Chance Shepard and Turner Brown come up big for NC State and ECU respectively

RALEIGH, NC (NC STATE) — No. 8 NC State baseball earned its fifth-consecutive win, 7-1 over Niagara, on Friday at Doak Field at Dail Park, behind Chance Shepard‘s school-record sixth homer in as many games.

Shepard homered in the bottom first to pass Mark Wells, who homered in five-straight games during the 1994 season, for the NC State record. The national record for consecutive games with a home run is eight, held by two players. Shepard sits one homer shy of the national lead of seven, tied for second on the NCAA leaderboard for 2016.

The Wolfpack (8-2) pitching staff delivered a combined 14 strikeouts, tying a season-high set in game three against Wright State. Ryan Williamson (1-0) won as the starter, tying a career high with eight punchouts over 5 2/3 innings, scattering six hits and four walks to allow one unearned run.

Austin Staley relieved Williamson and pitched perfectly for 1 1/3, fanning two. Christian Demby made his college debut with four strikeouts in nine batters faced over two innings of two-hit, shutout ball.

Josh McLain hit a grand slam, his second career homer, to break the game open 7-1 in the fifth. NC State trailed Niagara (2-9) heading into the bottom first 1-0, marking the ninth time in 10 games the Wolfpack has played from behind.

Andrew Knizner went 3-for-4 with a run and a walk. Shepard went 2-for-5 with two RBIs and a run, adding a double to his homer. Evan Mendoza contributed a 2-for-5 performance with an RBI and a stolen base, having a string of seven-consecutive plate appearances with a hit interrupted in his third at-bat.

Joe Dunand, Xavier LeGrant, and Tommy DeJuneas each supplied a hit. LeGrant and Dunand scored once. Brock Deatherage added a run on a walk and a sac bunt.

NC State returns to action on Saturday at 4:30 PM against Alabama at Cary’s USA Baseball Complex. Radio coverage will be provided by 88.1 WKNC. Fans can follow along with live stats on GoPack.com, or Twitter updates via @NCStateBaseball.

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GREENVILLE, NC (ECU) — Turner Brown’s walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth inning scored two runs lifting No. 16 East Carolina (7-2) to a 2-1 win over Southeastern Louisiana (5-4) in game two of the 13th Annual LeClair Classic Friday afternoon at Lewis Field inside Clark-LeClair Stadium.

Chris Holba (1-0) picked up the win in relief working two-thirds of an inning with one strikeout. ECU starter Evan Kruczynski allowed one run (earned) on five hits with seven strikeouts in a season-high 8.1 innings. The lefty, who also walked a pair, faced 31 batters getting eight fly ball and seven ground outs on a career-high 120 pitches. Sam Lanier (hit) and Nick Durazo (hit) also made appearances facing just one batter.

Kyle Cedotal (1-2) suffered the loss giving up both runs (earned) on seven hits with four strikeouts and four walks in 8.1 innings.

Parker Lamm collected two of ECU’s seven hits extending his current hit streak to 10 games, which dates back to May 16 of 2015. Luke Bolka, Garrett Brooks, Brown,Dwanya Williams-Sutton and Charlie Yorgen each added base knocks in the contest.

Derrick Mount led the Lions with three hits, while Ryan Byers, Carson Crites and Chris Eades each tallied a hits. Byers’ base knock came on bunt single that scored Jameson Fisher in the top of the ninth inning.

How It Happened:
Trailing 1-0 in the ninth frame, all four ECU batters that stepped into the box reached base. However, it was Brown’s two-RBI single that scored the Pirates only runs of the contest. Eric Tyler lead off with a walk and was immediately lifted for Brady Lloyd as a pinch runner. Williams-Sutton followed with an infield single to third and Jeff Nelsonloaded the bases when he was hit by a pitch. Kirk Morgan stepped to the plate and laced a one-hopper to Brennan Breaud at short, who fired towards home getting Lloyd out at the plate. Brown took a 2-1 offering from Cedotal to center easily scoring Williams-Sutton and Nelson for the Pirates seventh win of the year.

Up Next:
ECU will be back in action on Saturday, Mar. 5 when they play host to Tennessee on day two of the LeClair Classic. First pitch is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. (EST).