North Carolina State won game three of the Athens Super Regional 8-5 against Georgia and punched their ticket to Omaha on Monday, June 10.
N.C. State center fielder Eli Serrano III made a game-changing play in the seventh against second baseman Slate Alford when he jumped up at the wall to catch the ball. It was the first out of the inning and two runs could’ve been scored if he didn’t make the play. NC State limited the damage and escaped the seventh with a 6-4 lead still intact.
Serrano III also had a big day with the bat going 3-for-4 with a home run and an RBI. Designated hitter Alex Sosa also had three hits and pulled a solo shot to the back of the grass in right field.
Third Baseman Alex Makarewicz led N.C. State with three RBI and had a big two-run home run to stretch the lead to 8-4 in the eighth.
The biggest pitching sequence took place in the fifth when N.C. State reliever Jacon Ducan struck out Georgia third baseman Charlie Condon with a pair of sliders. N.C. State led 4-2 with the bases loaded and didn’t allow any more runs in the inning. Condon is the second-ranked prospect on MLB Pipeline’s Top 200 Draft Rankings.
Condon hit an opposite field home run to right field in the ninth to cut the deficit to 8-5. The blast was his 37th of the year which leads all of Division I College Baseball this season. Condon had two home runs and three RBI in 21 tournament at-bats. Condon led Division I in batting average (.436), slugging percentage (1.009), and OPS (1.567) in 227 at-bats.
Condon most likely played his last college baseball game and has a chance to be taken with the first overall pick by the Cleveland Guardians in the 2024 MLB Draft.
On the other hand, N.C. State will still be playing baseball. They will be part of the final eight teams playing in Omaha. N.C. State has made the College World Series four times, with their most recent trip being in 2021 and was the fourth ACC team to make it to the College World Series this season, with four Southeastern Conference teams round out the field in Omaha.
N.C. State will play its first game of the College World Series on Saturday, June 15 at 1 p.m. ET on ESPN at Charles Schwab Field Omaha.
