Playing without more than half its roster due to COVID-19 protocols, N.C. State pieced together a lineup and still pushed Vanderbilt to the edge before losing 3-1 in the College World Series Friday.
The Wolfpack hopes to have a deeper lineup and bench for Saturday’s rematch that will determine which of the two teams will play in the College World Series championship series starting Monday.
The COVID-19 situation kept four starting players out of N.C. State’s lineup and left only two players in their usual spots in the field. The Wolfpack had only 13 players available for Friday’s game, including just four pitchers.
“The other guys are getting tested right now,” N.C. State coach Elliott Avent said on the ESPN2 broadcast during an in-game interview. “Hopefully with negative tests they’ll be back tomorrow.”
The Wolfpack (37-18) and Commodores (47-16), both with one loss in CWS double-elimination bracket play, will meet at 2 p.m. on Saturday on ESPN. The winner moves on to the finals, while the loser’s season will be over.
In Friday’s game, Vanderbilt standout right-handed pitcher Kumar Rocker kept the patchwork Wolfpack lineup quiet over the first six innings. He struck out 11 while allowing one run on five hits and one walk.
Facing Vanderbilt’s bullpen, N.C. State had chances to catch the Commodores in the late innings, brining the lead run to the plate in the final three innings.
Chris McElvaine started the seventh inning on the mound for Vanderbilt but pitcher Sam Highfill singled and Eddie Eisert reached on an error. Highfill, though, was picked off second base. After a strikeout for the second out, Austin Murr walked and Vanderbilt left-handed reliever Hugh Fisher hit Jonny Butler with a pitch to load the bases.
Luca Tresh worked the count to 3-1 against Luke Murphy, the Commodores’ third pitcher of the inning. But Tresh popped out to second to end the threat.
The Wolfpack put the tying runs on base against in the eighth inning when Devonte Brown singled and Carson Falsken drew a one-out walk.
But Highfill, who already had three hits in the game, took a called third strike on a 3-2 pitch. Eddie Eisert grounded out to second to end the inning.
Butler singled with two outs in the ninth and Tresh walked. But Brown grounded out to the game.
NC State pitcher Garrett Payne on the mound
Despite not starting a game this season while pitching just 8 ⅔ innings, freshman Garrett Payne was the Wolfpack’s starting pitcher.
By striking out the first two batters he faced, he showed he was up to the task.
Payne kept the Commodores off the scoreboard in the first three innings before the Wolfpack’s reshuffled defense hurt it.
Vanderbilt’s Dominic Keegan hit a routine ground ball to shortstop to start the inning. N.C. State’s Vojtech Mensik, usually a third baseman who shifted to shortstop for the game, fielded it cleanly but his throw to first base hit the dirt.
Highfill, a freshman starting pitcher getting his first collegiate start at first base, couldn’t field the throw cleanly and Keegan reached first base on the error.
After a sacrifice bunt and a groundout moved Keegan to third base, CJ Rodriguez lined a single to left field giving the Commodores a 1-0 lead.
Parker Nolan singled and Payne hit Spencer Jones with a pitch to load the bases. Payne uncorked a wild pitch, allowing Rodriguez to score for a 2-0 Vanderbilt lead.
Payne, who had only thrown more than 34 pitches in an outing once previously this season, lasted into the sixth inning before Avent went to the bullpen.
In five innings of work plus one batter in the sixth, Payne allowed two hits, with three walks, a hit batter and three strikeouts. He was charged with three runs, but two were unearned.
Vanderbilt’s Kumar Rocker
Rocker struck out the first six Wolfpack batters before Highfill, in his first collegiate at-bat, lined a third-inning single. Still, Rocker kept on rolling, striking out eight of the first nine batters he faced.
N.C. State cut its deficit in half in the fifth inning when Falsken and Highfill started the inning with singles. They moved up to second and third on a groundout before Falsken scored on DeAngelo Giles’ fly ball to left field that left Vanderbilt leading 2-1.
Austin Murr kept the rally going by reaching on an infield single to shortstop. But NC State RBI-leader Butler struck out to end the frame.
Vanderbilt pushed its lead back to 3-1 in the sixth inning when Javier Vaz drew a lead-off walk off Payne, stole second and scored on Nolan’s one-out single off NC State relief pitcher Dalton Feeney.