Hard to believe, but despite being no hit for 5.1 innings by UNC ace J.B. Bukauskas, NC State struck first in its opener at Chapel Hill Friday night. Stephen Pitarra broke up the no-no with a single and scored on a two-out rap from Josh McLain, but UNC answered in the bottom of the sixth with a two-run homer from Kyle Datres and then battered the Pack pen en route to a 7-2 win.
Bukauskas ended up allowing four hits but just the one run to improve to 6-0. He fanned a mere six in seven innings, which really isn’t too bad for Pack batters considering he has 81 in 58 innings on the year.