Courtesy: Peyton Williams/NC State Jimmy Gillheeney struck out the side in the ninth inning to lift NC State past The Citadel 4-3.
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Eryk McConnell was masterful for six innings, and Jimmy Gillheeney struck out the side on 10 pitches in the ninth to record the save, but that’s not to imply that there weren’t some tense moments in NC State’s 4-3 win over The Citadel in the final game of the Charleston Firefighter Memorial Challenge.
The Wolfpack pecked its way to a 4-0 lead through five and a half innings, scratching out runs here and there off The Citadel’s ace, Wes Wrenn (0-1), who took the loss after allowing all four runs on nine hits in seven innings of work. Nick Stanley doubled leading off the second inning and scored on a groundout off the bat of Tommy Foschi. Foschi doubled with one down in the third inning and wound up scoring on an infield single by Devon Cartwright.
The runs got a little louder for the Pack in the fifth and sixth. Dallas Poulk, who extended his hitting streak to 21 games dating back to last season, hit a one-out solo homer to right in the fifth, and Domonique Rodgers sliced an RBI double the opposite way down the left-field line in the sixth to score Marcus Jones, who was pinch-running for Cartwright.
And that was the offense for NC State. Wrenn got throught the seventh untouched, and the Bulldogs bullpen pieced together two scoreless innings, reecording all six out on strikeouts.
McConnell (1-0) held the Bulldogs hitless through three innings and limited them to two hits through five. He wound up allowing a run on four hits in six strong innings. McConnell finally ran into trouble with two down in the sixth, allowing a walk to Chris Swauger and a single up the middle to Richard Jones to put runners on the corners. A wild pitch scored Swauger and got The Citadel on the scoreboard at 4-1.
Drew Taylor came in to pitch for NC State in the seventh and walked Chris McGuiness on five pitches. McGuiness wound up on third with two outs, and Matt Arnold capped off a long at-bat with a single to left to cut the lead in half at 4-2.
Freshman Jake Buchanan was up next, coming in to start the bottom of the eighth inning. He got into quick trouble by plunking leadoff hitter Matt Sinomelli with a pitch and walking Swauger. Buchanan forced the lead runner at third base on a comebacker to the mound, but Sonny Meade made it 4-3 with an RBI single up the middle.
Gilheeney got the final out of the eighth, then breezed through the ninth to nail down the win and lift NC State to 4-2 on the season.
The Wolfpack will return to action on Tuesday vs. Valparaiso at Doak Field at Dail Park. Game time will be 3 p.m.
Courtesy: Peyton Williams/NC State
