State takes Weekend Series vs. #1 Virginia

Baseball NC State Non-Revenue8

State won its weekend series at Doak Field at Dail Park versus #1-ranked Virginia 2-1 to improve to 18-10 overall (5-7 ACC).

I was at the game Friday and it was a beautiful evening and a great crowd, and obviously the last few innings were exciting. It was my first game of the season and I commented several times how hard State hits the ball (although through seven innings we had a dreadful average on balls in play). Dr. BadgerPack confirmed State’s power this season on the forums:

As I thought, this team — barring an unprecedented offensive collapse — will out-slug the 2009 version by a country mile. A whole 48 homers last year…41 so far this season [we added four in this series].

State used power (four homeruns, including two two-run shots and a grand slam) this weekend to overcome pitching that allows a lot of base runners (41 hits, 10 walks, two hit-by-pitch, three errors); the bullpen did well enough in both of the wins to allow those big hits to make the difference. And while the defense isn’t remarkable (three errors this weekend), they make plays to keep opponents from putting runs on the board (picked off two Virginia runners, threw out another attempting to steal, and threw out a runner trying to stretch a single into a double).

Game 1 – Friday: State 7, Virginia 6 (11 innings)
Game 1 Box Score

State’s bats were largely silent against Virginia’s Danny Hultzen, with only one run on one hit through seven. But the Pack bats came alive against the Cavaliers bullpen when it mattered (from GoPack.com):

With Hultzen out of the game, the Virginia pitching turned from terrific to merely good, and NC State responded by tying the game in the bottom of the eighth. John Gianis led off, pinch-hitting for Diaz, and doubled off the wall in left-center. Kyle Wilson followed with an opposite-field homer to left-center, his third home run of the week, to tie the game at 3-3.

Virginia came right back in the top of the ninth. Tyler Cannon led off the inning against reliever Rob Chamra and hit a double to right-center. John Hicks laid down a sacrifice bunt, and Chamra, after thinking about going to third, threw wildly to first base, allowing Cannon to score the go-ahead run. Hicks advanced to third on a groundout, then scored on Bruno’s Baltimore-chop single over third base.

Virginia relief ace Kevin Arico, with nine saves in as many opportunities to his credit, entered the game in the bottom of the ninth with save No. 10 on the line. Didn’t happen, and it got away from him quickly. Canela led off and doubled down the left-field line, and Dallas Poulk followed with a two-run homer to right, tying the game at 5-5. Arico recovered and struck out the next three batters to send the game to extra innings, then retired the side 1-2-3 in the 10th.

Schaeffer led off the bottom of the 11th and flied to center field. That was all for Arico. Lefthander Neal Davis came in, faced three batters and was tagged for his first loss of the season. Canela greeted him with a sharp single up the middle. Lefthanded pitcher Mike Clark came in as a pinch-runner and went to third on Terran Senay’s two-out double to right. That put runners on second and third, and Virginia brought in Justin Thompson to face Matt Bergquist, who singled to right to end the game.

Game 2 – Saturday: Virginia 8, State 4
Game 2 Box Score

Virginia evened the series with 15 hits in an 8-4 win Saturday (from TheACC.com).

The top four in the Cavaliers’ batting order combined for 10 hits Saturday, with Dan Grovatt (Jr., Tabernacle, N.J.) and Steven Proscia (So., Suffern, N.Y.) each notching three hits. Proscia went 3-for-3 and reached base in all five of his plate appearances. Phil Gosselin (Jr., West Chester, Pa.) and Keith Werman (So., Vienna, Va.) each had two hits, and Gosselin scored three times out of the leadoff spot. Stephen Bruno (Fr., Audubon, N.J.) added a pair of hits out of the nine-hole for UVa.

Robert Morey (Jr., Virginia Beach, Va.) started for Virginia and worked 6.2 innings, allowing four earned runs, eight hits and three walks while striking out five. He earned the win to improve to 4-1 this season. Branden Kline (Fr., Frederick, Md.) worked out of a seventh-inning jam and then pitched the final two innings to record his second save.

Game 3 – Sunday: State 7, Virginia 6
Game 3 Box Score

Andrew Ciencin hit a seventh-inning grand slam and then State held off a two-run threat and stranded the tying run for Virginia in the ninth to take the rubber game of the series 7-6. Anthony Tzamtzis relieved Grant Sasser in the seventh and picked up the win, allowing only two runs (one earned) on three hits in 2.1 innings of work.

This Week
Next up for the Wolfpack is a two-game series in Raleigh versus Coppin State (Tuesday and Wednesday) and then a three-game weekend series in Chapel Hill against #22 Carolina (19-10, 3-8 after Saturday).

About LRM

Charter member of the Lunatic Fringe and a fan, loyal to a fault.

Baseball NC State Non-Revenue

8 Responses to State takes Weekend Series vs. #1 Virginia

  1. Wolfy__79 04/04/2010 at 6:13 PM #

    good job Wolfpack Baseball

  2. Wolfy__79 04/04/2010 at 6:19 PM #

    i’ll have to admit, i don’t follow college baseball that much. since rw’s arrival i’ve done a little better but not much. could yawl tell me how rw grades out vs his teammates in baseball? i’m just curious, especially with him trying out on the mound.

  3. Badinboarder09 04/04/2010 at 7:12 PM #

    I feel like Wilson is average compared to his team mates, he’s quicker so he is in the beginning of the line-up, but it seems that usually other players have better stats.

  4. Lunatic Fringe 04/04/2010 at 7:24 PM #

    RW is good athlete, but I am not sure they know exactly how they want to use him. I think we have better fielders/hitters and better pitchers on the team, but RW’s versatility/athleticism gets him in the game.

    I have noticed that RW does not do to well going from field to pitching mound in the same game, but that is very tricky thing to do in the course of a game.

    RW pitching (from a football fan perspective) scares the bejesus out of me.

    Baseball is 5-7, but that is not too shabby considering that 3 of the first opponents in league are top 15 teams in country.

    We needed a good performance this weekend to stay in hunt for postseason.

  5. elvislives 04/04/2010 at 8:35 PM #

    I know that RW is who most of us associate with the Wolfpack baseball, but this team is much more than the State QB playing spring ball. UVA is a dominant force in college baseball this year and the fact that the Pack pulled out a series win against them is big. Let’s hope the team carries this momentum into Chapel Hell next weekend and sweeps the Holes.

  6. TOBtime 04/04/2010 at 9:04 PM #

    ^Exactly elvis. Hopefully this is what this team needed to get it awakened for the rest of the season. You can overcome ALOT in college baseball when bats are hot. I really hope they are hot in G’boro at the end of May. There will be quite a few folks, including myself, hoping to watch the Pack make a run through the tourney.
    I’ve always wondered about RW as well. Obviously athletic enough to be on the field but never seeming to really stand out the way he does at QB.

  7. LRM 04/04/2010 at 10:07 PM #

    Wilson is clearly a great athlete and you have to admire both his work ethic and his passion, but on paper he is simply a serviceable baseball player who by no means shows that “wow” factor like he does at QB.

    Hitting – out of 16 players on the team with at bats, he ranks 8th in average (.333), 13th in RBIs (7), 9th in total bases (27), 7th in slugging (.563), 9th in walks (8), 6th in on-base percentage (.448) and 6th in strikeouts (9); his fielding percentage is .975, but it’s misleading because he has only one error in 40 attempts (.975 wouldn’t win him any gold gloves in either LF or 2B). However, if you exclude the five players with fewer ABs than Wilson, he’s clearly the worst hitter among the remaining 11; he ranks 7th in average, 11th in runs, 10th in hits, 9th in home runs and also total bases, 11th in RBIs, and 9th in walks; however, he ranks 5th in both on-base and slugging percentages. There’s a reason he bats eighth in the order.

    Pitching – 0-1 record; of 19 pitchers with appearances, he ranks 13th in ERA (6.35), 9th in innings pitched (11.1), 12th in hits (15) and 9th in walks (8), which translates to 16th in WHIP (2.34), 11th in earned runs (8), 11th in strikeouts (6), 12th in average against (.313). If you break these numbers down further by excluding the seven pitchers with fewer innings pitched than Wilson, you see a far more telling picture: he ranks 10th in ERA, 9th in batting average against, and last in WHIP.

    When you look over his numbers, and then watch him play, you’re not convinced he’ll ever play professionally, so worrying about him focusing solely on baseball seems silly. Conversely, if he DOES have the potential to play professionally (which seems to be the indication), then I imagine every intelligent scout is telling him to focus on baseball year-round (like every other prospect does).

    Now, I’m not a scout and I’ve only seen him play in person a couple times, so I can’t say he has no potential, but the stats don’t paint the picture of a guy that will be drafted this summer (which doesn’t mean he won’t play professionally by any means).

  8. wolfpacktexx 04/05/2010 at 12:03 PM #

    Not surprising UNC-CH is still ranked in the top 25 with a 4-8 conference record with impressive competition such as Maryland and Duke.
    Oh well, sauce for the goose if we can get some timely pitching this weekend in CH.

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