BASEBALL
Normally, sitting third of six teams in your division wouldn’t be anything much to brag about. But NC State is now listed in the top-25 of three different baseball polls archived at yahoo sports. Here is a brief summary of where the ACC teams are currently ranked:
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Baseball
Collegiate
Baseball
ESPN
3
1
2
2
2
3
6
8
7
CLEMSON
14
13
15
NC
STATE
25
25
23
In case you missed the link above, this link will take you to the conference standings at the ACC website.
Here is State’s schedule and results so far this year.
There’s alot of baseball yet to be played, but if you look at the this year’s national rankings from baseball and football…you quickly reach the conclusion that the ACC is closer to becoming a baseball conference than a football conference. (I don’t think that the ACC has won a BCS bowl game since FSU won the National Title in the 1999 season.)
For you old-timers, Ray Tanner is still doing well at SC. They are ranked in the top-5 in all three polls. I also noticed that Coastal Carolina and the College of Charleston were nationally ranked as well. It looks like baseball is doing quite well throughout the mid-Atlantic region this year.
SOFTBALL
After winning the regular season and conference tournament last year, State currently sits in third place in the ACC. Not too shabby for a program that is only in its fourth year of existence. I’m glad no one told Coach Navas that it was better to build a program slowly. She and her staff deserve a ton of credit for all that has been accomplished in such a short period of time.
There is no better correlation between coaching and results on the field/court than exists in college sports. The head coach hires his/her staff, recruits the players, trains, and coaches them. If the results aren’t what you want/expect there is only one place to look. The same holds true when significant accomplishments are achieved. I certainly hope that Fowler is keeping abreast of the salary trends in softball and does what it takes to keep Coach Navas in Raleigh.
Special recognition needs to go to Abbie Sims as well. Last weekend she beat UVa twice on the same day….while pitching a no-hitter in the second game. Needless to say, she was the ACC softball player of the week. This was the third time this season and seventh time in her career of winning this award.
On the week, Sims posted non-conference wins over Charlotte and UNC Greensboro and two league victories over Virginia, including her sixth career no-hitter, a 12-0 victory over the Cavaliers on Saturday. The Artesia, N.M., senior allowed only eight hits against 90 batters, recording three complete games and 34 strikeouts, while issuing just seven walks.
In addition to becoming only the fifth pitcher in ACC history to reach 1,000 career strikeouts (1,032), Sims batted .500 on the week, with two home runs, five runs scored and four runs batted in as the Wolfpack extended its winning streak to 10 straight.
Here’s the remaining softball schedule and the results so far this year.
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April 18th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
Baseball team’s offense is starting to come around. Problem is, schedule is so tough ahead of us. We play 3 of the 4 ACC teams ahead of us in the polls, and have already played FSU.
PS: I think we are currently #61 in the Directors Cup (I think we finished 34th last year). No points this year in men’s basketball
April 18th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
^ Correction, #60
http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/nacda/sports/directorscup/auto_pdf/diapril4relstand.pdf
Points in the winter only from women’s basketball, track and field (Mens and Womens) and wrestling.
Still can get points from baseball, tennis, softball, but doubtful we crack the top 40 this year
April 18th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Gawd…why would anyone want to play for the North Carolina Yankees. #2 in the nation? You’ve got to be kidding me.
April 18th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Thanks for bringing attention to the baseball team VaWolf. I discussed some stats and the rest of the season at my blog if anyone cares. Thanks again VaWolf, great post!
April 18th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
I don’t think we are becoming a baseball conference – the ACC already IS a baseball conference. I guess the usual three big college baseball conferences are ACC, SEC, and SWC (in no particular order). PAC-10 is usually pretty good, too. Two other ACC schools that are missing from the typical year-in-year-out top 25 list are Ga Tech and Miami. (Not sure where those schools rank below 25th, but I’m sure they’ll return really soon.) Consider those guys are probably in the top 40, and the ACC has 7 of its 12 schools in the top 40 – nearly 20% of the top 40 college baseball schools are from the ACC.
This year, State is about where we usually are. A pretty good team, always hanging just in or just out of the top 25. This year, our pitching seems to need to respond better. Gloves have been solid, and the bats are now coming around, but B-Rack still hasn’t found his handle very well, yet.
FSU, Miami, Ga Tech, Clemson, and now QNC (and UVA?) are perennial threats to do very well in college baseball. NCSU is usually not far behind.
Man, I really wish we still had Ray Tanner. That guy was a real baseball coach. Avent is not bad, but I’d still rather have Tanner. My understanding about Tanner leaving was that Turner would not support Tanner and do the improvements at Doak.
That brings up a pretty good debate – which AD would you rather have? Turner or Fowler? I think I’d take Jed.
April 18th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
^Which mode of transportation would you prefer, The Titanic or The Hindengurg?
April 18th, 2007 at 1:43 pm
Jed no contest.
April 18th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
Two other ACC schools that are missing from the typical year-in-year-out top 25 list are Ga Tech and Miami.
Last week I noticed that State was ranked in one poll, but real life kept me from getting an entry up. I’m pretty sure that GT was ranked last week….but I didn’t make a copy of the polls.
April 18th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
#20 in the Collegiate Baseball Writers Association poll:
http://www.sportswriters.net/ncbwa/news/2007/poll070416.html
April 18th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
In the past year, we’ve had softball champions, mens and women’s basketball tournament finalists, and the baseball team was tournament finalist last year. X-Country is perenially good, wrestling is good, and Swimming has gained some national attention as well. Jed stumbled into SL, and probably had prodding to make the CTC change, and certianly had TOB drop in his lap with help. Things could be better (we could aspire to UF heights), but things also could be a lot worse too (a la Turner). I think our Athletics are in great shape at the moment and the future certainly looks bright. Now if we can just start closing the deal in the tourneys and bring home a few banners.
April 18th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
^^ Pack #20 in the Collegiate Baseball Writers Association poll
April 18th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
GT was last ranked in the “Collegiate Baseball Newspaper”s poll March 5. As for USA Today, I found the complete poll and GT wasn’t in what one might call the top 45.
The softball team is 2nd in line for the USA Today top 25, right after UNC.
April 18th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Or are we a tennis conference?
Men’s Tennis Rankings
UVa #2
UNC #6
Duke #13
Wake #14
FSU #19
Clemson #22
NC State #26
Miami #35
VPI #40
GT #45
Md #62
BC unranked
April 18th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
To give our women some credit, here are the women’s rankings
GT #5
Clemson #6
UNC #10
Miami #11
Wake #17
Duke #22
NC State #37
My dad plays a ton of tennis and is a huge UVA fan, so he actually convinced me to watch the UVa/NC State match last month. We lost a close match 4-3 and since then I have been to another 3 or 4 matches.
The team matches are very exciting because everyone is playing at once. There is a ton of action and we have a pretty solid facility to for viewing (actually watched the men against Miami indoors on Sunday). IMO, it is much more excited than college baseball because so much more happens.
The ACC tournament is tomorrow in Cary. Our women play at 9 am and our 7th seeded men play 10th seeded Va Tech tomorrow at noon. If our men win, then we have a huge match against UNC on Friday.
Our all-time record against UNC is something like 5-52. We lost an incredibly close match against UNC in recent weeks 4-3. It came down to number six singles. The match lasted almost four hours and both guys were cramping so hard they could even run in the 3rd set. Unfortunately we lost.
The women are very young(no seniors and the only junior being Will Roach’s sister) and the men only lose two of our top six players. Both coaches have done a good job since they were hired.
April 18th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
I was looking for a place to put this earlier…glad this popped up.
Joey Devine picked up his first save of the year on Saturday. He’s at Double-A Mississippi for the Braves. Last night, he picked up his first win of the year, notching 2 1/3 innings of work.
I can’t find the article now, but there was a piece about Devine earlier this year on his recovery from back surgery. Apparently, the injury was forcing him into a more upright delivery, so he was throwing from the wrong arm angle and didn’t have any movement on his pitches….thus the poor results. He seems to have worked that out and they are talking about moving him up to Richmond later this year.
April 18th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
Amen, Capt. Crapt. I am with you on that assessment. The days of TT were dark, indeed. Things much brighter, now.
Go Pack!
April 18th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
Mr O, I would often watch the tennis teams play while tailgating a baseball game. You can back your truck right by the tennis courts, drink some beer (which makes tennis way more enjoyable) and watch some damn good tennis.
April 18th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
^branjawn- you must have been watching the woman play!!!
no seriously, tennis is much more exciting than baseball ANYDAY.
ESPECIALLY if the woman are playing!
April 18th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
branjawn: Watching tennis was the first time it dawned on me that baseball games are an opportunity to tailgate.
April 18th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
Turner vs Fowler…LEE FOWLER WINS!!!
Sadly reminesent of:
Robinson vs Sendek…HERB SENDEK WINS!!!
April 18th, 2007 at 6:00 pm
reminesent/reminiscent…whatever it takes
April 18th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
^From trout’s link:
National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, or NACDA
Past presidents:
Year………………..President………….University
800-800 1/2bc…….Grog………………SLEU, Short Life Expectancy University
then there’s
1893-84……R Cogburn…DSRMMU, Damn She Reminds Me of ME University
then there’s
1993-94……J SWOFFORD……UNC, Who cares
and the list goes on to include others from the ACC
But how about our boy ol’ Johnny “prefect coif” Swofford, heading it up for our good neighbors back there in 1993-94?
Well now, isn’t that just special?
April 19th, 2007 at 8:38 am
Don’t expect Ray Tanner to ever struggle at USC (not sc as espn would have you believe, sc is in the ghetto of LA), Gamecocks have come to expect the annual trip to Omaha
April 19th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Oh Mr Andrew B, maybe I’ll get to see that long frame on the tube, out there on the diamond, throwing heat, at some point this season? Then again, maybe not. But either way, it’s not even anywhere close to as often as I would have liked.
April 20th, 2007 at 7:30 am
I guess my first post on this reveals my age a bit. Southwest Conference is now, essentially, the Big 12.