The best pitchers in the country couldn’t stop NC State in the College World Series, but COVID-19 protocols did.
With four starters out of the regular lineup — and a pitcher playing first base — the short-handed Wolfpack lost to Vanderbilt 3-1 on Friday in Omaha, Neb.
NC State (37-19) had second baseman J.T. Jarrett test positive for COVID on Friday, according to multiple sources, and had 14 total players held out of the game under the NCAA’s protocols.
Under NCAA rules, athletes who are fully vaccinated and have no symptoms are exempt from routine testing. Athletes, and other “Tier I” personnel, who are not vaccinated must continue to undergo regular testing at NCAA championships.
“Nobody really knew what was going on,” NC State coach Elliott Avent said after the game in his press conference.
In all, the Wolfpack had only 13 players available to take on the 2019 national champions. It was almost enough. The Wolfpack put two runners on, with two outs, in the bottom of the ninth inning but rightfielder Devonte Brown grounded out to short.
Avent had to shuffle his lineup and put Sam Highfill, the pitching star of Monday’s 1-0 win over Vanderbilt, at first base. In his first three at-bats of the season, Highfill went 3 for 4 and got a pair of hits off of Kumar Rocker, who will be one of the top picks in the upcoming MLB draft.
“I looked at it as more of an opportunity than a problem for half of our team,” Highfill said.
The Commodores (48-16) finally got Highfill out in the eighth, with two runners on, on a called third strike.
Rocker struck out 11 in six innings to extend the Commodores’ CWS run. The same teams will meet on Saturday at 2 p.m. with the winner moving on to the best-of-3 championship series.
It’s unclear how many players the Wolfpack will have available for Saturday’s game. Avent said during the ESPN broadcast that he found out about an hour before Friday’s scheduled start that he would be missing more than half of his lineup. He was hopeful that any players who test negative would be able to play on Saturday.
It was a wild day in Omaha. The start of Friday’s game was delayed by an hour while the NCAA sorted through the protocols and which players would be available for the Wolfpack.
The Wolfpack started 2-0 in Omaha and had a 7-1 record in the NCAA tournament before Friday’s setback. It beat Vanderbilt and star pitcher Jack Leiter on Monday, coming off of a win over Stanford ace Brendan Beck in the CWS opener and a win over top-seeded Arkansas star Kevin Kopps in the Super Regional round.
NC State will likely get another look at Leiter on Saturday.
Jarrett and relief pitcher Evan Justice were not at Friday’s game. Regular starters Jose Torres (shortstop), Tyler McDonough (centerfielder) and Terrell Tatum (designated hitter) also missed the game.
Pitchers Reid Johnston (who would have been the starter), Matt Willadsen and Chris Villaman were not available for the Wolfpack on Friday.
Vanderbilt scratched out two unearned runs off of emergency starter Garrett Payne in the fourth inning. Payne, a freshman, made his first start of the season and pitched into the sixth inning — his longest previous outing was three innings.
Brown made an incredible diving catch in the second inning to keep Vandy off the scoreboard.
Payne entered the game with a 7.27 earned run average and had only pitched 8.1 innings on the season. He held his own with Rocker through five innings, with an error and wild pitch setting up Vandy’s first two runs.
Avent used two of his available pitchers (Dalton Feeney threw four innings) and they only gave up six hits.
NC State got a run back in the bottom of the fifth after singles by second baseman Carson Falsken and Highfill. Falsken scored on a sacrifice fly by third baseman DeAngelo Giles.
Vandy got an insurance run in the sixth on an RBI single by Parker Noland.
NC State had a chance in the seventh inning, with the bases loaded and two outs, but Vandy reliever Luke Murphy got catcher Luca Tresh to pop out to shallow right field.
“It just shows how tough we are,” Highfill said. “We went out and played a heckuva of a game. I think we showed a lot of fight today.”
