North Carolina State University Athletics
Baseball Heads to Atlanta to Face Georgia Tech
3/7/2001 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 9-11, 2001
Chandler Stadium / Atlanta, Ga.
NC STATE VS. GEORGIA TECH: The Wolfpack trails the Yellow Jackets 47-36 in the all-time series. Georgia Tech has dominated the Wolfpack in Atlanta, winning eight of the last nine meetings between the two teams in Chandler Stadium, 10 of the last 12, and 12 of the last 15. NC State has never won a three-game series from Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
Over the last 10 years, NC State is 14-22 vs. Georgia Tech, 6-15 since 1995. Tech has won five of the last seven meetings overall. A year ago at Doak Field, the Yellow Jackets swept NC State by scores of 13-1, 11-6 and 4-3.
THE PITCHING ROTATION: Junior righthander Ryan Combs (1-1, 2.79) will start Friday for NC State. Combs has made four appearances, including two starts. He has allowed 18 hits in 19 1/3 innings. Combs has walked just five and leads the NC State staff with 24 strikeouts. In his last outing, a start on March 2 vs. Richmond, Combs was dominant, allowing just one unearned run on six hits in seven innings. He walked two and struck out a career-high 11, which is a season high for the Wolfpack staff this season.
Junior lefthander Dan D'Amato (2-1, 4.87) will start on Saturday for the Wolfpack. D'Amato has made six appearances, three of them starts. He has worked 20 1/3 innings, allowed 22 hits, walked 11 and struck out 22. In his last appearances, an inning in relief vs. Ball State on March 6, D'Amato retired all three men he faced, striking out one. In his last start, March 2 vs. Richmond, D'Amato worked five strong innings, allowing two runs on seven hits. He walked four and struck out four.
Sophomore righthander Daniel Caldwell (2-2, 3.64) will make the start for the Pack in the series finale on Sunday. Caldwell has made five appearances in 2001, all of them starts, and has allowed 31 hits, walked eight and struck out 10 in a staff-high 29 2/3 innings. In his last start, March 5 vs. Ball State, Caldwell worked nine strong innings, but received no decision in the Wolfpack's 4-3 extra-innings win. Caldwell allowed just three runs on nine hits. He walked one and struck out three. Caldwell has allowed three runs or less in six innings or more in three of his five starts.
PROCHASKA OUT FOR SEASON FOLLOWING SHOULDER SURGERY: Sophomore outfielder and lefthanded pitcher Mike Prochaska will miss the remainder of the 2001 season following surgery March 6 to repair a slight tear in his left labrum. The surgery, performed by Dr. James Andrews of Birmingham, Ala., was considered a success, but Prochaska will face a lengthy rehabilitation of at least seven months.
A freshman All-American a year ago, Prochaska batted .250 in 11 games in 2001. He had not appeared on the mound this season. Prochaska batted .350 with 15 doubles and 37 RBIs as a freshman. He was 4-4 with a 5.67 ERA on the mound.
NC State will apply to the NCAA for a medical hardship that would restore Prochaska's sophomore year of eligibility.
THE WRIGHT MAN FOR THE JOB: NC State outfielder Brian Wright came into the 2001 season with glittering credentials as one of college baseball's most productive and dangerous hitters. Through 14 games in the '01 campaign, he has done nothing but embellish those credentials.
Heading into action vs. Georgia Tech this weekend, Wright is batting .434 with six doubles, two home runs and 15 RBIs. He leads the Wolfpack in batting, doubles, RBIs, slugging percentage (.698), on-base percentage (.500) and total bases (37).
During his first two seasons at NC State, Wright established a reputation for being a streaky hitter, and he heads to Atlanta this weekend riding a seven-game hitting streak, the longest for the team this season. During the seven-game streak, Wright is hitting .462 (12-for-26) with two doubles, two home runs and eight RBIs.
Wright has been especially hot the last five games, batting .526 (10-for-19) with two home runs. He has two hits in three of the last five games, and three hits in another. His batting average has fallen below the .400 mark just once all season.
Wright began the season by going 7-for-12 with three doubles, three runs scored and six RBIs in three games against Cincinnati in the Wolfpack's opening series. He got base hits in four of his last five at-bats vs. the Bearcats, and reached base safely in eight of his last 10 plate appearances in the series. He also drew a walk, stole a base in his only attempt, and hit a sacrifice fly.
Despite winning two of three games against the Wolfpack, Cincinnati coach Brian Cleary was glad to be out of Raleigh and away from Wright.
"Brian Wright is one of the top hitters we'll face all season. He is a quality player who could stand in the middle of any lineup in the country and produce at a high level. Some people were born to hit, and he is one of them. He is absolutely one of the top players in the ACC and the country."
As good as he has been thus far in 2001, Wolfpack fans have come to expect that kind of thing from Wright. A Freshman All-American in 1999 and a first-team All-ACC outfielder a year ago, Wright entered the 2001 campaign with a .365 career batting average and career totals of 31 doubles, 18 home runs and 87 RBIs.
Wright had several incredible hot streaks in 2000. During one eight-game stretch, he batted .529 with five doubles, three homers and 15 RBIs. That hot streak gave way to a brief slump, but when Wright broke out of his slump, he gave new meaning to the notion of breaking out. Over his next 11 games, Wright batted .625 with seven doubles, five homers and 21 RBIs. He had three or more hits in eight of the 11 games, and four RBIs in three of them. During one span of 18 at-bats, he had 13 hits, including five doubles.
For the 2000 season, Wright batted .366 with 17 doubles, 12 home runs and 52 RBIs.
Wright wasn't too shabby as a freshman, either, batting .363 with 14 doubles, six homers and 35 RBIs. He did not move into the starting lineup for keeps until the midpoint of the season. During one stretch late in the year, he had a 21-game hitting streak, the longest ever by an NC State freshman and the third longest in school history.
CALDWELL THE NEW ACE: After beginning his career in the bullpen a year ago, sophomore righthander Daniel Caldwell has asserted himself as the ace of the NC State pitching rotation.
The Wolfpack's 2001 Opening Day starter, Caldwell enters play in this weekend vs. Georgia Tech with a 2-2 record and a 3.64 ERA. He has allowed 31 hits in 29 2/3 innings in five starts. He has walked eight and struck out 10.
Caldwell, who went 2-2 with a 5.79 ERA as a freshman a year ago, finished the 2000 season as NC State's top starting pitcher, and has flourished since moving into the rotation two-thirds of the way through the 2000 season. In 10 career starts he is 3-4, but with a 3.92 ERA. He has worked 62 career innings as a starter, allowed 27 earned runs on 64 hits, walked 20 and struck out 35.
In 18 career relief appearances, all as a freshman a year ago, he was 1-1 with an 8.48 ERA.
D'AMATO BACK ON THE BEAM: After struggling through the second half of the 2000 season, junior lefthander Dan D'Amato has given the Wolfpack solid and encouraging outings in his first three starts of the 2001 season.
D'Amato has a 2-1 record with a 5.40 ERA in those three starts, but of the four inherited runners he has turned over to the bullpen, three have scored. Without those three runs, D'Amato's ERA as a starter would be 3.78.
In his last start, March 2 vs. Richmond, D'Amato was charged with two runs on seven hits in five innings. He walked four and struck out four. He got in trouble repeatedly, but also pitched out of trouble repeatedly, stranding 10 runners, including five in the final two innings he worked. He left six men in scoring position.
On February 24 vs. Rutgers, D'Amato allowed four runs on seven hits in 6 1/3 innings, but the Wolfpack bullpen allowed two inherited runners of D'Amato's to score. Before those two runners reached base, D'Amato had retired 13 of the previous 15 men he had faced. He left the game with the score tied at 2-2, and finished with a career-high nine strikeouts.
A week earlier at The Citadel, D'Amato allowed just three baserunners and no runs through the first four innings, walked one and struck out four before tiring in the sixth.
A year ago, D'Amato went 5-6 with a 5.19 ERA, but as a freshman in 1999, he fashioned a 7-2 record and a 5.11 ERA, earning Freshman All-America honors.
WALSH GETS HOT: After a slow start, senior third baseman Sean Walsh has become a force at the top of the lineup for the Wolfpack. In the four games leading up to this weekend's series at Georgia Tech, Walsh had eight hits in 16 at-bats, and was 7-for-11 in the Pack's last three games, raising his average for the season from .238 to its present .321.
Walsh had back-to-back three-hit games vs. Richmond on March 2 and Ball State on March 5.
TWO HOT FRESHMEN: NC State has had three players earn Freshman All-America status the last two years, and the early indications are that two more Wolfpack freshmen could vie for postseason honors in 2001.
First baseman David Hicks and catcher Colt Morton have both gotten their collegiate careers off to excellent starts. Hicks enters play this weekend vs. Georgia Tech hitting .371 with four doubles, a home run and nine RBIs in 10 games. Hicks, an excellent lefthanded pitcher as a high schooler, has made one appearance on the mound and retired the only two men he faced.
Morton, who has the unenviable task of replacing Dan Mooney behind the plate, is hitting .294 and leads the team with four home runs. He also has three doubles, a triple and 12 RBIs. Defensively, Morton has not allowed a passed ball, and with him logging most of the action behind the plate, Wolfpack pitchers have averaged less than one wild pitch per game.
Of the two, Morton has provided far more raw fire-power, but has not made contact as consistently as Hicks. In particular, the 6-foot-6 Morton has provided the Wolfpack with the long ball. With four thus far, Morton already has hit more home runs than any Wolfpack freshman since Craig Lee hit seven in 1997. The NC State record for home runs by a freshman is 11, by Pat Clougherty in 1991. A native of West Palm Beach, Fla., Morton was Tampa Bay's 36th-round pick in the 2000 June draft.
Hicks, a Raleigh native, has hit just one home run so far, but it was a big one. Leading off the bottom of the 10th inning March 5 vs. Ball State, Hicks hit a first-pitch walk-off bomb that gave the Wolfpack a 4-3 win over the Cardinals.
Instead of home runs, Hicks has proven to be an excellent contact hitter, having struck out just once in 38 total plate appearances. Hicks's ability to put the ball in play has enabled him to maintain a high batting average, despite not playing against lefthanded pitchers earlier in the season. So far, his longest stretch without a hit has been just five at-bats. Entering play vs. Georgia Tech, Hicks is riding a five-game hitting streak and is hitting .429 (9-for-21) during the streak.
COMBS, McKEE, D'AMATO SET K MARKS: Through the first 14 games of the season, NC State pitchers have averaged 3.3 walks and 8.3 strikeouts per nine innings, excellent ratios all the way around.
Leading the K/BB parade has been junior righthander Ryan Combs, who has walked just five and struck out 24 in 19 1/3 innings. Combs had his biggest day on the mound this season on March 2 when he struck out 11 Richmond batters in a seven-inning stint, a career high for K's for the Raleigh native.
Three days later, sophomore righthander Derek McKee also set a career high for strikeouts, fanning eight and walking just one in an 11-4 win over Ball State.
Earlier, on February 24 vs. Rutgers, junior lefty Dan D'Amato set his career high for strikeouts by punching out nine Scarlet Knights.
MILLER TIME: There once was an old pitching coach whose motto was: "Work fast, throw strikes, and Babe Ruth is dead."
Although the identity of this apochryphal pitching coach is unknown, he most assuredly would have loved NC State senior righthander Josh Miller. You want the game speeded up, bring in Miller. He works very fast, largely because he pounds the strike zone, and he's yet to face the Bambino.
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. Most remarkable about Miller, however, is the following stat: He faced 155 batters in 2000 and walked just one of them.
He faced 97 batters last season before Miami's Kris Clute worked him for a base on balls, and then faced another 57 men without issuing a walk. In 10 appearances in 2001, Miller has worked 12 2/3 innings, allowing nine hits and four earned runs. He has, however, issued four walks (to his credit, one of them was intentional) while facing 53 batters, still a terrific ratio. He is 0-1 with a 2.92 ERA and a staff-high three saves.
Miller issued the intentional walk to the ninth man he faced this season, Cincinnati's preseason All-America third baseman Kevin Youkilis.
Heading into play vs. Georgia Tech, the Miller Meter reads: 208 career batters faced, five walks, one intentional.
An interesting aside to the Miller story, he came to NC State from Brevard Community College in Orlando, Fla., the same junior college that produced former Wolfpack righthander Brett Black, another noted control freak.
Black pitched 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. Black once faced 143 consecutive batters without issuing a walk.
DOUBLE-HOMER DOUBLEHEADER: NC State's doubleheader sweep of Richmond on March 2 featured the first and, to this point, the only two-homer games by Wolfpack players this season.
Freshman catcher Colt Morton went deep twice in the opener, bashing a two-run blast in the bottom of the first inning and a solo shot in the bottom of the seventh. Junior outfielder Brian Wright hit a pair of big flies in the second game of the twin-bill, both two-run shots, in the fifth and seventh innings.
OFFENSIVE RESURGENCE: Historically, NC State baseball teams are known for their offensive prowess, which made this season's slow start at the plate all the more unusual. Fortunately, the team has begun to show signs of life offensively in recent games, scoring 31 runs and batting .311 (42-for-135) with 11 doubles and six home runs during its current four-game winning streak. That hot streak has lifted the team's batting average from .249 to its current .267.
BIG INNINGS: With its slow start at the plate this season, NC State has not piled up the big innings the way past Wolfpack teams often have. In fact, through 14 games, the Pack has batted around in an inning just three times.
The first came on February 10 vs. Cincinnati, a four-run, nine-batter uprising in the eighth inning of the Wolfpack's 11-9 loss to the Bearcats. Seven days later, the Pack again sent nine men to the plate in the eighth inning, this time scoring five runs during a 13-4 win over The Citadel in Charleston, S.C.
On March 2 in the second game of a doubleheader vs. Richmond, the Pack had its biggest inning of the season, sending 11 men to the plate and scoring seven times in the seventh inning of a 10-3 win over the Spiders.
THE PACK TAKES TWO AT CHARLESTON: Following a 1-2 series loss to Cincinnati to open the season, NC State went to Charleston, S.C., the weekend of February 16-18 for The Citadel Invitational Shootout. The Wolfpack won two out of three games, defeating West Virginia 2-1 on Friday and The Citadel 13-4 on Saturday, but was unable to get a weekend sweep, losing 9-5 to George Mason in the Sunday finale.
Against West Virginia, the Pack scored both of its runs in the bottom of the second inning on an RBI single by Matt Butler and a double steal by Butler and Mike Prochaska. That was all starting pitcher Daniel Caldwell and reliever Josh Miller needed. Caldwell stranded a pair of runners in the first and third, and after pulling a Houdini act to escape a bases-loaded, none-out pickle in the top of the third, he retired 14 of the last 16 men he faced, including the last eight in order. Miller, who worked two innings for his second save, hit a batter and issued a walk in the ninth, but did not allow a hit.
NC State scored in double figures for the first time this season in the Saturday victory over The Citadel. The Wolfpack set season highs for runs with 13 and hits with 16, including five extra-base hits. Sean Walsh had a pair of singles and drove in three runs, and Prochaska, Butler and Joe Gaetti had two RBIs apiece. On the mound, Dan D'Amato made his first start of the season and turned in a workmanlike performance, pitching 5 1/3 innings and allowing four runs on seven hits. He walked one and struck out four. Relievers Ryan Combs and Mike Sollie worked the final 3 2/3 innings and did not allow a run or a hit.
Looking for a weekend sweep on Sunday, the Wolfpack took on the heretofore 0-2 George Mason Patriots and turned them into the 1-2 George Mason Patriots, falling 9-5. Lefthander Travis Hardman allowed four runs on eight hits in seven innings for GMU. He walked two and struck out three, while Brad Santmyer and Scott Yeager both hit home runs. Walsh drove in two runs for the Wolfpack, which came away from the weekend with a 3-3 overall record for the season.
THE HOMETOWN TEAM: College coaches always say that to be successful you have to recruit well in your own backyard. If that's the case, then NC State should be pretty successful on the diamond the next few years.
The 2001 Wolfpack has eight players on the roster who played their high school baseball in Raleigh, one who played in Knightdale in eastern Wake County, and two who played in Durham, whose city border runs contiguous to Raleigh's for several miles along the Wake County-Durham County line.
The Raleigh-Durham-area products playing for the Wolfpack are not just run-of-the-mill players, either. Daniel Caldwell is the team's top starting pitcher and the son of former Wolfpack ace and major leaguer Mike Caldwell. Mike Prochaska was a Freshman All-American in 2000. Jamey Shearin was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1998. Sammy Esposito, a junior co-captain, is the son of former Wolfpack coach and former big leaguer Sam Esposito. Ryan Combs is the son of former Wolfpacker Francis Combs and the younger brother of former Wolfpacker and ex-Pirates farmhand Chris Combs. Joe Gaetti is the son for ex-big leaguer Gary Gaetti. Conor Clougherty is the younger brother of ex-Wolfpack All-American Pat Clougherty.
With two area minor league teams competing for the local baseball market, we should all stop and remember that NC State is the Triangle's real "Hometown Team."
MAJOR LEAGUE BLOODLINES: For the second year in a row, NC State has to rank among the national leaders in sons of former major league players. Three Wolfpack players had fathers who played in the major leagues, and all three fathers had lengthy big league careers. Junior co-captain Sammy Esposito is the son of former Wolfpack head coach Sam Esposito, who played in the big leagues from 1955-63, mostly with the Chicago White Sox. Esposito was head coach of the Wolfpack baseball program from 1967-87.
Sophomore righthanded pitcher and outfielder Daniel Caldwell is the son of Mike Caldwell, who pitched for NC State from 1968-71 and for four different major league teams from 1971-84. Caldwell won 137 major league games in his career, plus two World Series games for the Brewers in 1982.
Freshman outfielder Joe Gaetti is the son of former major league third baseman Gary Gaetti, whose big league career spanned 19 seasons and included stops with six different major league teams. Gaetti played in two All-Star Games, and was a member of the World Series champion 1987 Minnesota Twins, who beat the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games.
Daniel Caldwell, Sammy Esposito and Joe Gaetti all played their high school baseball in the Raleigh area.
