NC State’s baseball team may be struggling this year and probably will not even qualify for an Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament berth…but this weekend the Wolfpack found a way to grab some ‘prideful’ wins.
To keep its slim hopes alive for a bid to the ACC baseball tournament, N.C. State had to pull off the improbable: win its third ACC series of the season against one of the country’s top-ranked teams.
N.C. State did just that, beating North Carolina 9-4 in the Sunday finale at Doak Field, giving the Wolfpack its first series over the Tar Heels (38-13 overall, 17-9 ACC) since 2005.
“When you’ve got rivalries, you throw out everything,” N.C. State coach Elliott Avent said. “They’re No. 1 in the country. They’ve got maybe the two best players in the country in Dustin Ackley and Alex White and a real good cast. … We’re just real proud of the way we played.”
Avent’s Wolfpack is now 9-18 in the ACC (.333) and 23-29 overall (.442) for the year. The two wins propel coach Avent to an overall .500 record against Carolina at 21-21 as the Wolfpack’s program is now 121-141-1 all-time against the Heels. As the N&O stated, Avent hadn’t won a series against Carolina since 2005.
What does the Pack need to do to squeak into the ACC Tournament?
N.C. State (24-28, 10-17) still needs a lot to go in its favor to avoid missing the ACC tournament for the first time in the program’s history. The league began holding end-of-season tournaments in 1973.
First, it needs to sweep Clemson in a three-game series that begins at Doak Field on Thursday, the Pack’s final series of regular season. The nationally ranked Tigers haven’t been swept in a series this season.
The Pack also needs UNC to sweep Boston College (12-13) and to have Virginia to take one game from Virginia Tech (10-16).
In other action on the diamond, NC State’s 6th (of 8) seeded women’s softball team was eliminated in the first round of the ACC Tournament by the very same UNC-CH Tarheels. Georgia Tech won the women’s softball title by defeated Florida State.
