N.C. State Blanks East Carolina 6-0
North Carolina State jumped on ECU early and never let up in a 6-0 Wednesday night shutout in Clark-LeClair Stadium
Sean Adler went five and a third innings, throwing seven strikeouts on 83 pitches to pick up the victory and move to 4-6 for the Wolfpack while Jacob Wolfe fell to 4-3 with the loss for the Pirates.
“He was way better than we were. We had the first inning which was the game. First and third with no outs and then a punch out and a double-play and that allowed him to settle in. If you noticed in the first inning he wasn’t settled. His command wasn’t as good then he settled in and we just didn’t make enough adjustments,” ECU head coach Cliff Godwin said, “Until we learn to stick with the plan and be able to execute it. You know when a guy can pitch the umpire has a little bigger zone and it’s going to be tough sledding for us.”
The perplexing nature of this East Carolina team continues to be a head scratcher for Godwin.
“I’m just disappointed in the way our at bats were after that first inning. I thought we were very uncompetitive for the most part. A couple of guys had some competitive at-bats, but it’s just disappointing.”
With the win, State improved to 22-20 and 8-13 in the ACC while ECU now falls to 22-20 and 2-10 in conference action.
“Overall we played solid defensively but you’ve got to score runs in this game to win,” said Godwin, “We knew we needed to get the momentum early and try to get the crowd into it and we didn’t do anything to get the crowd into it.”
The Wolfpack took a 2-0 lead in the second inning when Will Wilson grounded out to second scoring Brett Kinneman. Then Andy Cosgrove swatted one up the middle that brought Evan Mendoza across home plate.
In the top of the fourth, Kinneman’s base hit up the middle off of ECU starter Jacob Wolfe scored another run to give N.C. State a 3-0 lead.
Joe Dunand lit Tyler Smith up in the eighth with a homer deep into the left field jungle with two outs that put two more runs on the board to give State a 5-0 cushion.
Stephen Pitarra’s bloop single up the middle added insult to injury in the top of the ninth to bring Cosgrove home and seal the 6-0 victory.
