CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Tommy White hit three home runs on Wednesday night to break the NC State baseball single season home run record as the Wolfpack (35-20) clinched its third-straight ACC Championship semifinal appearance with a 9-6 win over Miami (39-17) at Truist Field.
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The Wolfpack scored in five of the first six innings and tallied 12 hits en route to the victory, as White had five runs batted in with his three homers while LuJames Groover III had a 3-for-5 outing with three RBIs and three runs scored and Noah Soles turned in a 2-for-3 performance.
White got the Pack on the board in the first inning with his first home run of the night, a solo shot to right field, to give his team a 1-0 lead.
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The Hurricanes took a 4-1 lead in the third on a RBI single by CJ Kayfus and a three-run homer by Yohandy Morales after back-to-back walks started the inning, but White cut the deficit to one in the bottom frame with a two-run homer to right field after Groover reached on a one-out double to right field.
The Pack took its lead back in the fourth with three runs on four hits and an error, making it 6-4. Soles and Devonte Brown both tallied base hits to put runners at first and second, and Groover delivered with a two-run double off the right field wall to score the go-ahead run. Then, after White was intentionally walked, a Josh Hood infield single and error sent Groover home for the insurance run.
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Miami trimmed the lead to one in the fifth when Maxwell Romero, Jr. launched a solo shot to right field, but Noah Soles answered in the bottom half of the inning with the team's third home run of the night and his fourth of the year to give the Pack a 7-5 lead.
In the sixth, White belted his third home run of the night to right field following Groover's leadoff single up the middle, extending the Pack's lead to 9-5 to break the NC State single season home run record with his 26th of the year.
The program record stood for 34 years as it was last done by Turtle Zaun in 1988, and the national record which White tied was last held alone by Georgia Southern's Todd Greene in 1990. Additionally, it tied the ACC Championship record for most home runs in a single game, as it has only been done five times previously and last done by Louisville's Alex Binelas in 2021.
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The Canes got a run back in the seventh when Morales' RBI single to left field scored Kayfus after he drew a one-out walk and moved into scoring position on a wild pitch.
Miami looked to rally in the ninth by bringing the game-tying run to the plate after a leadoff single and one-out walk put runners at first and second, but Chris Villaman tallied back-to-back strikeouts to end the threat.
Matt WIlladsen was phenomenal out of the pen in his first relief appearance of the season, tossing six complete innings and surrendering two earned runs with eight strikeouts to improve to 5-4 on the season. Villaman collected his 11th save of the season after recording the final two outs of the game.
NC State will face Pitt Saturday in the semifinal matchup at Truist Field, with first pitch set for 5 p.m. The game will be broadcast on the ACC Network and there will be a radio broadcast on WKNC 88.1 and the Varsity Network App. If NC State were to get a win Saturday, the championship game is set for 12 p.m. on ESPN2.
