North Carolina State University Athletics
Wilson: The Pack's Home Away from Home
5/27/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 27, 2003
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C.-The road-weary NC State baseball team that rarely got a glimpse of its home ballpark this season will now host the first NCAA regional in school history and will do so, naturally, in a facility other than its own. Motivated by, among other things, the desire to host a regional, NC State took on the challenge of renovating its own Doak Field. The Wolfpack is now getting its regional, but, ironically, the games will not be played at Doak, which isn't yet ready for an event of this magnitude. Let the record show that a place called Fleming Stadium in the town of Wilson will be transformed into Doak Field east this weekend when the Pack welcomes LeMoyne College, Virginia Commonwealth and Western Carolina into one of its many homes away from home.
With wins over Villanova, Marshall, The Citadel, and VMI during the regular season, NC State was 4-0 in Wilson. But really, does Fleming Stadium feel like home?
"No, it won't be home for us," said the Wolfpack's Elliott Avent, who was recently named ACC Coach of the Year. "We played four games there but it seems like that was four months ago. Doak Field is home. But it will be ok. It would have been ok no matter where we went. We were ok in Salem, we were ok at Clayton and we were pretty good at Campbell. We've been pretty good in a lot of places so the site won't be a big factor."
During its amazing and unexpected 42-16 season, NC State bought into the fact that the distance between the mound and home plate remained unchanged regardless of the venue. The bases at Five County Stadium in Zebulon were separated by 90 feet. It was the same at the ballparks in Clayton, Kinston and Buies Creek.
In its Pseudo-home games away from Doak Field, the Wolfpack posted a 15-4 mark.
Still, there were so many disruptions and obstacles for this team to overcome before it could put itself in a position to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1999.
"It's really satisfying to see our guys go through what they went through and end up in this position," Avent said. "I don't think anybody really knows what our club went through this year, so it's extremely gratifying for a group of great young men who are going to be extremely successful in life."
Obviously, packing up the bus and driving down the road to more of those so-called "home games" this weekend will be no big deal for a team that has gotten used to the routine over the last four months. And although Fleming Stadium isn't Doak Field, there will likely be plenty of red in the stands for all of the games."
"The fans in Wilson are great," said All-ACC catcher Colt Morton. "The times we played down there the fans were awesome. And it is close to home. It may not be our home stadium, but there will be plenty of good support for NC State and the travel is going to be easier on us. It is a field we've played on a little bit so that should also give us a little bit of an upper-hand."
Said shortstop Chad Orvella: "Our fans have been so great; they follow us around. We've got great fan support and Wilson is a great town."
Good enough to be NC State's home away from home in the NCAA regionals.
Morton on the Mend: After spending almost all of his time as NC State's designated hitter over the last eight games, Morton should return behind the plate for most of the games this weekend. Other than catching the last two innings of Sunday's ACC title game against Georgia Tech on Sunday, Morton has been relegated to the DH duties since spraining his knee against Maryland on May 3rd.
"It's still a little bit sore but it felt pretty good in the game on Sunday once it loosened up," Morton said. "I feel pretty good about this week. We're going to continue working hard with the rehab this week and hopefully get back in there."
Although back-up catcher J.R. Riley has been an iron man of sorts since Morton's injury, NC State is certainly not the same team defensively without its regular backstop there to handle the pitching staff and gun down those trying to steal a base every now and then.
"He needs to catch for us," Avent said. "He's a big part of our ball club. As a DH, he's a big benefit for us, but he needs to catch for us. It has nothing to do with what Riley doesn't give us defensively, but Colt is a guy that's caught almost every game for us during the year and nothing ever goes bad. He knows our pitching staff backwards and forwards. I don't think he can catch a doubleheader and I don't know if he can catch three straight days, but we need Colt to catch this weekend."
