The surging Pack have won five of six league games.
Preston Palmeiro picked up where he left off, singling in the game's first run in the bottom of the first after having walked off Wake Forest in the teams' previous contest, and Ryan Williamson carried a no hitter into the seventh as NC State won 6-1 to sweep the Demon Deacons for the second straight season.
Palmeiro finished 2-for-4, scored a run, and added another RBI on a groundout. Williamson walked five batters in 6.2 innings, but he didn't surrender a hit until Will Craig opened the seventh with a single. The junior lefty, who did eventually give up Wake's one run in the frame when the Pack (23-9, 8-5) failed to turn a double play, lowered his season ERA to 2.27 while moving to 6-0. He got a huge boost from Josh McLain and Joe Dunand, who combined on a relay to the plate to nail Craig and spurn a potentially big inning when Stuart Fairchild followed Craig's breakup single with a gapper.
Williamson's biggest pitch came in the opening frame when he induced Craig, the 2015 ACC Player of the Year, to roll in to a 6-4-3 inning ending double play after having walked the previous two batters on eight straight bad ones.
Palmeiro seized the momentum for the Pack by driving in McLain, who had doubled and moved to third on Andrew Knizner's single, in the bottom of the first. Brett Kinneman opened the second with a double and was plated by a Ryne Willard sac fly to make it 2-0. Palmeiro's groundout, which scored Brock Deatherage, made it 3-0 in the fifth. Deatherage would put the game away in the eighth with a two-run double that was part of a three-run insurance rally.
Deatherage reached base four times with the double, a pair of bunt hits, and a walk. He also stole a base. McLain had a pair of hits to push his average to .349.
When Williamson ran into trouble in the seventh, Tommy DeJuneas bailed him out with a strikeout and appeared poised to finish the game with a seven-out save before his control deserted him with one out in the ninth. After a pair of walks, Will Gilbert relieved DeJuneas and coaxed a game ending double play on his second offering to Ben Breazeale.
Wake (19-15, 5-10) entered the series tied for ninth and in the mix for a spot in the ACC tournament, but the costly sweep leaves the Deacons last in the ACC Atlantic and ahead of only Virginia Tech in the race for a postseason appearance (only 10 of the league's 14 teams make the tournament, with the 7-10 seeds needing to win a play-in game to advance to pool play).
The Pack immediately embark on a five-game road swing, heading west on I-40 to take on Elon tomorrow. They'll be in Atlanta to face Georgia Tech over the weekend and take on East Carolina in Greenville next week. The entire series with the Yellow Jackets will be available for streaming on The Ocho, while the Pirates game with be on genuine TV if you have the CBS Sports Network.
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