Mitchell Daly hit a walk-off homer with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning to lift No. 2 Kentucky to a dramatic 5-4 victory over No. 10 North Carolina State on Saturday in the Men’s College World Series at Omaha, Neb.
Daly’s blast gave the Wildcats (46-14) a victory in their first-ever MCWS contest. Kentucky also set a school record for victories in a season.
Daly unloaded on a 1-2 pitch from Wolfpack right-hander Derrick Smith (3-2) and easily sent it over the left-field fence.
“If it’s up, try to go for it,” Daly said of his approach in an ESPN interview. “It was his big slider and I was sitting on that pitch and happy to get the pitch I was waiting for.”
Ryan Nicholson, who went 3-for-4, hit his 22nd homer of the season to start the bottom of the ninth to tie it for Kentucky. NC State’s Jacob Dudan served up that blast.
The Wildcats will face the winner of Saturday’s later game between Texas A&M and Florida on Monday night. NC State (38-22) will face the loser of that contest Monday afternoon in an elimination game.
Each of the first three games of the MCWS have been decided on walkoff hits. North Carolina beat Virginia and Tennessee defeated Florida State in that manner on Friday.
Johnny Hummel (4-0) pitched 1 2/3 innings of hitless relief for Kentucky.
Alec Makarewicz hit a two-run homer and Jacob Cozart went 3-for-4 with an RBI for NC State. Cozart scored on Hummel’s wild pitch in the ninth to give the Wolfpack a 4-3 lead.
Earlier, Nick Lopez had an RBI single in the first to give Kentucky a 1-0 lead.
Cozart’s run-scoring single in the third tied the score.
Nolan McCarthy hit a two-run homer in the fourth — his eighth of the season — to give the Wildcats a 3-1 advantage. Makarewicz’s two-run blast in the seventh, his 23rd of the campaign, knotted the score.
NC State right-hander Sam Highfill gave up three runs and six hits over seven innings. He struck out seven and walked two.
Kentucky right-hander Trey Pooser allowed three runs and nine hits over 6 2/3 innings. He fanned three and walked two.
–Field Level Media