Despite not earning series sweep vs. Duke, NC State continues to display grit needed to continue winning ways

The fly ball to center hadn’t reached its apex yet when NC State lefty Cooper Consiglio began his strut back to the home dugout on the first base side. He clapped his pitching hand against his glove twice before letting out a jubilant roar followed by two words: “Let’s go!”

Consiglio earned the right to be fired up, even before Ty Head made the grab to end the sixth. He retired 12 of the last 13 Duke batters he faced, including 10 straight to finish the outing, in his first start in two weeks as a part of the Wolfpack’s retooled starting rotation following the news of Jacob Dudan’s season-ending elbow injury. 

But despite the southpaw, who served as the team’s go-to close over the past 14 days, working his way through two runs allowed in his first pair of innings to give the offense a chance to catch up, the unit that racked up 28 total runs on Friday and Saturday struggled to build any consistent momentum.

The result? A 3-2 loss to Duke on Sunday afternoon at Doak Field, snapping NC State’s quest for back-to-back ACC series sweeps for the first time since it had three straight in 2013 with Carlos Rodon and Trea Turner leading the way, after the Blue Devils’ Kaden Smith hit a solo homer in the top of the ninth. 

For Elliott Avent, the Pack’s 30th-year skipper, it’s the way the ball bounces. After all, the Blue Devils had their top relievers — right-handers Roman DiGiacomo and Ben Dean — available after the pair of blowout wins to open the series. 

And that duo, well, it was more than effective after starter Andy Leon kept NC State at bay through the first six innings. The Pack totaled just four hits, scoring both its runs off a pair of RBI doubles from senior first baseman Chris McHugh, after posting a combined 27 hits in just 16 innings over the previous two days combined. 

“That’s the way this game is,” Avent said afterwards. “Their guy did a good job, kept us off balance. They had their two best relievers in the ‘pen and they were set up for what they did today. That’s the way baseball goes.”

NC State did, however, threaten late. The Wolfpack knotted the score at two apiece with McHugh’s double down the left field line in the eighth, while it had the tying and go-ahead runs on second and third in the ninth. But Dean ended that threat by getting freshman left fielder Rett Johnson, the team’s batting average leader, to strike out looking to end the game. 

Even though the Pack fell short of completing the series sweep to continue its surge through the ACC standings, Avent believed his squad is continuing to trend in the right direction. 

The Wolfpack, which dropped seven straight before winning each of its last six games until Sunday, looks like a new team. One that is primed to continue to play well over its last five ACC series, which features two straight road weekends at Wake Forest and Virginia Tech coming up.

“I just think we’re playing well,” Avent said. “We’re playing baseball the way that I’m used to seeing our teams play baseball. Obviously, we’re a little short-handed and that goes with sports sometimes, but our guys are digging deep.”

If there’s any spot that has displayed the ability to get the most out of itself in the face of adversity, it was NC State’s starting pitchers this weekend. The news of losing Dudan to Tommy John surgery on Thursday evening could have left the group of juniors — all recruiting classmates of the flame-throwing righty — down on their laurels, but they responded in the opposite way against Duke. 

Lefty Ryan Marohn fanned nine in 5.2 innings to set the tone on Friday, while right-hander Heath Andrews retired 15 straight batters to fall into a groove in his 6.2 frames on Saturday. And Consiglio, who logged six innings of two-run baseball (one earned) on three hits with a walk and seven strikeouts, did his best to match those two, even as he battled two blisters forming on his right hand. 

Consiglio, who like the other three pitchers noted above, cut his teeth on an NC State squad that went to the College World Series their freshman year. The group built grit during the early taste of postseason success, and it has appeared throughout the season. And Consiglio’s ability to pitch through not having skin on two fingers for a significant part of his outing is just the latest feat for the Wolfpack’s pitching staff.

That’s why, even after a late-inning loss, Avent wasn’t as dejected as some might have expected him to be. NC State earned the series win. Now, it’s onto the next to keep stacking victories to make a case to host an NCAA regional by the end of next month.

“The valiant effort of Cooper Consiglio was unbelievable,” Avent said. “That’s what our guys are doing, Heath yesterday and Cooper today, digging deep and giving us everything they’ve got. We just weren’t able to put anything together. We put some stuff together at the end, made a good rally, but came up a little short.”