For all those who love to get out and get you some NC State sports in person, here’s the spot this weekend. It will hopefully afford anyone a chance to relax, take in some good competition and escape from the drama that hangs over the two big brothers of revenue sports.
There is some real excitement sorrounding the program as they look to make a deeper push into the NCAA postseason later this spring. Some key contributers are back and looking to use their experience to help guide alot of fresh faces to the scene, sixteen to be exact. The interesting part is that the program may have never ushered in such a bounty of talent in one year. Couple that with the fact that we have never had an Asst. like Holliday who has a proven track record of delivering on promise.
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For some of us, the last memories of ‘07-’08 Wolfpack sports is a good one: the great run of the baseball team that ended one win away from a berth in Omaha. Included in this run was a win in the first regional hosted at home for the Wolfpack (and two nice wins over a loaded South Carolina team in the process).
This is a preview of Closing the Book on ‘08 Baseball
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Many of us grew-up listening to Skip Caray and following the Atlanta Braves from baseball’s worst franchise in the late 70s and 1980s into one of baseball’s best franchises since 1990.
The voice of our generation passed away in his sleep.
This post does an excellent job of highlighting various stories on the internet that may be of interest to you.
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In the past few days, NC State baseball coach Elliot Avent’s name had been linked to the open Auburn head coaching position. However, it appears that Lee Fowler and Avent have reached an agreement on a new contract just nine days after coming within one win of reaching NC State’s first College World Series since 1968:
Avent said he talked with Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs this week about the Tigers’ job. Auburn finished 11-19 in the Southeastern Conference and 28-28 overall this season, and fourth-year head coach Tom Slater resigned last month.
This is a preview of Fowler and Avent agree on new contract
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As you no doubt know by now, the Georgia Bulldogs advanced to the CWS yesterday, shit-canning the Pack Nine 17-8. I was disappointed, but in no way surprised or really upset.
Elliott Avent has been at State a long damned time. He has not won an ACC title, and twice bumped up against the “Sendek glass ceiling” - losing in the Super Regionals (i.e., Sweet Sixteen). His teams are consistently pretty good, but never great. Do I think Avent’s a great coach? No. Do I want him replaced? No.
This is a preview of Why I Don’t Get Worked Up About Avent
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The Wolfpack baseball team beat Georgia on Saturday10-6 and can punch their ticket to their first College World Series in 40 years with a win in Athens on Sunday!!
We cannot over-emphasize the significance of today’s opportunity is for the entire NC State Athletics Department.
Since Lee Fowler became Athletics Director at NC State, Virginia - whose overall athletics program ranks near the top of the ACC with extremely strong, broad athletic success - and NC State are the only athletics programs in the ACC to have failed to participate in at least a Frozen Four, a College World Series, a BCS Bowl, or a National Basketball Championship game.
This is a preview of Pack Nine One Game Away From the College World Series!
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The Wolfpack Nine will travel to Athens to take on the SEC regular season champion Georgia Bulldogs (18-6 winners over Georgia Tech in a decisive regional contest) in the Super Regional round of the NCAA baseball tournament, which opens at noon on Friday. Super Regional format has the host team “home” for the first and the guest team “home” for the second game. For that and more superfluous information that is a sure-fire cure for insomnia, I invite you to check out the NCAA Baseball Championship handbook. ESPN indicates we would be visitors in the third game, but I have no idea if the coin toss has in fact been conducted yet after looking into this (thanks for the heads up WolfpackCoach17). Yes, the Super Regionals are one step away from Omaha, home of the college world series.
This is a preview of NC State vs. Georgia: Super Regional Preview
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At a time when all focus should be on the quest of NC State’s Baseball to reach the College World Series - the Pack will travel to Georgia this weekend - our ‘esteemed’ Athletics Director turns some attention on…HIMSELF, of corse
Yesterday, Pack Pride highlighted an ‘extended interview’ that Lee Fowler gave WRAL-TV5 over the weekend. WRAL-TV also ran similar video interviews with Tom O’Brien and Sidney Lowe. The reason we aren’t criticizing Coach Lowe and Coach O’Brien for their inverviews is because (1) they are actually COACHES and don’t just play one in their fantasies and (2) they haven’t been interviewed at extreme lengths by GoPack.com, PackPride.com, 850TheBuzz and the News & Observer in just the last six weeks!
This is a preview of All Focus on…Lee Fowler, of course!
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Wolfpack downs South Carolina by a score of 2-1 while only allowing 3 hits for second time this weekend!
Baseball America has a nice article that can be read by clicking here.
In our NCAA tournament preview podcast last week, I said North Carolina State’s pitching was very good, but not great. John Manuel disagreed.
I was wrong, and John was right.
The Wolfpack has a solid starting rotation, but what makes its staff truly great is its deep, versatile bullpen. The strength of that pen was on full display at the Raleigh regional this weekend, and it came up huge again in Sunday’s regional-clinching 2-1 win against South Carolina.
This is a preview of PACK WINS!!
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Great night at the Doak as a horrendous umpiring crew still were not able to keep the Wolfpack from notching an important and impressive win over Ray Tanner’s South Carolina Gamecocks in Raleigh.
In fact, this win was so impressive and so important that it will easily rank in the Top 5 wins of the 2007-2008 season for all NC State sports.
N.C. State got everything it needed Saturday night to beat South Carolina. And for the Pack, it took a little of everything.
This is a preview of Wolfpack downs Gamecocks! Needs one to advance to Super Regional
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All NCAA Tournament games can be tracked by clicking here to the NCAA’s scoreboard.
UNC-Charlotte and South Carolina lead off the action at 2pm.
The Wolfpack battles James Madison at 7pm.
If you need more on the Regional then please don’t overlook the fantastic preview that DrBadgerPack put together. (THANKS DBP!)
As we also discussed earlier in the week…there is a lot more riding on this Regional for NC State’s athletics department than just the micro of a few games.
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We’ve known the participants since Monday, we might as well meet them and look for things to watch for in the first regional hosted by the Wolfpack since 2003 (and the first in Raleigh, as the 2003 regional was in Wilson). Let’s take a look at some team stats first. RPIs are from warrennolan.com. State’s matchup with James Madison is slated for 7:00 tonight. Charlotte tackles South Carolina in the 2:00 opener.
This is a preview of “Raleigh Regional” Preview- What to Watch For (Updated 9:05 am)
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Last week we ran a great entry highlighting the NC State Baseball program’s opportunity to deliver a much needed ACC Championship in a major sport. (If you missed the entry then you are not allowed to read further until you go read it).
Coach Avent failed to win his first ACC Championship in twelve years over the weekend, but the Wolfpack’s hosting of the “Raleigh Regional” provides an opportunity for the Wolfpack baseball program to at least make some kind of tangible progress towards something worth celebrating - the school’s first College World Series appearance in forty years.
This is a preview of Another chance for baseball to deliver
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SFN Breaking News: Sources close to the athletic department have indicated that USC and Charlotte will be playing in the Raleigh Regional this weekend. We will update this after the official brackets are released.
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It has just been announced that NC State will host a baseball regional.
Wolfpack Club and current season-ticket holders can purchase advance tickets from the time of the announcement until 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. Tickets go on sale to the general public at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
All orders after 5 p.m. Tuesday evening are subject to availability and will be treated as general public sales.
The entire 64-team field will be announced Monday afternoon during a televised selection show, including the three teams that will play in Raleigh.
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Clemson defeated Georgia Tech 10-4 to set up a showdown between State and Miami. Quite simply, win and advance to the championship game; lose and go home. After the meltdown against GT in game 1, it was unlikely the Wolfpack would find themselves in the is position. But, the necessary scenario unfolded (though not without some stress– the GT/Miami game was a nailbiter).
State obliterated Clemson Thursday night (10-0, 7 innings behind Shunick), so the pitching staff should be well rested. Miami used 4 pitchers in their 15-12 win over GT Thursday. I would guess everybody but Shunick is available for State today, Miami may not lose availability of any pitchers, as none exceeded 50 pitches Thursday- but they may be limited by pitch count and/or innings pitched.
This is a preview of State Falls 5-2 to Miami in ACC Tournament Showdown
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This is hardly a surprise to most of us: Russell Wilson will keep playing both baseball and football for NC State for the foreseeable future.