What they're saying about NC State's win over Vanderbilt
Here are some the thoughts from those who covered NC State Wolfpack baseball's thrilling 1-0 win over Vanderbilt to advance to the bracket finals in the College World Series.
What they're saying
Matt Carter, The Wolfpacker — Hometown hero Sam Highfill shines in pitchers'' duel for NC State
Highfill held Vanderbilt to just two hits and two walks in 7.1 innings before giving way to junior closer Evan Justice. Only one Commodore batter reached second base all game.
Yet, Highfill felt he did not even have his top stuff.
“I thought it was good, but I wouldn't say it was the best I've had all year,” Highfill noted. “Change-up was good sometimes, but I left it up a lot tonight. Able to get away with some of those, and breaking ball was hit or miss today.”
“It was pretty obvious Jack Leiter was really, really good tonight,” NC State head coach Elliott Avent added. “Obviously, he's one of the top pitchers in the country. I'm sure he's going to be one of the top few picks in the MLB draft coming up.
“We could tell that he was really on tonight … and we weren't going to get anything. So for Sam to keep this offense at Vanderbilt at bay to allow us a chance, it was just unbelievable what he did tonight.”
Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin may be hard-pressed to believe that Highfill did not have his best going from the mound Monday.
“He pitched a hell of a game — fastball, two different breaking balls, change-up, drop down,” Corbin noted. “When we did get to base, he made it difficult. He had a good move over to first base.
“Give him a lot of credit. He did a great job. That was a real well-pitched college baseball game, as good as you want to see. So, if you're a pitching person, you like it. If you're an offensive person, you want to hit yourself over the head with a shovel.”
The son of 19-year Major League Baseball veteran pitcher Al Leiter, Jack Leiter (10-4) struck out 15 Wolfpack batters over his eight innings of work. Tatum’s home run accounted for the only run he allowed.
But Highfill (9-2), a freshman right-hander from Apex High School, topped that performance. He struck out seven over his 7 ⅓ innings while allowing just two hits and two walks.
“Jack Leiter was really, really good tonight,” N.C. State coach Elliott Avent said. “Obviously he’s one of the top pitchers in the country. I’m sure he’s going to be one of the top few picks in the MLB draft coming up. And he could tell that he was really on tonight and was really — and we weren’t going to get anything. So for Sam to keep this offense at Vanderbilt at bay to allow us a chance, it was like just unbelievable what he did tonight.”
The Commodores got their lead-off man on base in just two of eight innings against Highfill.
“That’s huge,” Highfill said. “That’s what we try to do. It’s a big thing. You get the lead-off guy, you’re in a good position for the rest of the inning. It’s certainly not over after you get the lead-off guy out. It helps a lot to not be pitching all inning from the stretch.
Vanderbilt didn’t manage to get a runner in scoring position against him until the eighth inning.
David Thompson, Fayetteville Observer — NC State moves a win away from College World Series final
Highfill gave up only two hits, two walks and allowed two men in scoring position during 7.1 innings of work, adding seven strikeouts and getting the win over Vanderbilt ace Jack Leiter.
"It's everything I dreamed of as a kid," Highfill said. "I remember going to N.C State baseball games when I was 6, 8, 10 years old and wishing I could be out there with them. It's been a lot of fun."
Leiter was in complete command throughout the night, pitching a complete game with 15 strikeouts to four hits. But his blemish against Tatum, the Wolfpack's first hit of the game, was enough to hand him the loss.
Unlike the win over Stanford where N.C. State's bats did the heavy lifting, it was defense that got the job done.
Highfill was replaced with one out and a man on second in the eighth inning, and as he's done all postseason, junior reliever Evan Justice mopped up the mess. Justice forced a groundout to second and ended the inning with a strikeout.
Vanderbilt drew a leadoff walk in the top of the ninth, but a subsequent double play and a Justice strikeout of pinch hitter Tate Kolwyck ended the game.
"We're on top of the world right now," Tatum said. "This feeling is unmatched."
Joe Giglio, WRALSportsFan — 'Leits out! NC State outduels Vanderbilt for CWS win
All of the strikeouts from ace pitcher Jack Leiter couldn’t save Vanderbilt against NC State on Monday.
Neither could the incessant whistling from the Commodores’ notoriously irritating superfans.
Terrell Tatum hit a solo home run in the fifth inning and Sam Highfill threw seven-plus scoreless innings to lead the Wolfpack to a 1-0 win in the College World Series on Monday.
NC State (37-18) is one win away from reaching the final best-of-3 series in Omaha, Neb. and playing for the first national title in program history and the school’s first since the men’s basketball team won it all in 1983.
Vandy (46-16) won the CWS the last time it was played in 2019. Leiter and pitcher Kumar Rocker made the Commodores, the No. 4 overall seed, the favorites to win again in Omaha. Even if it means having to listen to Jeff Pack and Preacher Franklin, the "Vandy Whistlers" who make high-pitched piercing noises throughout each game.
On Saturday, the Wolfpack hammered Stanford 10-4 to advance in the winners’ bracket, where it will stay until Friday when it will get a rematch with either Stanford or Vanderbilt. The Cardinal, who beat Arizona 14-5 in the losers' bracket on Monday, and the Commodores will meet in an elimination game on Wednesday.
NC State improved to 7-1 in the NCAA tournament and won a second game in the CWS for the first time in three trips in program history. All of this for a team that started the season with a 1-8 record in conference play.
The Wolfpack has come a long way since March.
Highfill and Leiter would trade blows well into the evening, but it was Leiter that held the edge for all of the first half of the game. The Commodores’ ace tossed a perfect game through four innings with nine strikeouts to boot. Highfill put on a show of his own during that span, allowing only one hit and one walk while striking out four.
“I knew I was going to have to be good tonight,” Highfill said. “[Leiter’s] really good and you'll see his name called in the first, if not first five, 10 picks, he might be the first pitcher taken this year. I knew I was going to have to go out and be good.”
The two right-handers were in a 0-0 deadlock heading into the bottom of the fifth, but it was Leiter that cracked first. Junior designated hitter Terrell Tatum (1-2, RBI, HR, BB) broke up Leiter’s perfect game with authority, sending the 0-1 pitch well into the right field stands to give the Pack a 1-0 lead.
“My first at-bat, he started me off with an off-speed pitch then continued the trend, threw another one,” Tatum said. “And the second at-bat when I hit the home run, it was off-speed pitch that was a strike. And I completely sold out for the next pitch to be a fastball. And it just happened to be a fastball in and I put a good swing on it.”
On a day when eyes around college baseball were fixed on Jack Leiter in what may end up being the last start he makes for Vanderbilt, Sam Highfill, Evan Justice and North Carolina State on Monday outshined the star righthander in a 1-0 win.
That’s not to say that Leiter wasn’t worth marveling at throughout the game. Despite not having quite his usual velocity, he struck out nine batters in his first four innings and finished the day with 15 strikeouts in a complete-game, eight-inning effort.
Highfill was just better at keeping Vanderbilt off the board, and that wasn’t lost on the Wolfpack righthander.
“I knew I was going to have to be good tonight," Highfill said. "That kid's really good and you'll see his name called in the first, if not first five, 10 picks, he might be the first pitcher taken this year. I knew I was going to have to go out and be good.”
He gave up all of two hits, a two-out single to Dominic Keegan in the first inning and a two-out single to Javier Vaz in the fifth. He also walked two batters, and only when C.J. Rodriguez moved to third on a sac bunt after drawing a leadoff walk in the seventh did a Commodores runner reach second base. His final line saw him throw a career-high 7.1 innings, giving up two hits and two walks with seven strikeouts.
Highfill is in a fantastic stretch of starts right now at the right time of year. He gave up four hits and one run in 6.1 innings against Georgia Tech at the ACC Tournament, threw 5.1 shutout innings against Louisiana Tech in the regional and gave up two hits and four runs (three earned) in 6.1 innings against Arkansas in the Fayetteville Super Regional.
“I feel good right now,” Highfill said. “And last couple of starts I have felt good. Stages keep getting bigger and bigger. And to be able to pitch in this park tonight was an unreal feeling.”
Kendall Rogers, D1Baseball — Highfill, Justice put NC State in driver's seat
Just call NC State the giant slayers.
After putting together the most impressive performance of the CWS first round against outstanding righthanded pitcher Brendan Beck and Stanford, NC State had another tough obstacle to overcome to get in the driver’s seat of its bracket — it had to best SEC Pitcher of the Year Jack Leiter and mighty Vanderbilt.
As has been the case throughout this NCAA postseason, NC State accepted the challenge, and passed yet another stiff test with a tense 1-0 victory over the Commodores.
North Carolina State's postseason just keeps getting better.
The Wolfpack beat SEC pitcher of the year Kevin Kopps of Arkansas to win their regional, beat the Pac-12 pitcher of the year Brendan Beck of Stanford in their College World Series opener, and Monday night they beat projected top-five draft pick Jack Leiter.
Terrell Tatum's fifth-inning home run spoiled a dominant performance by the national strikeout leader, and now NC State is in control of its CWS bracket after its 1-0 win over Vanderbilt.
"We've slayed a lot of giants," said Sam Highfill, who dueled with Leiter most of the unseasonably cool evening at TD Ameritrade Park.
The Wolfpack (37-18) have knocked out the No. 1 national seed in Arkansas and now have beaten the reigning national champion in Vanderbilt in the NCAA tournament. They've won 33 of 42 since starting 4-9 overall and 1-8 in ACC play.
"For the last two, three months we haven't said much at all to these guys because they know what they want and they know how hard it is to get and they know how committed they are to one another," coach Elliott Avent said. "I don't think they let any moment become too big for them."
Aria Gerson, Tennessean — Vanderbilt shut out by NC State in College World Series
Jack Leiter pitched eight spectacular innings on Monday. His 15 strikeouts broke a program College World Series record set by teammate Kumar Rocker. He allowed just four hits and one run on a solo homer by Terrell Tatum. His pitches moved up and down and around the zone, flummoxing NC State hitters and ending up on highlight videos.
It wasn't enough.
That one home run, one mistake in an otherwise stellar night, proved to be the difference in a 1-0 loss to NC State. The loss drops Vanderbilt to the losers bracket, where it will face Stanford at 6 p.m. Wednesday (ESPN) in an elimination game.
NC State’s Sam Highfill was every bit as good. He didn’t quite rack up the strikeout numbers of Leiter, but he kept Vanderbilt’s bats quiet nonetheless. The Commodores were able to make contact off Highfill but most of it wasn’t threatening. Vanderbilt had just two hits and three walks and got just two runners in scoring position all game.
That added up to the Commodores' first College World Series shutout since 2014 and first shutout, period, since March 2019.
“It's one of the best performances I've seen in the times that I've been to Omaha,” said two-time national champion Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin.
Years from now, this won't be relived at Vanderbilt with the all-time reverence of more celebratory moments, and that's a shame.
Leiter was truly spectacular on the big stage. He was better than spectacular. Eight innings with 15 strikeouts, four hits and one walk – against a red-hot team that plated 10 runs in their CWS opener against Stanford? Pick a laudatory adjective and it probably won’t be enough for such dominance.
You just can’t call it perfect.
Leiter wasn’t perfect, and he needed to be on a night in which the Commodores’ batters provided no help. They mustered only two hits against starter Sam Highfill and reliever Evan Justice.
“I hate using the words ‘Tip you cap’ to anyone,” Corbin said, “but that kid (Highfill) did a nice job. He really did. He just pitched so well. They both did.”
Chris Lee, VandySports — One pitch dooms Vanderbilt on Monday
Leiter's fastball sat anywhere from 92-96 all night--it was on the low end early, which Leiter said wasn't intentional--but his curve ball was tremendous most of the night. When he had issues landing that late, the fastball--which he got strikeouts with at 96 for the last two outs of the seventh--was his money pitch.
"That’s a max competitor right there," Corbin said. "He did everything he possibly could to put the team on his shoulders. He got most of the outs himself. It’s a team game but he was on an island tonight. ... It’s one of the best performances I’ve seen in the time I’ve been in Omaha. .. One pitch. One pitch. It sucks, but it’s what it is."
Leiter had a perfect game through four innings, and started the left-handed-hitting Tatum with a 76-mile-an-hour breaking ball on the first pitch of the fifth, just the second time he'd fallen behind a hitter to that point.
But the next one--his 60th of the game--decided the game.
"I knew [Tatum] was a good fastball hitter… C.J. set up away, the ball was middle in… and he kind of made me pay for it," Leiter said.
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