In a back-and-forth contest that featured a combined 27 hits, No. 22 NC State baseball (18-9, 6-5 ACC) clinched its series over Clemson (18-9, 2-6 ACC) on Sunday afternoon with a 9-7 win at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.

This is NC State's second-straight ACC series win and it has won four of the last five series meetings with the Tigers.

The Wolfpack jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first three innings, but Clemson surged back with six unanswered runs across the third, fourth and fifth innings to go up 6-4. After NC State responded with a combined four runs across the sixth and seventh innings to regain its lead and added an insurance run in the ninth, Clemson attempted to rally back with a late run but could not overcome its deficit.

Noah Soles, who had a phenomenal weekend at the plate going 8-for-11 with seven runs batted in, started the scoring with a two-run shot to right field in the second inning after Dominic Pilolli reached on a double down the first base line. All three of his homers this year have come in the last six games.

LuJames Groover III doubled the Pack's lead in the third inning with his third home run of the season, a two-run bomb over the left field wall, to make it 4-0.

The Tigers scored six unanswered runs across the third, fourth and fifth innings to take their first lead of the game. A bases-loaded double play in the third followed by Blake Wright's two-run homer in the fourth made it a one-run game, and then a pair of RBI hits and an RBI groundout in the fifth gave Clemson a 6-4 lead.

The Pack managed to tie things up in the sixth via an RBI single by Groover and bases-loaded walk from Pilolli, and in the seventh Devonte Brown delivered with a two-run single with runners in scoring position to put the Pack back out front, 8-6.

Groover tallied his third hit and fourth RBI of the day in the ninth to give NC State a 9-6 lead, driving in Soles from second after he drew a leadoff walk and moved to second on Jacob Godman's base hit to center field. Groover is on a team-best 14-game hit streak and 17-game reached base streak.

Clemson looked to rally in the bottom of the ninth when Jonathan French's two-out RBI double to left center brought in a run to make it 9-7, but Chris Villaman struck out the final batter with runners in scoring position to end the game.

Justin Lawson tossed 3.1 shutout innings and tallied five strikeouts to improve to 2-1 on the mound, allowing just two runners to reach base, while Villaman threw the final 1.1 innings to pick up his fifth save in as many appearances and sixth of the season.

NC State returns home Tuesday for its midweek contest with Campbell, its second matchup of the season with the Camels. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. at Doak Field at Dail Park, and the game will be broadcast on the ACCNX with an audio stream on WKNC 88.1 and the Varsity Network App.