Instant observations: NC State cruises past East Carolina to complete season sweep

Entering a midweek matchup with a depleted pitching staff due to injuries to its top two starters, NC State knew it was going to have to get a quality batch of nine innings from a team effort out of the bullpen.  Firing strikes was a necessity, and doing so against a quality East Carolina lineup was the challenge. Even though the Wolfpack made quick work of the Pirates in the first meeting earlier this season on the road, finding a way to back it up with another dominant performance wouldn’t be easy.  While the bullpen was taxed, leaving the Pack’s top arms unavailable after a long weekend at Virginia Tech with a critical series against Miami coming up, NC State’s young relievers paced the squad to a 12-2 win over ECU on Tuesday night at Doak Field. The Wolfpack was never truly threatened by the Pirates as it completed the series sweep. A critical reason why? Five straight shutout frames from its bullpen arms to take full advantage of the program’s offensive outburst in the middle innings. Freshmen right-handers Truitt Manuel, Mikey Ragusa and Aiden Kitchings combined to allow just two hits with 10 strikeouts and only three walks in their five innings of work to keep ECU’s offense at bay.  For NC State, meanwhile, junior infielders Luke Nixon and Chris McHugh, and senior outfielder logged two RBI each to lead the offense’s output. Here are TheWolfpacker.com’s observations from the win.