North Carolina State University Athletics
No. 8 NC State Opens Three Game Series at Uva
4/18/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 18, 2003
The Wolfpack (31-8 overall, 9-3 in the Atlantic Coast Conference and ranked No. 8 by Collegiate Baseball magazine) is back on the road again, this time for a big three-game ACC series at Virginia. The Cavaliers were 22-13 overall and 6-5 in the ACC heading into play this week.
Redshirt-freshman righthander Michael Rogers (8-1, 2.39) will start on Friday vs. Virginia. Rogers will be making his 11th appearance, all starts, including two complete games. He has allowed 65 hits, walked 20 and struck out 70 in 75-1/3 innings. In his last start, April 12 at Wake Forest, Rogers tossed a complete-game seven-hitter, walking two and striking out eight in an 11-2 victory for the Wolfpack. Sophomore lefthander Andrew Dobies (6-0, 3.26) will start for on friday for Virginia.
Junior righthander Vern Sterry (9-0 ,2.74) will start on Saturday against the Cavaliers. Sterry has made 10 appearances, all of them starts, and has allowed 54 hits, walked 19 and struck out 86 in 72-1/3 innings. In his last start, April 13 at Wake Forest, Sterry allowed a season-high six runs on a season-high nine hits in eight innings. He walked one and struck out a season-low four. The win over the Deacons was Sterry's ninth in a row, one shy of the school record set by Brad Rhodes in 1988. Freshman lefthander Mike Ballard (2-2, 1.93) or junior righthander Chris Gale (2-3, 5.03) will start for the Cavaliers.
Freshman lefthander Jason Duncan (1-0, 5.71) will start the finale of the Virginia series on Sunday. This will be his 11th appearance, but just his second start. He has worked 17-1/3 innings, allowed 20 hits, walked six and struck out 14. In his last outing, a two-inning relief stint April 9 against North Carolina A&T at Doak Field, Duncan allowed a run on one hit, walked none and struck out one. He was the pitcher of record in NC State's 9-7 win over the Aggies. In his other start, April 2 vs. UNC Greensboro, Duncan allowed two runs on five hits in 5-2/3 innings. He walked none and struck out four. Junior lefthander Joe Koshansky 5-0, 1.64) will start on Sunday for UVa.
The Wolfpack has dominated the overall series with Virginia and leads by a 90-51 margin. NC State has ruled the Cavaliers 16-8 in the six seasons since Elliott Avent became the Wolfpack's head coach. NC State has won the last six meetings between the two schools, but the series has been much more closely contested in Charlottesville, where head coach Dennis Womack has a 5-4 edge.
UVa won two of three from the Wolfpack in 2001, the last time the two teams met in Charlottesville. The Cavs won the first two games 8-7 and 10-2 before the Wolfpack rallied to win the Sunday finale 10-3 behind a double, a home run and four RBIs from then-freshman catcher Colt Morton, who hit three homers and drove in seven runs in the series.
THE RACE TO 30 W's: At 31-8, this year's Wolfpack got to the 30-win plateau faster than all but six previous NC State teams. The fastest Wolfpack team ever to 30 wins was the 1993 team, which made it in 35 games. That is one game faster than the 1984 team's 30-6 mark, and two better than the 1987, '91 and '92 teams, which all got to 30 wins in 37 games.
QUICK ACC START: At 9-3 in Atlantic Coast Conference play, NC State has the third best ACC record ever by a Wolfpack team through 12 games. The school standard for the first 12 games of the conference season was 11-1, set by the 1991 team.
Twice, NC State has begun the ACC season at 10-2, in 1975 and 1986. The 1975 team played just the 12 conference games. The '86 team finished its ACC season at 11-2.
Five other NC State teams have started the conference season with 9-3 records: 1956, 1968, 1973, 1984 and 1993.
RED-HOT BATS: For much of the 2003 season, pitching and defense carried the Wolfpack. Now, the bats are beginning to awaken as well.
For the first 29 games of the season, the Pack was hitting .274 as a team, which is pretty puny by college baseball standards. In 10 games since then, NC State has crushed the ball, hitting .325 with 30 doubles and 20 home runs, and scoring an average of 10.3 runs per game. The team on-base percentage for the 10 games is .416 and the slugging percentage is .580.
Leading the way during the Pack's big surge has been senior third baseman Jeremy Dutton, who is hitting .487 (19-for-39) with five doubles, one triple, six home runs and 25 RBIs in the 10-game stretch. Dutton, who has been named ACC Player of the Week twice in the past three weeks, now leads the Wolfpack in hitting for the season at .347 (up from .292 through the team's first 28 games).
Also swinging hot bats the last three weeks are junior first baseman David Hicks (.500 average, 8 doubles), freshman left fielder Matt Camp (.342), senior catcher-first baseman Justin Riley (.325, 4 doubles, 6 home runs, 13 RBIs), junior right fielder Joe Gaetti (.324, 3 homers), and senior shortstop Chad Orvella (.320).
KINGS OF THE ROAD: Due to delays in the renovations at Doak Field, NC State has played a grand total of two games in its home ballpark this season. Here are a few notes on the Wolfpack's amazing success on the road thus far in 2003:
* At 11-4 in actual away games (games played at the opponents' home field), NC State has reached double figures in road victories for the first time since the 1996 team won 11 road games.
* With six road games remaining this season, NC State has an outside shot at reaching the school record of 15 road victories, set in 1981, and tied 1990 and 1993.
* With 29 wins away from Doak Field already this season, the Wolfpack has set a new school record for wins away from campus. The old record of 26 was set in 1993. Only four previous NC State teams (1990-91-92-93) ever won 20 or more games away from campus.
