The Pack lost a heartbreaker today. They were up 7-2 after the seventh inning, but the Yellow Jackets scored eight runs the rest of the way to win the 1st game of this year’s ACC tournament 10-9. The Pack did score two runs in the eight inning to retake the lead 9-8, but State’s shortstop was thrown out at home in a collision with the catcher. On the play, the umpire ejected shortstop Tommy Foschi due to a crazy rule in college baseball that protects fielders who make a choice to block the path of the runner.
That ejection led to NC State putting in a new 2nd baseman (Russell Wilson) and moving the starter at second base over to shortstop for the top of the ninth inning. To start the inning, errors were made by the first baseman, the second baseman and the shortstop consecutively which led to Georgia Tech’s decisive two runs in the inning.
While NC State should have won the game even with the questionable judgment by the umpire, this call certainly didn’t help us defensively in the pivotal 9th inning.
Updated
Miami beat Clemson today 8-1. For the Pack to advance, Miami must beat GT, NC State must win its last two games and Clemson must beat GT on Friday.
Scenario to advance:
Pack 2-1 (beats Miami and Clemson, loses to GT)
Miami 2-1(beats GT and Clemson, loses to NC State)
Tech 1-2 (beats Pack, loses to Clemson and Miami)
Clemson 1-2 (beats GT, loses to Pack and Miami)
______________________________________________________________________
Morning writeup
State opens the ACC tournament at 10am (hope the boys had their coffee) against Georgia Tech. This will be the one and only meeting of the season against GT, so this is a critical game for both teams as they aspire to host an NCAA regional. I would say State is in a “power bracket” in the ACC tournament, but there are top 10 RPI teams all over the place, and Wake Forest is the only team in the Round-Robin event that has virtually no shot at the NCAAs. It will be interesting to see how much emphasis Avent places on this game– does he play for 1 win, or play for the bracket. Surkamp is likely to take the ball in game 1– he is coming off a stellar pitching performance against Florida State in a 12-2 Thursday victory. The offense needs to get back to swinging the bats; after the 12 run outburst against FSU they were stifled by FSU pitching in the last two games.
Loading ...
May 21st, 2008 at 8:56 am
Surkamp today, Shunick(sp) tomorrow.
May 21st, 2008 at 9:06 am
Game is on TWC 50(fox sports south for those in eastern NC)
May 21st, 2008 at 9:12 am
Already down 2-0. Error allows the 2nd run to score. Man on 1st, only 1 out. Bad play from 1st baseman.
May 21st, 2008 at 9:15 am
State’s going to have to play comeback baseball today… GT with a two-spot in the first inning. Surkamp gets out of further trouble with the double play.
May 21st, 2008 at 9:17 am
In this goofy format, what happens if Tech beats us, Miami beats Tech, then we beat Miami? Assuming everybody beats Clemson.
May 21st, 2008 at 9:24 am
In that scenario(three way tie), I think Miami goes because they are the higher seed.
A loss to Tech kills us.
May 21st, 2008 at 9:30 am
I thought in the 3-way tie scenario they went to run differential or runs scored… going by seed just seems so Fowler-ish (lazy).
May 21st, 2008 at 9:31 am
That is really lame, if it is true that if we were to finish 2-1 with loss to Tech and win over Miami that we sit at home. What was the problem with the old double elimination format? This bracket reeks of a solution in search of a problem…
May 21st, 2008 at 9:32 am
Conference winning percentage apparently… as of last year anyway.
http://www.theacc.com/sports/m-basebl/spec-rel/050207aaa.html
May 21st, 2008 at 9:35 am
Weird. So a loss today kills us, unless Clemson and Miami each beats Tech (or Miami loses twice).
May 21st, 2008 at 9:38 am
we didn’t come ready to play…GT has man on third with one out in bottom of 2nd…
May 21st, 2008 at 9:42 am
got out of that jam…now first and second with no outs for us in bottom of 2nd (how far behind real time is game tracker?)
May 21st, 2008 at 9:47 am
Picked up a gift run… I like aggressive base running- makes the defense earn their outs.
May 21st, 2008 at 10:13 am
Tied up after 3… GT’s starter has to have thrown eleventy-billion pitches so far…
May 21st, 2008 at 10:14 am
Tied up. 2-2 after 3.
May 21st, 2008 at 10:31 am
We should be into the Tech bullpen here shortly. Deck McGuire’s thrown nearly 100 pitches through four innings.
May 21st, 2008 at 10:44 am
“Deck” is a great name for a pitcher…
May 21st, 2008 at 10:47 am
is Russel Wilson playing? how is Surkamp holding up? whats his pitch count?
May 21st, 2008 at 10:48 am
3-2 lead in the fifth… sure would be nice to build on that.
May 21st, 2008 at 10:52 am
4-2. Clutch two out double scores a man from 1st. GT changing pitchers.
May 21st, 2008 at 10:55 am
5-2. Another two out hit scores the runner from 2nd.
May 21st, 2008 at 10:58 am
Wild pitch moves runner to 2nd, runner scores on two out single. 6-2 still batting.
May 21st, 2008 at 11:05 am
Hmm…. What should I ask for next?
May 21st, 2008 at 11:08 am
Based on th paltry run support we’ve given him, Schunick needs to throw a no hitter tomorrow for is to have a chance
May 21st, 2008 at 11:24 am
Surkamp did his job… now the game is turned over to the bullpen. Brown is the first to trot out.