N.C. State slugs past Coastal Carolina as teams combine for nine home runs

With the wind blowing out Saturday, no lead felt safe as Coastal Carolina and N.C. State combined for nine home runs and took turns leapfrogging one another on the scoreboard.

But the grand finale in the teams’ dueling offensive fireworks display belonged to the Wolfpack, and it was a befitting way to decide this slugfest.

With the score tied entering the eighth inning, No. 19-ranked N.C. State clubbed three homers in the span of six batters to take a four-run lead on the way to a 13-10 win over the No. 23 Chanticleers before a crowd of 2,179 at Springs Brooks Stadium.

The Chants were actually down six runs entering the bottom of the ninth before sophomore Kevin Woodall Jr. smacked a three-run homer – the first of his career – to cut the deficit in half, but eventually the hosts ran out of firepower.

“Right from the start you could look at the wind and you could tell it was going to be a slugfest. It was who was going to get the ball in the air the most,” Woodall said.

Senior Zach Remillard led the way for the Chants (1-1) with two homers and almost a third as he doubled off the wall in the ninth to finish 3-for-5 with three RBIs and three runs. Woodall and senior Tyler Chadwick had Coastal Carolina’s other two homers while junior G.K. Young went 3-for-5 with two RBIs and a run.

But N.C. State (1-1) was just a little better Saturday.

Josh McLain, Preston Palmeiro, Andrew Knizner, Joe Dunand and Xavier LeGrant – five of the first seven hitters in the Wolfpack lineup – all homered. Palmeiro, the son of former Major League All-Star Rafael Palmeiro, finished 4-for-5 with four RBIs and two runs and McLain was 3-for-5 with two RBIs and three runs.

The final turning point came when Dunand led off the eighth inning with a homer to left-center field off sophomore reliever Bobby Holmes to give the Wolfpack an 8-7 lead. Holmes then retired the next two batters, but Brock Deatherage beat out a bunt single and McLain delivered a two-run shot to left before Palmeiro followed on the next pitch with a homer to center to make it 11-7.

Unfortunately for Coastal Carolina, N.C. State wasn’t done. In the ninth, the Wolfpack tacked on two more runs on RBI singles from Dunand and Stephen Pitarra to make it 13-7.

Woodall’s three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth made the final frame a little interesting, but the Chants couldn’t close the gap that time.

“That’s how quick the game can turn,” Remillard said. “We play in a hitter-friendly ballpark sometimes and we play good teams, so they put the barrel on the ball and ended up up four. We battled our way back, but came up short.”

Junior right-hander Alex Cunningham tallied seven strikeouts in four innings on the mound for Coastal Carolina, but he also gave up six runs on five hits and two walks.

Holmes (0-1), meanwhile, took the loss while being charged with five runs on six hits and a walk along with five strikeouts in three innings of relief. The final two runs came against senior Adam Hall.

“Encouraging in some ways and very, very discouraging in others,” Chants coach Gary Gilmore said. “… The offense did a pretty good job. We messed up once or twice that hurt us, but at the end of the day you score 10 runs and do what we did today you should definitely win most of those games.”

For Remillard, the two homers Saturday already have him a third of the way to the career-high six he set last season. Through two games he’s hitting .556 with five RBIs.

Young has been the other hot hitter for the Chants and is hitting .625 with five RBIs.

“It feels good to go out there and execute a plan, coach gave us scouting reports, we’ve been sticking with the process every day, but we came up a little short today and that definitely hurts a lot more,” Remillard said.

Coastal Carolina closes its opening weekend Sunday with a home game against reigning NCAA national champion and No. 4-ranked Virginia at 1 p.m.

“We’ve just got to come back out with energy, and all the things we didn’t do well today we have to do better and continue to do the things that we did do well,” Gilmore said.

This story was originally published February 20, 2016 at 6:45 PM with the headline "N.C. State slugs past Coastal Carolina as teams combine for nine home runs."