North Carolina State University Athletics
Summer Baseball Notebook
8/17/2000 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Brian Wright Undergoes Successful Surgery On Right Elbow
NC State outfielder Brian Wright, a rising junior and All-ACC outfielder from Ramseur, N.C., underwent successful surgery August 15 to remove a bone chip and reroute the ulnar nerve in his right elbow. He will miss fall practice entirely, but should be 100 percent recovered and ready to play by January 1.
Wright has played with pain in his right elbow since his senior year in high school, but kept silent and played through the pain until this summer in the Cape Cod League. The injury prevented Wright from getting full extension on his swing, but in spite of that, he batted .363 with six homers and 35 RBIs as a freshman, and then blossomed this past season, batting .366 with 17 doubles, 12 home runs and 52 RBIs to earn first-team all-conference honors.
Pennington Joins Coaching Staff
Former major league pitcher Brad Pennington has joined the NC State baseball coaching staff as a volunteer coach. Pennington, a lefthanded pitcher, played in the major leagues for parts of five seasons with five different big league teams.
A 12th-round draft pick of the Baltimore Orioles in 1989, Pennington was named the Orioles' No. 1 prospect by Baseball America prior to the 1993 season, and he went on to make his major league debut with the Orioles in 1993 and stayed with the Birds for parts of three seasons. In subsequent years, Pennington played with the Cincinnati Reds (1995), Boston Red Sox (1996), California Angels (1996) and Tampa Bay Devil Rays (1998).
A native of Salem, Ind., Pennington attended Vincennes Junior College and the University of Evansville. He will continue to pursue his degree while working with the Wolfpack baseball team.
Tom Carty Hired As Operations Director
The Wolfpack has hired Tom Carty to serve as Director of Baseball Operations. Carty, a native of Norristown, Pa., comes to NC State after four years of coaching in the high school, junior college and college ranks.
Carty, who played with former Wolfpack stars Scott Lawler and Tom Sergio at Bishop Kenrick High School in Norristown, Pa., played one year of college baseball (1991) at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. He went on to graduate from Gwynedd Mercy College in Gwynedd Valley, Pa., in 1996, and was head baseball coach at Methacton High School in Fairview Valley, Pa., for one year.
Carty also served as an assistant coach at Montgomery County Community College for one year, and worked the past two seasons as an assistant coach at West Chester University.
With the Wolfpack, Carty fills the position that Lawler had a year ago. Lawler was promoted to assistant coach at the conclusion of the 2000 season.
Summer Leagues Wrap Up Seasons
Sollie, McKee Play With Summer Championship Teams
The summer collegiate leagues all concluded their playoffs in early August, with a pair of NC State pitchers playing for their respective league's champion.
Rising junior Mike Sollie concluded a very productive summer with the Brewster Whitecaps of the Cape Cod League with a shutout ninth inning over the Hyannis Mets in the final game of the Cape League Championship Series. Sollie pitched the ninth inning for the Whitecaps and recorded the final out of the game in Brewster's 6-2 win over the Mets.
Notching the final out of the Cape League season capped a solid summer for Sollie, who finished the season with a 2-2 record, three saves and a 3.29 ERA. Sollie made 14 appearances, two of them starts, and allowed 32 hits and just eight walks in 38 1/3 innings. He struck out 23.
Sollie wasn't the only Wolfpack pitcher to play for a league champion this summer. Rising sophomore Derek McKee saw action out of the bullpen for the Harrisonburg Turks, who defeated the Staunton Braves for the Shennandoah Valley League title. McKee finished the summer with a 3-2 record and a 5.18 ERA. He appeared in 11 games and allowed 27 hits, walked 15 and struck out 22 in 24 1/3 innings.
Rising junior outfielder Brian Wright, a teammate of Combs at Cotuit, finished the summer batting .237 with eight doubles, two home runs and 17 RBIs. If Wright's batting average looks kind of puny, consider that the Cape League is definitely a pitcher's league. Only five of the league's 12 teams batted better than .220, and just three had team averages higher than .250. Wareham led the league with a team batting average of .262. Wright's .237 average was higher than all but four of the league's 12 teams.
Also appearing in the Cape League All-Star Game, but as a first baseman, was rising sophomore Mike Prochaska, who batted .396 for the Wareham Gatemen. Prochaska appeared in 21 games as a position player and had 21 hits in 53 at-bats. He drove in 11 runs. On the mound, Prochaska struggled, finishing 0-1 with a 10.93 ERA. He made six appearances, two of them starts.
Rising senior righthander Corey Mattison made just two appearances for Wareham and pitched just 3 1/3 innings.
At Yarmouth-Dennis, rising junior lefthander Dan D'Amato pitched fairly well, but struggled to a 1-6 record with a 3.42 ERA. D'Amato's main problem was walks. He allowed 49 hits, walked 29 and struck out 32 in 47 1/3 innings.
