NC State baseball suffered its first loss of the 2021 College World Series Friday in a 3-1 defeat to Vanderbilt.

Any loss in the postseason is disappointing, and there are no moral victories in Omaha, but the Wolfpack put together an unlikely performance and remained competitive throughout the entire game with just 13 players available due to COVID-19 problems within the program.

Just hours before the game, rumors started flying that multiple players would be unavailable Friday afternoon. The buzz turned out to be true, and over half of the players the Pack brought to Omaha were out due to COVID-19 protocols.

Five usual starters were available: left fielder Austin Murr, center field Jonny Butler, right fielder Devonte Brown, catcher Luca Tresh and third baseman Vojtech Mensik, who played shortstop in the absence of Jose Torres.

Three reserves also played: DeAngelo Giles at third base, Cason Falsken at second base and Eddie Eisert as the designated hitter. And Sam Highfill, the freshman right-handed pitcher that gave up just two hits and no runs in the Pack’s 1-0 win over Vanderbilt Monday, filled in for Tyler McDonough at first base.

With a lineup that was duct-taped together just an hour before the delayed first pitch, the Wolfpack was not expected to compete with the most-recent national champions. But because the unsuspecting players stepped up, the Pack kept it close for nine innings and had its chances to pull off the improbable.

The biggest surprise of the afternoon was Highfill, who reached base with three singles on his first three visits to the plate of the season. Prior to Friday’s contest, Highfill had just five career at-bats, all of which were during the shortened 2019 season.

What made the feat even more impressive was that all three of his hits came against one of the best pitchers in the country in Commodores starter Kumar Rocker. The 6-5, 245-pound ace allowed just five hits all afternoon, and three of them were against the pitcher that shut down Vanderbilt four days prior.

“He's gotten zero work as a hitter,” NC State coach Elliott Avent said. “We went to him and we found out we were going to play and see if he wanted to go up to the cage and take a couple of swings. He was excited.

“He's just a baseball player. Baseball players do things in baseball games. And Sam Highfill is a baseball player. And if we would have taken the lead there he was going to close the game. If this game would have got extended going to extras, then he would have been at third base. He's just a baseball player. And he's smart.”

Freshman right-handed pitcher Garrett Payne set the tone for the evening, putting together the best outing of his young college career to date.

“He gets told probably at about 1:00 or maybe later, maybe it's like 1:30 that he's got the ball at 2:07 to throw against the defending national champs,” Avent said. “You couldn't be more proud of him and his effort. But he's done that a few times this year. This is not the first time he's done that. The first time he's done that on this stage. First time we've been at this stage this year.

“But if we've done things the right way and you can lock into the game itself, which obviously he was able to do -- and Feeney as well, then this stage doesn't seem too different than the past places we've been on our ascent to get here.

“And just proud of what he did. I knew he was very tired at the end, but he gave us actually one more inning that we asked him to give there to make this thing work.”

Redshirt junior righty Dalton Feeney relived him in the top of the sixth and pitched four shutout innings.

Prior to Friday, the reserve pitching duo had ERAs of 7.27 and 11.48, respectively, in 31 combined innings pitched this season.

In a combined nine-inning outing, Payne and Feeney allowed just six hits, gave up one earned run and struck out six batters.

Falsken was also impressive, reaching first on a textbook drag bunt down the third-base line, walking once and scoring the Pack’s lone run of the afternoon.

As of Saturday morning, it remains uncertain if any of NC State’s players that were unavailable Friday will be cleared to play over the weekend. Regardless, the Pack will be shorthanded in some degree and could use any production they can get.

If NC State is to defeat the Commodores in the do-or-die semifinals contest Saturday, it could use some more magic from some of its unsuspecting characters.

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