North Carolina State University Athletics
Behind The Scenes With Tony Haynes: Baseball By The Bay
5/20/2002 12:00:00 AM | Pack Athletics
May 20, 2002
By Tony Haynes
St. Petersburg, Fla--Here on the Gulf Coast of Florida, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays have established themselves as the poster children for Major League contraction. Simply put, the overall ineptitude of the Rays has driven fans away from the Tropicana Field turnstiles in droves. But this week, there's another option for the baseball die-hards to consider. About a mile down the road from the curious looking home of the Devil Rays stands historic Al Lang Field at Florida Power Park, site of the 29th annual ACC Baseball Tournament.
The college baseball heavyweights that have arrived in town may cause the Sunshine State's western coast to start tipping towards the shiny blue gulf that frames the shoreline. Five-count'em-five of the nation's top 10 teams are here for a double-elimination event that could easily be billed as a "mini-College World Series."
Florida State, Wake Forest, North Carolina, Clemson and Georgia Tech were all ranked in the top 10 last week. And entering the final weekend of the regular season, four of the five clubs had a chance to win the league's regular season title. The Seminoles finally earned the No. 1 seed in this week's tournament by pulling off an impressive coup: a season-ending three-game sweep of Clemson in Death Valley.
"In the history of the sport, I don't if any conference has put five teams in the top 10, not only in baseball but in any sport," said NC State head coach Elliott Avent. "It's just a testament to the strength and parity of our league. It's going to be a lot of fun for whomever comes out on top this weekend."
For its part, Avent's Wolfpack pulled off a real Houdini job to stay out of Tuesday night's 8 vs. 9 play-in game. Needing a three-game sweep over Virginia last weekend at Doak Field to move into seventh place, the Pack got the job done. And after dropping 10 of 11 in late April, NC State responded down the stretch, winning six straight to close out the regular season.
"We did go through a trying time," Avent said. "We've been through a lot of injuries and a lot of obstacles. Sometimes you don't lose heart, but you do lose vision because you go through so much. It's almost like you're a fighter; you're punched so much that you either stay on the canvas or bounce back up. Going into the last six games of the season, we knew what had to be done. It's kind of like our backs were against the wall. Sometimes if you're really competitive, you come out and fight. It wasn't always pretty this last weekend, but we did come out on the winning side."
In last year's ACC Tournament, NC State became the first team in tournament history to go from the single elimination play-in game to the championship game on Sunday. And while it managed to avoid the dreaded sudden death Tuesday contest this time around, the challenge remains just as difficult. The Pack's opener on Wednesday afternoon at 5 p.m. will be against one of those top 10 heavyweights-No. 2 seed Wake Forest.
In an event that can't be won without quality pitching depth, NC State will be shorthanded this week. Junior righthander Derek McKee, who traditionally pitches his best in big games, is on the shelf with a shoulder injury. His presence has been missed, both on and off the field.
"It has a big impact because Derek is one of our leaders," Avent said. "Last year he pitched twice in this ACC Tournament and he's a guy that knows exactly what it takes to be successful here. Not only are we going to miss Derek on the mound, we're going to miss him here in St. Petersburg. Him not being on that airplane coming down here, that was a little tough for me because he needs to at least be in the dugout to help keep this team focused. But that's a part of the game. The players on this team realize what they have to do. Derek McKee isn't going to walk through that door. Once you know those things, you learn to deal with what you have to deal with and move on."
Pack bumps into some familiar faces: Derek McKee wasn't on NC State's flight to Florida, but basketball player Anthony Grundy was. The Wolfpack's All-ACC guard traveled to the Tampa area for a few days to work out at the IGM training facility in Bradenton. Grundy is preparing himself for the big pre-NBA Draft Rookie Camp in Chicago, which will be held the first week of June. And before boarding the aircraft at the RDU Airport, the NC State traveling party bumped into former linebacker Clayton White. The Dunn native, who now plays for the NFL's New York Giants, was on his way up to New Jersey to undergo arthroscopic surgery to remove some loose cartilage in his knee. White reports that all is well and that he'll be at full strength when the Giants begin training camp in July.
Note: All of NC State's games at the ACC Tournament can heard in the Triangle Area on WKNC 88.1 fm and via the Internet on GOPACK.com. Airtime for Wednesday's opening round game against Wake Forest is 4:55 p.m.
