N.C. State, the No. 1 seed in the NCAA's Raleigh Regional, seemingly couldn't shake James Madison's Dukes, seeded fourth. Many in the crowd of 2,547 were wearing Wolfpack red and had come to the first-ever Wolfpack NCAA baseball game at Doak Field to see the Pack win, not struggle.

"In the seventh inning, there were a lot of red people who were a little nervous," JMU coach Spanky McFarland said.

But State kept its poise and responded. Ryan Pond's two-run double in the seventh broke the tie, and catcher Chris Schaeffer followed with a towering two-run homer in the eighth to lift State to a 6-2 victory.

With freshman starter Jake Buchanan and reliever Joey Cutler combining on a three-hitter, the Pack (39-20) advanced and will take on second-seeded South Carolina (39-21) at 7 tonight.

The Dukes (38-18) face third-seeded Charlotte (43-15) in an elimination game at 2 p.m.

"We're just glad to get off to a good start," said NCSU coach Elliott Avent, whose teams had dropped their last three regional openers. "I know our players are extremely excited about hosting a regional. They definitely weren't nervous, but I think they tried a little too [hard].

"I just didn't think we had good at-bats throughout the game. But then, if you want to look at the good side of the coin, the flip side is we were very clutch."

Pond's hard liner down the left-field line scored Schaeffer and Tommy Foschi, who had opened the seventh inning with back-to-back singles. And Schaeffer homered after State's Marcus Jones battled hard at the plate and slapped a two-strike single to center.

Buchanan, a freshman right-hander with some moxie, pitched into the sixth inning, mixing his pitches well and allowing two runs on three hits.

"I just tried to do what I've done all year, go out and compete and go after batters," Buchanan said.

Cutler (5-0) then came in to pitch the Pack out of a jam in the sixth after the Dukes tied the score 2-2. With a JMU runner at third, the junior right-hander retired Steven Caseres on a grounder to end the inning, then set the Dukes down in order in the last three innings.

"Joey came in and had a lot of life on the fastball," Avent said.

The Dukes, the Colonial Athletic Association champions, also started a freshman pitcher, Turner Phelps. The right-hander allowed a run in the first, then a solo homer by State third baseman Drew Martin -- on an 0-2 breaking ball -- in the third inning that gave the Pack a 2-1 lead.

Martin's homer was his third of the season, but the junior was more pleased with another at-bat. In the seventh, his well-executed sacrifice bunt moved up Schaeffer and Foschi.

With two outs, up stepped Pond, who was 0-for-3 and had struck out in his last at-bat against JMU reliever Trevor Knight (7-3).

"I looked pretty bad my first three at-bats and on the strikeout," said Pond, the Pack's designated hitter. "Pretty ugly."

But with the count full, Pond slapped a curveball from Knight down the line.

"Ryan's double got the crowd so loud," Avent said. "Our fans were just anxious for something to happen. He gets the double, and I think you could have heard 'em all the way down Avent Ferry [Road]. That was a clutch hit."

In the eighth, State's Marcus Jones battled Knight for a two-strike single. Schaeffer then bombed his homer to left, his third of the season.

"I thought that was a huge at-bat," Avent said of Jones' single. "It spoke volumes of our guys' focus."

The victory sets up another first -- the first game between South Carolina coach Ray Tanner and the Pack. Tanner played for State, was an assistant coach and later was the Pack's head coach from 1988 to 1996 before going to South Carolina.

Tanner and Avent are longtime friends -- Avent was on Tanner's first staff at NCSU -- but they've never scheduled a game against each other.

"We've never been able to work it out, so we've never played," Avent said.

Today, they will.