the eighth inning when the squad pushed across five runs to pull away.
– The Wolfpack cut into the deficit scoring three runs in the bottom half and a run in the ninth.
– In his final collegiate at-bat, Shepard hit a three-run homer to right field, his 5thof the season, to make it a 13-6 game.
– After Auburn added a run in the top of the ninth, Jack Conley scored on an RBI single to right field by Bailey to make it 15-7.

Inside the Box Score
– Bailey led the Wolfpack at the plate with a 3-for-5 outing, highlighted by two doubles, two RBI and two runs scored.
– McLain and Pitarra were each 2-for-4, while Deatherage, Edwards and Shepard each had one hit.
– Freshman David Harrison earned the start on the mound and was relieved by Joe O’Donnell.
– O’Donnell went 2.1 innings with three strikeouts before handing the ball to Michael Bienlien, who threw 3.1 innings with four strikeouts.
– Connor Centala took over on the mound next and Nick Swiney pitched the final third of the game.