Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports
Baseball
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Mitchell Daly homered in the bottom of the 10th inning to give Kentucky a 5-4 win over North Carolina State on Saturday, the third straight College World Series game to end in walk-off fashion.
The Wildcats had tied it in the bottom of the ninth on Ryan Nicholson’s homer, and Daly ended it with two outs when he launched a shot into the left-field bullpen.
Kentucky (46-14), in its first CWS, set a program record for wins in a season and will play Monday night against the winner of Saturday night’s Florida-Texas A&M matchup. NC State will play the Florida-Texas A&M loser in an elimination game in the afternoon.
The Wolfpack (38-22) went to the bottom of the ninth with a one-run lead in its first game in Omaha since a COVID-19 outbreak on the team led the NCAA to removing them from the 2021 CWS after their third game.
But Nicholson sliced Jacob Dudan’s 96-mph fast ball just inside the left-field foul pole, and barely over the fence, for his 22nd home run to tie it 4-all.
The Wildcats got a runner to third after that but couldn’t push him across. After Johnny Hummel (4-0) pitched a 1-2-3 top of the 10th, the stage was set for Daly.
The Texas transfer was down 1-2 against closer Derrick Smith (3-2) when he turned on a pitch and lofted it high down the line and over the fence, the ball staying fair despite a wind gusting to 25 mph pushing it left.
North Carolina and Tennessee won their CWS openers on Friday on bottom-of-the-ninth singles, making this the first time in the 74-year history of the event that three straight games had ended in walk-off fashion. It also was the second time the first three games in the CWS were decided by one run; last year was the first time.
Postgame Notes
- NC State fell to 5-6 all-time in the MCWS, having made its fourth appearance in the MCWS and first trip to Omaha since 2021.
- The Wolfpack fell to 3-1 all-time in their MCWS opener and 3-4 all-time at Charles Schwab Field Omaha. NC State started 2-0 in their most recent visit to Omaha in 2021 but were eliminated from the tournament when they couldn’t field enough players due to COVID-19 protocols.
- NC State is the third school to make the MCWS, Men’s Final Four and the Women’s Final Four all in the same academic year; the only other teams were Louisville in 2013 (finished 0-2 in Omaha) and Texas in 2003 (finished 2-2 in Omaha).
- NC Stateis one of just eight schools to make the postseason in baseball, football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The Wolfpack is joined by Arizona, Duke, North Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Alabama.Additionally, NC State is the only school in the nation to have its men’s and women’s basketball team make the Sweet 16, its baseball team make the Super Regionals and had its football team go to a bowl game.
- North Carolina State’s 38 wins this season are its most since finishing 42-19 in 2019.
- NC State dropped to 5-2 in this year’s NCAA Tournament, with their only previous loss coming in the Athens Super Regional to Georgia.
- NC State moved to 68-70 all-time in NCAA Tournament play, including a 49-43 mark under head coach Elliott Avent. Avent’s 49 NCAA Tournament wins are the second-most of any active ACC coach and the sixth-most in league history.
- Avent has compiled a 1,260-827 all-time record in 36 years as a head coach, including a 1,036-614 mark at NC State. He became the 35th(active or inactive) Division I head coach to record 1,000 career wins at one school, while his 1,260 wins are the fifth most amonst active head coaches in the NCAA.
- North Carolina State fell to 4-4 all-time against Kentucky, with four of the eight meetings coming in the NCAA Tournament. The Wolfpack is now just 1-3 against the Wildcats in the NCAA Tournament, dropping three consecutive contests, including back-to-back games at the Lexington Regional in 2017.
- The Wolfpack have played their best against elite competition this season but fell to 12-7 against teams ranked in the Top 10 of the D1Baseball.com rankings. Only one team in the past five seasons has had more wins against Top-10 opponents: Arkansas went 15-2 in 2021.
- Garrett Penington entered the MCWS with 26 doubles, a total that ranks tied for fourth nationally and trails only Tennessee’s Blake Burke’s 28 doubles among active players at the MCWS.
- With one home run on Saturday afternoon, NC State has now blasted 100 home runs on the season. The Wolfpack’s 17 home runs in this year’s NCAA Tournament are tied with Florida State for the second-most in the tournament this season (Tennessee leads with 28).
- Graduate third baseman Alec Makarewicz appeared in his nation-leading (Division I-III) 263 career game on Saturday. He has started in all 60games this season, after making 203 career appearances at East Carolina.
- Eli Serrano III drew a a four-pitch walk to open the game, extending his team-leading on-base streak to 23 straight games.
Up Next
NC State will meet the loser of tonight's (Satuday. June 15) matchup between No. 4 Texas A&M and Florida on Monday, June 17 at 2:00 p.m. ET. The contest will be nationally televised on ESPN.
