NC State falls to Clemson in ACC Tournament quarterfinal, turns page to NCAA Regional

DURHAM — A sea of red filled the third base bleachers at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. NC State, the four-seed, made its ACC Tournament debut in front of a raucous crowd that resembled Doak Field , despite being 23 miles away from the Wolfpack’s home park. 

But even with the loud support, including men’s basketball coach Will Wade in attendance, NC State couldn’t find a way to break through in a 7-6 back-and-fourth loss to fifth-seeded Clemson in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals on Thursday night. 

The Tigers and Wolfpack threw haymakers all night long — the middle innings featured eight total runs in response to the previous — but Clemson was able to stave off a late NC State comeback effort. The Pack scored once in the eighth to make it a one-run game and saw sophomore second baseman Luke Nixon’s would-be game-tying home run fall just feet short of the right field wall in the ninth. 

“I just saw both teams play their hearts out tonight,” NC State skipper Elliott Avent said. “Two great teams. From what I saw, it was two Omaha teams that have been there before. If both teams play like they did tonight, they’ll have a chance to go there again.”

NC State’s offense was paced by senior shortstop Justin DeCriscio’s 3-for-3 night with a run scored and two RBI, while its three pitchers — lefty Dominic Fritton and right-handers Anderson Nance and Jacob Dudan — combined to strike out 13 Clemson hitters. 

Here are three takeaways from the Wolfpack’s one-and-done exit from the ACC Tournament.

Base running mistakes mount

In a game in which NC State posted 12 hits with four walks, it would be expected to see a high left on base total. Instead, it didn’t have such issues with just five stranded. But not because runners were crossing home plate at a consistent pace, rather the Wolfpack’s aggressive base running came back to bite the team in the later innings. 

Designated hitter Matt Ossenfort went first to third in the third inning on a Ty Head single with no problem. But when he tried to do it again, this time with nobody out in the fifth, the former Vanderbilt transfer was thrown out by Clemson right fielder TP Wentworth. 

Instead of having first and second with no outs, NC State was left with just one runner on. Later in the frame, Head came around to score from second on a groundout — one of the lone aggressive base running tactics that paid off for the Wolfpack. 

Fast forward to the eighth, NC State right fielder Brayden Fraasman tried to take second after he singled with a throw to home. Clemson catcher Jacob Jarrell was ready, however, throwing Fraasman out with ease for the second out of a frame that the Wolfpack was chasing multiple runs. 

While those miscues didn’t seem to have as large of an impact in the moment, put together, they were back-breaking in a one-run loss. 

“I thought we were aggressive,” Avent said of the base running “You can’t fault a man for making an aggressive play. [Clemson] made the plays.”

Although Avent liked to see his team being aggressive, he believed there was a time and place, and some of those might not have called for it. 

“Maybe we could have made better decisions, you don’t want to get too emotional, but you’ve got to channel that emotion to make smart decisions,” Avent said. “When you have two great teams playing, you have to limit your mistakes. There were a couple things that we need to get better on in practice and hopefully next week will be a different story.” 

Chris McHugh returns

After he missed the entire Stanford series to close the regular season with a sore hand, NC State sophomore first baseman Chris McHugh returned to the lineup against Clemson. He went 2-for-5 with two runs scored and three strikeouts in his first game action in 13 days. 

McHugh, a VCU transfer, has been the team’s top hitter for much of the season. He leads the Wolfpack with a .378 average and 47 RBI, while his 11 doubles are the fifth-most on the roster. 

It was a positive sign for the Pack to get McHugh back into the lineup after his left hand has been hit by a pitch multiple times in ACC play. If NC State wants to make a run in the NCAA Tournament, McHugh will be a key reason why. His health is of the utmost importance and the Wolfpack seemed to like the fact he was ready to go on Thursday night. 

Focus moves to NCAA Tournament

For a team that has played in the College World Series twice in the last four years, including last spring, NC State knows what it takes to reach Omaha. It will likely have to begin its quest to get back to college baseball’s biggest stage on the road in next week’s regional round. 

The Wolfpack, which boasts an RPI of 34, doesn’t have a resume to earn a top-16 seed to host the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. While it would have liked to have the Raleigh Regional for the second straight year, NC State has turned the page to prepare for the heart of the postseason.

“A loss obviously hurts, but it’s kind of like if you’re 0-for-3 in a game, you’re not going to let those losses hurt you,” DeCriscio said. “You’re going to learn from them, keep going and produce when you need to. We’re going to be ready to go next week, no matter what. Even though we lost tonight … that’s just going to fuel us and make us ready to go.”

Avent, who has guided NC State to 21 NCAA Tournament appearances, believed that the rowdy atmosphere of 4,866 in the ACC Tournament loss will have prepared his team to be able to handle the mental side of going on the road in a hostile environment. 

Now, the Wolfpack will await the NCAA selection show on Monday afternoon. Then, it will know where it will be headed to look to keep its season rolling.

“It was a super exciting game on both sides,” DeCriscio said of the Clemson loss. “We both had a lot of energy, a lot of fight, and a want to win. We’re just going to keep going, keep doing that going into the postseason — Regional, Super Regional and then into Omaha.”