Elon Men’s Baseball Phoenix Suffers First Loss at Hands of #6 NC State

ELON, N.C. — Finally able to return to its home field, the Elon Phoenix baseball team could not recover from an early deficit and fell by a 12-7 margin to sixth-ranked North Carolina State on Tuesday night.

The Wolfpack (2-1) jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first inning thanks to a passed ball, two-RBI single from Jake Armstrong and a Kyle Cavanaugh RBI double.

Elon (2-1) got one back on Ryan Cooper’s RBI ground out in the last of the first.

After NC State upped its edge to 7-1 in the second, Elon chipped away with single runs in the second (Tyler McVicar solo homer) and fifth. Down 7-2 in the fifth, the Phoenix saw its first two runners reach and had second and third with one away, but was only able to push across one run on a RBI ground out from Casey Jones.

NC State would score four more in the sixth and one in the seventh to complete its scoring. Elon plated one in the sixth before seeing three runners cross home plate in the ninth, including two on a Nick Zammarelli single.

Elon starter Tyler Manez (0-1) suffered the loss. He gave up four runs on three hits in one inning.

Picking up the victory for NC State was Brad Stone who allowed four runs on six hits in 5.1 innings of work.

The Phoenix will be back in action this weekend as it plays host to Wagner. The series begins on Friday with a 2 p.m. start, a change from the originally scheduled start time of 4 p.m.

              1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9  R  H E
   NC State   4 3 0 0 0 4 1 0 0 12 13 0
   Elon       1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 3  7  9 1

Win – Stone (1-0)
Loss – Manez (0-1)
Save – None.
Umpires – HP: Randal Dulin 1B: Mac Stokes 3B: Steve Sanders
Start: 5:00 pm Time: 3:16 Attendance: 632
Weather: 59 deg., Cloudy, Wind: SW9