NC State won on a pair of walk-off home runs to sweep a Sunday doubleheader with the UVA baseball team at Doak Field at Dail Park in Raleigh, N.C. The Wolfpack (23-18, 11-12 ACC) won the first game, 4-3, and the nightcap, 5-3 in 10 innings, to take the series, two games to one. Virginia dropped to 27-17 (10-14 ACC) with the pair of tough defeats.
Matt Thaiss (So., Jackson, N.J.) had three hits in the second game and totaled four in the doubleheader as he finished with seven hits and seven RBI in the series. Robbie Coman (Jr., Lake Worth, Fla.) recorded two hits in the nightcap as well as three for the day.
The Cavaliers had their share of chances throughout the doubleheader and had runners on the basepaths in 17 of 19 innings, leaving 22 runners on base over the course of the twinbill.
Game 1
NC State’s Bubby Riley hit a two-out, walk-off home run to center field in the ninth inning to lift the Wolfpack to a 4-3 win in Game 1 of the doubleheader. It was NC State’s first hit since the first inning as UVa had fought back from a 3-0 first-inning deficit.
UVa’s Tommy Doyle (Fr., Vienna, Va.) allowed the walk-off home run and took the loss, falling to 1-1 on the season. Virginia starter Brandon Waddell (Jr., Houston, Texas) pitched a season-high seven innings, giving up three earned runs, four hits and three walks while striking out eight. Waddell did not allow a base hit after the first inning in one of his best performances of the season.
NC State reliever Will Gilbert (1-1) earned the win after firing three innings of scoreless relief. Wolfpack starter Cory Wilder worked four-plus innings, allowing a run, two hits and five walks while striking out five.
Virginia left 10 runners on base. Daniel Pinero (So., Toronto, Ontario) had a pair of hits and scored two of UVa’s three runs, while Thaiss knocked in two runs with a double.
NC State scored three runs – all with two outs – in the first inning, getting an RBI double from Andrew Knizner and a two-run double from Joe Dunand.
Virginia knocked Wilder from the game in the fifth inning when Adam Haseley (Fr., Windermere, Fla.) drew a four-pitch, leadoff walk. Reliever Curt Britt hit Pinero with a pitch, then gave up a two-run double to center from Thaiss. A wild pitch allowed Thaiss to reach third but UVa could not get him home. The Cavaliers again put a runner at third in the sixth inning as Kevin Doherty (Jr., Laytonsville, Md.) tripled with one out, but UVa was unable to push across the run.
Virginia capitalized on a leadoff Pinero double in the seventh inning to knot the score 3-3. Reliever Will Gilbert entered the game, but fired errantly in a pickoff attempt at second base, allowing Pinero to move to third. One out later, Kenny Towns (Sr., Burke, Va.) singled to left to tie the game.
Game 2
Joe Dunand hit a two-run walk-off home run in the 10th inning as NC State picked up a 5-3 win over the Cavaliers in the second game.
Virginia reliever Alec Bettinger (So., Woodbridge, Va.) pitched the final two innings and took the loss, falling to 3-2 on the season. In his first start of 2015, Josh Sborz (Jr., McLean, Va.) shifted from the closer role and worked six strong innings, giving up two runs, five hits and four walks while striking out a pair.
NC State reliever Tommy DeJuneas (2-2) fired four shutout innings to earn the win. NC State starter Johnny Piedmonte pitched four-plus innings, allowing a run, three hits and a walk.
NC State took a 2-0 lead in the third inning. After a leadoff walk to Logan Ratledge in the third inning, Sborz gave up a two-run home run to right field to Preston Palmeiro.
The Cavaliers scored all their runs during the fifth inning. Coman hit a leadoff double, prompting NC State to bring Joe O’Donnell into the game in relief. Joe McCarthy (Jr., Scranton, Pa.) singled into right to move Coman to third, and a wild pitch allowed Coman to score and McCarthy to move to second. Christian Lowry (Fr., Chesapeake, Va.) grounded to second to advance McCarthy to score, and Ernie Clement (Fr., Rochester, N.Y.) followed with a single to center to tie the game, 2-2. UVa then loaded the bases and scored when Thaiss grounded out to second base to bring Clement home.
NC State tied the game in the eighth when pinch hitter Jake Armstrong drew a walk with the bases loaded and two outs from Bettinger, who had come into the game in relief of David Rosenberger (Jr., Bethlehem, Pa.) with runners on second and third and one out. Ratledge followed with a blooper into center, but Haseley made a terrific diving catch to leave the bases juiced.
The Wolfpack won the game in the 10th inning as Ryne Willard hit a leadoff single before Dunand launched a two-run blast over the left-field wall for his fifth home run of the season.
Virginia heads to Norfolk, Va., Tuesday to face Old Dominion at Harbor Park in a 7 p.m. game.
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