Uh, This Isn't How The Season Was Supposed To Start...

Pack falls to Rhode Island 11-8 in first game of the year.

Oy.

Nothing like squandering a 5-0 lead at home to get the baseball season started, eh?

Wolfpack starter Jake Buchanan began the game as best as one can hope, retiring the first nine batters he faced. But the Rams scored two runs in the fourth, sixth and seventh innings, then went ahead for good with five runs in the eighth.

Up next is Xavier tomorrow at 3:00.

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Pack Nine Take The Field For The First Time Today At 3:00

Season preview from GoPack.com

The Wolfpack baseball season kicks off officially today with a 3:00 start against the University of Rhode Island as part of a three-game weekend homestand. Xavier and Santa Clara round out the field.

I won't pretend to pass myself off as an expert of all things Wolfpack Baseball, 'cause I'm not. But it doesn't take a Bruce Winkworth to tell you that the Pack pitching staff will be missing a lot of firepower from the season before.

Clayton Shunick (7-6, 2.76), Eric Surkamp (5-3, 4.89) and Eryk McConnell (4-2, 4.85) are all gone from last year's fantastic rotation, and the Pack will be turning to relatively untested arms to fill their considerable void. The extent and rapidity that they do will likely determine just how far this team can go this season.

One notable member of the squad won't be taking the field today. Russell Wilson, who made quite a name for himself on the football field over the back half of the season but was injured in the bowl game against Rutgers, could miss a considerable chunk of the baseball season. He is scheduled to have a final MRI eight weeks after his injury, which would be the week of the 23rd, and even then he'll likely have some further recovery/evaluation time to log before seeing the diamond to ensure he's 100% healthy.

He's no doubt itching to get back out there, and Pack fans will be just as eager to see him take the field when that time comes.

The Doak is a wonderful place to take in a game on a sunny weekend day, so I encourage you to make it out that way at some point this year. There are great opportunities to see games against some top-notch ACC opponents this year, particularly toward the back end of the schedule: FSU, Carolina and Clemson all come to town for three-game sets in late April and early May. Hopefully all four squads will have something significant to play for heading into those series.

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In this empty space...

...is where I would've normally written a nice preview and subsequent game-by-game recap of the Super Regionals.

But when I couldn't find time to write a preview, I skipped it, hoping for the best in game one. Then we lost game one spectacularly. So then I held off to see what would happen in game two, praying for a good showing. We won that one, so I figured, screw it, don't jinx it by writing a THIS IS FOR THE WHOLE BALL OF WAXXXXXXXX!!!!! post. And, as it turns out, a lot of good that did.

So this is simply a congratulatory post to State's baseball team. You made it to the Super Regionals and won a game at that level for the first time in the program's history against a very hot-hitting Georgia team. Nothing to be ashamed of AT ALL. You carried the Pack banner proudly, and got a lot of casual Wolfpack baseball fans (like myself) biting nails and huddled around radios.

I think pitching coach Tom Holliday did a wonderful job this season assembling one of the best and deepest pitching staffs in college baseball, so the two biggest questions heading into next year will be A) can we keep him, and B) how many of the draftees stick around to try and make another run for Omaha?

Let's hope the answers are:
A) Yes
B) Just about all of them.

Thanks again, Pack Nine: You gave us something to cheer about at the tail end of an athletic calendar that was fraught was disappointment many times along the way. That alone was worth it.

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Georgia downs Jackets...State to play Bulldogs in Athens

I had hopes that State would get an opportunity to avenge their blown game in the ACC tournament against the Yellow Jackets with a matchup here in Raleigh in the Super Regionals. Well, Georgia had other plans.

They smacked the crap out of Georgia Tech 18-6, advancing themselves to the Super Regionals but more importantly for them, earning the right to host it in Athens. So State must pack their bags and try to defeat the Bulldogs on their home field in a best-of-three series.

Here's your broadcast schedule for the weekend:

Friday June 6 - 12:00 pm (ESPN)
Saturday June 7 - 12:00 pm (ESPN2)
Sunday June 8 - 4:00 pm (ESPN)

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Pack downs Gamecocks twice to advance to Super Regional

Old adages stay in circulation for a reason: More often than not, they're true.

That was the case this weekend in Raleigh. Good pitching truly did beat good hitting on Saturday (5-4) and Sunday (2-1) as the Pack downed South Carolina in both games to advance to the Super Regionals.

South Carolina came into the games against the Pack swinging some ridiculously prolific bats, and had beaten UNC Charlotte 15-8 in their first game of the Regionals.

But Clayton Shunick's pitching performance on Saturday, Erik Surkamp's masterful four innings of two-hit ball on Sunday and a lockdown job both nights from the bullpen were too much for USC's hitters.

Now State awaits the results of tonight's 7:00 game between Ga. Tech and Georgia. A win by the Yellow Jackets would advance them into the Super Regionals, but more importantly grant State hosting rights to the second round by virtue of their higher seed. A win by the Bulldogs would mean a trip to Athens.

It's the first time State has advanced to the Super Regionals since 2003, and with pitching this strong, the Pack looks like one of the teams to beat in the second round.

I suppose there's some irony that State does so in defeating Ray Tanner's Gamecocks in newly-renovated Doak Field. It's widely rumored that the reason he left was lack of support from the State athletic administration and a refusal to upgrade the facilities while he was here. To see his understudy (Avent was an assistant under Tanner that assumed the team when Tanner left) advance in a sold-out Doak must've been bittersweet, to a degree.

Here are some recaps, and a nice piece from Baseball America:

• GoPack.com
• PackPride.com
• Heather Dinich, espn.com
• Aaron Fitt, Baseball America.com
  

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Pond helps Pack take first game of Regionals 6-2

Ryan Pond's two-out, two-run double in the seventh leads Pack on to victory.

GoPack.com story
PackPride.com story

The win marks the first time in four years that State has won the first game of the Regionals, and puts them into a matchup with hot-hitting South Carolina tonight at 7:00.

The Gamecocks destroyed the Charlotte 49ers 15-8 in the first game of the Regionals. State will be sending their top ace--and freshly-minted Second-Team All America--Clayton Shunick to the hill to try to throw some water on the Gamecock bats.

Should be a great game tonight, and with tickets sold out well in advance, if you don't have one already you'll most likely be listening to it on the radio with folks like myself.

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Baseball-a-palooza

Today is the opening day of NCAA Regional action at Doak Field, and the Interwebs are all over it.

GoPack.com has a full bevy of baseball articles up and running as you might imagine on account of this weekend's action:

• NC State's NCAA Regional Notes
• Recalling Esposito's 'River Rats'
• Stanley: Different Feel at Ballpark
• Get Inside Link to NC State's Grounds Crew
• Clayton Shunick Named 2nd-Team All-America
• General Admission Tickets Go On Sale 8:30 a.m. Friday

850 The Buzz has an interview with Head Coach Elliot Avent posted from yesterday's afternoon program with Dave Glenn:

• Busy Day For Baseball

PackPride.com has a preview of this weekend's action here:

• Avent: Buchanan to Start Opener

Steven's on top of things, as usual, over at Section Six:

• Too Small To Be Its Own Country...
• NC State Baseball -- Bring Your Own Pants General Admission Tickets Still Available
• Everyone Say Hi To Spanky

The StateFansNation folks have a nice breakdown of the teams at this year's regional:

• “Raleigh Regional” Preview- What to Watch For

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A Tiger Ass-Whippin' At The Tourney

Wolfpack Wins 10-0

You know you've had a bad night at the park when you've been mercy-ruled. That's just what State dropped on Clemson last night, a 10-0 drubbing that was called in the 7th on account of the mercy rule.

Seriously? The mercy rule? I thought they did away with that once you graduated out of the Babe Ruth leagues.

Sucks to be Clemson. Clayton Shunick of the Pack was on his game, pitching a two-hit shutout in the win.

As for the Pack, after handing the Jackets a gift-wrapped game in the tournament opener, they need some help to advance to the championship game. First, State has to pray that Clemson shakes the cobwebs loose and knocks off Georgia Tech in the 10:00 tomorrow. Failing that, even if State were to knock off Miami in the 1:00 game, Miami would hold the tiebreaker in a three-way tie between State and Georgia Tech.

Losing that Georgia Tech game was costly, but the way the team responded against Clemson is a good sign. State now has to hope that impressive win will sway the NCAA regional selection committee in the Pack's favor. A win against Miami, regardless of whether it gets them in the championship game this weekend, would go a long way toward that goal.

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Pack takes two of three from Duke

The Pack posted wins on Saturday and Sunday after losing on Friday to take the homes series with Duke over the weekend at the Doak.

Ryan Pond continued his strong hitting at the plate on Sunday, going 3-for-5 with 4 RBIs.

Here's how the ACC baseball standings look as of April 14th. The Pack's second in a weak Atlantic Division headed up by FSU, while the Coastal goes four-deep with strong teams.

TLANTIC DIVISION School Conference Pct. Overall Pct. Florida State 17-1 .944 31-3 .912 NC State 10-7 .588 23-11 .676 Wake Forest 6-11 .353 13-21 .382 Clemson 6-12 .333 18-17 .514 Maryland 5-13 .278 20-17 .541 Boston College 5-13 .278 18-17 .514 COASTAL DIVISION School Conference Pct. Overall Pct. Miami 15-1 .938 30-3 .909 North Carolina 13-4 .765 29-7 .806 Virginia 11-7 .611 29-9 .763 Georgia Tech 9-9 .500 26-10 .722 Duke 5-12 .294 23-12 .657 Virginia Tech 3-15 .167 15-21 .417

The big game coming up this week at home is a one-game matchup with East Carolina Tuesday night. State beat the Pirates earlier this month, so no doubt the Pirates will be looking to exact some revenge. Should be a good one, especially as well as State has been hitting as of late.

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Pack baseball 2nd in Atlantic division, 4th overall in conference

The Pack baseball team is heating up. They've won six straight at this point, and currently reside in second place in the Atlantic division at 8-6 (20-9 overall).



Ryan Pond picked up some plaudits this week, as well, being named ACC Baseball Player of the Week on Monday and National Hitter of the Week on Tuesday after batting a blistering .600 to guide State to a 5-0 record last week, including wins over East Carolina and a sweep of Wake Forest.

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