North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack Baseball Notebook
3/27/2001 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
NC STATE BASEBALL (12-13, 4-5)
vs. North Carolina (16-11, 0-6)
March 30-April 1, 2001
Doak Field / Raleigh, N.C.
NC STATE VS. NORTH CAROLINA: The Tar Heels hold a 133-108 lead in the series with the Wolfpack, but the two teams have battled on fairly even terms in recent years. NC State holds a 21-13 advantage over the last 10 years, but the home team has taken two of the three games in each of the last three seasons.
NC State is 10-4 vs. North Carolina at Doak Field since 1991, and current Wolfpack coach Elliott Avent is 8-5 overall vs. the Heels, including a 5-1 mark at Doak Field. NC State has not lost a home series to North Carolina since 1993.
LAST YEAR IN CHAPEL HILL: North Carolina defeated NC State twice in three games a year ago at Boshamer Stadium. The Wolfpack took the first game 14-11 behind the offensive heroics of Brian Wright and Josh Schmitt. Wright went 4-for-6 with three doubles and four RBIs, while Schmitt went 3-for-5 with a pair of homers and five RBIs. Schmitt also recorded the final out of the game on the mound to earn his third save of the season.
Freshman center fielder Adam Greenburg went 4-for-4 in the middle game of the series to lift the Tar Heels to a 5-2 decision over the Pack. Ryan Snare turned in a dominant performance, allowing no earned runs on six hits in seven innings to improve to 5-1.
Freshman first baseman Sean Farrell belted a two-run homer in the seventh inning of the finale to snap a 1-1 tie and lead UNC to a 4-1 victory. Chris Elmore wobbled but did not fall for the Tar Heels, scattering nine hits over 5 2/3 innings, but allowing just one unearned run.
THE PITCHING ROTATION: Junior righthander Ryan Combs (1-1, 5.71) will start on Friday for the Wolfpack. Combs has made seven appearances, all but two of them as a starter, and has worked 34 2/3 innings. He has allowed 49 hits, walked six and struck out 33. In his last start, March 23 at Virginia, Combs was hit hard, allowing five runs, all earned, on nine hits in three innings. In his last three starts, all vs. ACC competition, Combs has allowed 16 runs, all earned, on 31 hits in 15 1/3 innings for a 9.39 ERA.
Junior lefthander Dan D'Amato (3-3, 5.44) will start on Saturday for NC State. D'Amato has made nine appearances, six of them starts, and has allowed 52 hits, walked 16 and struck out 37 in 41 1/3 innings. His last start, March 24 at Virginia, was not a particularly good one. The Cavaliers roughed up D'Amato for eight runs on 11 hits in five innings in a 10-2 UVa victory. In his previous two starts, however, March 10 at Georgia Tech and March 17 vs. Florida State, D'Amato was exceptional, allowing six runs on 19 hits in 16 innings against two of the best teams in the country. He walked five and struck out 10 in those two encounters.
Sophomore righthander Derek McKee (1-1, 6.10) will get the start in the series finale on Sunday. McKee has made six appearances, half of them starts, and has allowed 23 hits in 20 2/3 innings while walking nine and striking out 20. In his last start, March 25 at Virginia, McKee was uncharacteristically wild, walking four and allowing four hits and two runs in 2 2/3 innings. He received no decision as the Wolfpack went to salvage the final game of the Virginia series, 10-3. In his previous two starts, March 6 vs. Ball State and March 13 at Winthrop, McKee allowed six earned runs on 11 hits in 12 2/3 innings. He walked three and struck out 13.
THIS COLT IS A STALLION: NC State's freshman catcher Colt Morton was an All-Name Team member from birth. But as Wolfpack Radio Network broadcaster Tony Haynes said on the air March 25 at Charlottesville, "If he keeps playing this well, a name change may be in order, from Colt to Stallion."
Through 25 games this season, Morton was hitting .316 with six doubles, nine home runs and 27 RBIs. He led the team in home runs, RBIs, total bases (66) and slugging percentage (.673). But the numbers on the stat sheet hardly tell the impact that Morton has had on the Wolfpack thus far this season.
In nine ACC games, he is hitting .395 (15-for-38) with three doubles, five home runs and 15 RBIs. Morton also has been a late-inning terror. From the seventh inning on, he is hitting .353 (12-for-34) with four doubles, four home runs and 12 RBIs. His slugging percentage in the late innings is .824.
Morton has six of the Wolfpack's 11 ninth-inning RBIs this season. Twice already, he has driven in two or more runs with a ninth-inning extra-base hit to tie a ballgame. He delivered a two-out, three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth on March 16 to tie Florida State at 7-7, and then rapped a two-run ninth-inning double at Virginia to tie the Cavaliers at 7-7.
The only time Morton has been more deadly than in the late innings has been in the very first inning, meaning when Morton comes to the plate in the first, NC State is probably going to get off to a quick start, which is always important. Morton is hitting .308 with three home runs, eight RBIs and a 1.000 slugging percentage in the first inning. He has eight of the Wolfpack's 16 first-inning RBIs, and two of his three first-inning home runs proved to be game-winning hits.
With nine homers, Morton needs just two more to tie the NC State record for homers by a freshman, set in 1991 by Pat Clougherty, whose younger brother Conor also is a freshman on the current NC State team.
Defensively, Morton's impact is more difficult to gauge, but he has been charged with just one of the Wolfpack's six passed balls, and he has committed just two errors behind the plate. Morton has thrown out just six of 32 basestealers, but he has picked three runners off first base. The best barometer of a catcher's defense is the pitching staff's earned-run average, and when Morton is behind the plate, NC State pitchers have a 4.95 ERA. When the Wolfpack's other catchers are behind the dish, the staff ERA is 5.43.
A BRUTAL SCHEDULE: If strength of schedule really is a factor in determining NCAA Tournament at-large bids, then NC State certainly is definitely a contender.
The Pack has been hovering around the .500 mark much of the season, in large part because head coach Elliott Avent put together a deceptively difficult schedule for the 2001 season.
At first glance, the Pack's non-conference schedule looks like a succession of cupcakes ¯ Elon, Rutgers, Cincinnati, Campbell, Winthrop, The Citadel, Ball State.
Well, guess again.
Through games of March 25, only four of NC State's 13 opponents (including three ACC foes) had losing records, and only one (George Mason) was more than four games below the .500 mark. Four of the Wolfpack's opponents (The Citadel, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Winthrop) already had won 20 games and had winning percentages higher than .750.
The Citadel, Georgia Tech and Florida State all are ranked, and Rutgers was ranked earlier in the season.
Collectively, through games of March 25, NC State's opponents had a won-lost record of 201-122, a .622 winning percentage, which has to rank as one of the toughest schedules in the country thus far.
M*A*S*H UNIT: Injuries are part of the game, but they're not supposed to be this big a part of the game. As the midpoint of the season approaches, NC State's baseball team, especially the pitching staff, is about as banged up as any Wolfpack team in recent memory.
Junior lefthander Daryl Minugh, targeted as a possible No. 1 starter when he was recruited a year ago, had surgery last summer to repair the labrum in his left shoulder and has not thrown a pitch. No likely date for his return has been set. Sophomore lefthander Mike Prochaska, out for the year following surgery to repair a torn left labrum, was projected as a weekend starter when the season began. That's two prospective weekend starters, both of them lefthanders, probably out for the year because of torn labrums.
Lefthanders have been especially vulnerable for the Wolfpack. Sophomore lefty Nate Cretarolo will miss the season with what may become known as "Wolfpack Lefthander's Syndrome" ¯ a torn labrum. He will undergo surgery in April. A fourth lefthander, junior Kyle Stephenson, probably was lost for a month when he seriously injured a knee this past weekend at Virginia.
As if losing two starters wasn't bad enough, the team's best relief pitcher, senior righthander Josh Miller, went down for the season when he tore his left anterior cruciate ligament March 20 while playing basketball.
That's four pitchers out for the season, another out for a month. Several others are nicked and dinged.
LAST CALL FOR MILLER TIME: Until March 20, Wolfpack reliever Josh Miller was the proud keeper of an NC State tradition that dates back to 1996. A transfer from Brevard (Fla.) Community College, Miller thrived because of his pinpoint control.
A year ago, Miller went 5-1 with a 2.35 ERA and two saves. He allowed 10 earned runs on 40 hits in 38 1/3 innings while recording 27 strikeouts. What separated Miller from almost all other pitchers was hit control. During the 2000 season he faced 155 batters and walked just one.
He faced 97 batters before Miami's Kris Clute worked him for a base on balls, and then faced another 57 men without issuing a walk.
In 13 appearances this season, Miller was 1-2 with four saves and a 1.99 ERA. He worked 22 2/3 innings, allowing 20 hits and five earned runs. Although his control was not as incredible as it was a year ago, Miller still managed to issue just four walks all season (one was intentional) while facing 98 batters.
Miller tore his left anterior cruciate ligament on March 20 while playing basketball, ending his college baseball career. He finished with a 6-3 record, six saves and a 2.21 ERA in 61 innings. He faced 253 batters in his career, struck out 45, and walked just five, one intentional. That's one walk every 50 batters faced, and one unintentional walk every 63 batters faced. That's almost ridiculous.
What makes Miller's story an NC State tradition is that he is the second pitcher from Brevard to come to NC State and seemingly never issue a walk. Former Wolfpack righthander Brett Black was a starter for the Wolfpack from 1996-97, won 22 games in two seasons, and walked just 29 of the 977 batters he faced in 238 innings on the mound. That's one walk every 34 batters faced. Black once faced 143 consecutive batters without issuing a walk.
Wolfpack head coach Elliott Avent is very enthusiastic about continuing this tradition.
