North Carolina State University Athletics
Baseball Game Notes vs. Miami
4/21/2000 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
In the three-game series, NC State batted .398 (45-for-113) with 11 doubles and five home runs. Heading into the series, opponents were hitting just .230 against Miami pitching, which had allowed 10 or more hits in a game just nine times in 31 games. NC State collected 14, 16 and 15 hits, respectively, in the three games. In Miami's other 60 games in 1999, opponents batted .235 (472-for-2010) against Hurricanes pitching.
Miami coach Jim Morris spent 12 years as the extremely successful head coach at Georgia Tech before heading to Coral Gables. Morris posted a 504-244-1 record in his 12 seasons at Tech, an average of 42 wins per season. He won four consecutive Atlantic Coast Conference championships from 1985-88, and took the Yellow Jackets to the NCAA Regionals in each of his last nine seasons in Atlanta.
Despite all Morris's tremendous success at Georgia Tech, he had to view Doak Field as a mine field. Morris brought his Tech teams to the Doak 15 times and won twice: a 6-1 victory in 1987 and a 10-4 win in 1989. Morris's Jackets lost their first five games at Doak Field and their last seven.
This past Friday, he limited Duke to four runs on 10 hits in 7 1/3 innings, walking two and striking out a career-high nine. He left the game with an 8-2 lead, but the bullpen allowed a pair of inherited runners to score. The Pack won 8-4. The week before, Combs held Clemson to a run on two hits in 7 1/3 innings at Death Valley, walking four and fanning six in a 5-1 victory over the Tigers.
In his last three starts, Combs has allowed six runs on 17 hits in 21 2/3 innings. He has walked eight and struck out 19 in that time. For the season, he has worked 62 innings, allowed 65 hits, walked 25 and struck out 40.
Sophomore lefthander Dan D'Amato (5-5, 4.63) is slated to start on Saturday for the Wolfpack. D'Amato started Wednesday night at Old Dominion and gave up six runs, three of them earned, on eight hits in three innings. He walked one and struck out three. In his last four starts, D'Amato has struggled, allowing 21 runs, 13 of them earned, on 32 hits in 13 innings. He has walked seven, struck out 12, and lost all three of his decisions in that span.
The Wolfpack's Sunday starter is uncertain.
Wright has hit safely in his last eight games, but he is on a tear that now has lasted 25 games. After going 0-for-7 in the first two games of the Wake Forest series March 10 and 11, Wright has hit safely in 20 of the last 25 games, and 15 of those 20 games are multiple-hit games, including seven 3-hit games and four 4-hit games. He also has four RBIs in a game five times in that span, and five RBIs in a game once. Wright has three hits or more in six of his last eight games and nine of his last 12.
During his current eight-game hitting streak, Wright is hitting .611 (22-for-36) with eight doubles, three home runs and 15 RBIs. going back even farther, however, Wright's numbers are staggering. Over the last 12 games, Wright is hitting .596 (31-for-52) with eight doubles, five home runs and 21 RBIs. Before that 12-game span he was mired in a 1-for-26 slump, but in the eight games prior to his 1-for-26 stretch, Wright hit .529 (18-for-34) with five doubles, two home runs and 15 RBIs.
From the beginning of that eight-game hitting streak until now, a span of 25 games, Wright is hitting .455 (50-for-110) with 13 doubles, nine homers and 37 RBIs.
Wright's recent exploits are chronicled above. This is his second eight-game hitting streak of the season. Earlier in the season he had a 15-game streak, during which he batted just .296. He had one hit in 11 of the 15 games on that streak.
As a freshman a year ago, Wright had a 21-game hitting streak, the longest ever by a Wolfpack freshman and the third longest in school history behind Greg Briley's 27-game streak in 1986 and Tom Sergio's 26-game streak in 1995.
Prochaska, who has been the Wolfpack's most consistent hitter this season, has hit safely in his last 14 games and 29 of the last 30. During his current 14-game streak, Prochaska is hitting .431 (25-for-58) with a double and seven RBIs. The low RBI total is due in large part to the fact that Prochaska is hitting behind Wright, who is not leaving many runners in scoring position.
Prochaska's one hitless game in the last 30 was March 31 against Georgia Tech, an 0-for-4 game, but prior to that Prochaska had a 15-game hitting streak, which tied for longest on the team this season. During his 15-game streak, Prochaska batted .393 (24-for-61) with seven doubles, one home run and 15 RBIs.
Prochaska has struck out just 13 times in 173 plate appearances, but the most remarkable stats regarding Prochaska have to do with his remarkable consistency. He has gone hitless in just three games all season, and has yet to go more than six at-bats without a hit.
Often more important than a reliever's ERA is what happens to the runners who already are on base when the reliever enters the game. For NC State, the bullpen has done an excellent job of stranding inherited runners. Wolfpack relievers have inherited 105 runners and allowed just 38 of them to score.
Wolfpack Relievers And Inherited Runners
Pitcher IR Scored Relief ERA
Jason Blanton 2 0 1.00
Daniel Caldwell 16 5 7.76
Conrad Clark 10 3 5.14
Ryan Combs 7 3 3.52
Corey Mattison 10 4 3.09
Derek McKee 2 1 1.38
Josh Miller 19 9 2.86
Mike Prochaska 6 1 3.38
Josh Schmitt 13 3 1.40
Mike Sollie 2 1 6.00
Ryan Steadham 8 3 5.56
Kyle Stephenson 10 5 7.59
The rained-out game will be played at Doak Field on Friday, May 12 at 7 p.m. The two teams then will play their regularly scheduled game at Doak Field the following night, Saturday, May 13, also at 7 p.m.
Lefthander Daryl Minugh of Fresno (Calif.) City College and righthander Paul Regan of Polk (Fla.) Community College signed with the Wolfpack in April, becoming the fifth and sixth members of the Pack's current recruiting class.
In the fall, NC State signed outfielder Joe Gaetti of Raleigh's Millbrook High School, and catcher Conor Clougherty, first baseman/lefthanded pitcher David Hicks, and shortstop Lee Kimball of Raleigh's Broughton High School.
