Louisville Baseball Took Game One vs. NC State, Game TWO TODAY at 2:00

Mark BlankenbakerApril 7, 2018

Adam Wolf twirled seven shutout innings and Logan Wyatt had a grand slam as the No.11 Louisville baseball team opened its weekend series against No.4 NC State with an 8-2 victory on Fridaynight at Jim Patterson Stadium.

A junior from Milan, Ohio, Wolf allowed just two hits and had six strikeouts while moving to 4-2 on the season with the victorious outing for the Cardinals (20-9, 6-7 ACC). The two hits equaled a season low for the lefthander matching the total allowed in seven innings against Youngstown State on Feb. 23. Wolf lowered his season ERA to 2.28 with Friday’s performance and he has 55 strikeouts in his 47.1 innings this season.

The first career grand slam highlighted a 3-for-4 night at the plate for Wyatt, who has reached base safely in 26 consecutive games. The home run was the second of the season for the sophomore, who has a .359 batting average, .511 on-base percentage, .563 slugging percentage and 29 RBIs in 29 starts this season.

Sophomore Danny Oriente also had a strong performance at the plate finishing 2-for-3 with a career best three RBIs as Louisville finished with a 9-3 advantage in hits against NC State (23-6, 9-4 ACC). Junior Josh Stowers chipped in with a single, two walks and scored two runs.

Wyatt started the scoring on Friday after the North Bullitt High School product delivered his two-out grand slam in the third inning. A walk to junior Pat Rumoro, a single to right from sophomore Tyler Fitzgerald and a walk by sophomore Jake Snider loaded the bases before Wyatt sent the 2-2 pitch from Johnny Piedmonte well beyond the right field wall for Louisville’s second grand slam of the season. Piedmonte suffered his first loss of the season and dropped to 4-1 overall with Friday’s defeat.

The Cardinals pushed the lead to 6-0 in the sixth inning on Oriente’s two-run single. The inning started with back-to-back singles from Wyatt and Stowers before a fielder’s choice off the bat of sophomore Drew Campbell retired Wyatt at third. After a wild pitch moved Stowers to third and Campbell to second, Oriente drove them home when he singled up the middle on a 3-1 pitch from Mathieu Gauthier.

The Wolfpack broke through for their only two runs of the game on Josh McLain’s two-out, two-run homer in the top of the eighth inning. Brock Deatherage earned a leadoff walk and was followed by a pair of strikeouts before McLain pulled a 2-2 pitch down the left field line and over the wall for his third home run of the season.

Louisville added a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to push the margin to 8-2. Wyatt led off the inning with a single to center, moved to second on a walk to Stowers and took third on groundout to the right side before scoring on a wild pitch from Gauthier. After moving to third on the wild pitch, Stowers scored on Oriente’s single to right center.

No.11 Louisville and No.4 NC State will continue the series Saturday at 2 p.m., while the weekend finale is set for Sunday at 1 p.m.