There’s an old adage in baseball that good pitching beats good hitting.
That proved to be the case for NC State as its potent lineup ran into two of the top pitchers in the conference at the ACC Baseball Tournament. Virginia’s senior ace Derek Casey stifled NCSU’s batters through 7.2 innings, allowing just six hits and two earned runs while walking only one and striking out nine in a 4-2 Cavaliers victory Thursday afternoon. It was Casey’s ninth quality start in 14 trips to the mound.
Florida State sophomore lefty Drew Parrish did even better. With a trip to the tournament semifinals on the line, Parrish threw a complete game gem by striking out 14 Wolfpack batters and allowing just five hits, two runs (both earned) and one walk while the Noles eliminated NCSU, 5-2.
“Tip your hats off to Parrish,” Wolfpack head coach Elliott Avent said. “He was unbelievable.”
Parrish threw 7.2 innings against NCSU last week in the opener of the regular season series finale, a game the Noles won it extra innings. He allowed six hits and three earning runs but also struck out 10 while walking just one. His performance Friday in Durham gives Parrish 121 strikeouts this year in 98.1 innings.
“There’s not enough good things I can say about him,” Avent added. “Three pitches, he can throw them where he wants for strikes.”
NC State was also throwing out its ace, the ACC Pitcher of the Year in senior lefty Brian Brown. But Brown did not make it out of the third inning. He allowed six hits and four earned runs before being lifted for redshirt junior righty Nolan Clenney with one out in the third. It was easily Brown’s shortest outing of the year. He had gone at least 5.0 innings in all of his previous 14 starts.
Clenney, sophomore lefty Kent Klyman and fifth-year senior righty Joe O’Donnell kept the Noles at bay, combining to throw 6.2 innings of relief and allowing four hits, one run that was earned, three walks and six strikeouts.
But Parrish only needed a little bit of offensive support, which he received led by FSU star junior catcher Cal Raleigh, the No. 150 prospect in the looming MLB Draft according to MLB.com. His third inning two-run homer off the bull over the blue monster in left at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park were the final runs allowed by Brown, and for the game Raleigh went 3 for 5 at the plate with a homer and double, scoring a run and driving in three.
“Right now I’d say he’s as locked in as a hitter as you can be,” Avent noted. “Whatever you threw him, he was on it.”
NC State tried to rally, scoring a pair of runs in the fifth behind an RBI double from junior first baseman Evan Edwards and then a two-out RBI single from senior centerfielder Josh McLain that scored Edwards.
Sophomore shortstop Will Wilson walked to start the sixth but freshman catcher Evan Bailey grounded into a double play in the next at bat. Senior right fielder Brock Deatherage hit a two-out double off the wall in left in the ninth, but junior catcher Jack Conley struck out on a borderline 2-2 pitch to end the night with Edwards on deck.
It ended a disappointing ACC Tournament in which the Pack went 0-2 in pod play, but Avent remained confident his squad, with a 40-16 record, will host a regional at the NCAA Tournament.
“I think there is no question about that … When you look at a team that finished third in the ACC, won 8 out of 10 conference series and won 10 out of 12 series,” he noted.
FSU (41-17) will play Clemson in Saturday night’s semifinals after Pitt and Louisville play each other earlier in the afternoon.
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