North Carolina State University Athletics
Sterry, Rogers, Devine Named To NCBWA All-America Team
7/14/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
July 14, 2003
RALEIGH, N.C. - The 2003 college baseball season was unlike any other in the history of NC State baseball, and the Wolfpack added to the list of first-time accomplishments when pitchers Vern Sterry, Michael Rogers and Joey Devine all were named All-Americans by the National College Baseball Writers Association on June 10.
THE NCBWA named Sterry a second-team All-American, and Rogers and Devine third-team All-Americans. Five times previously, NC State has had two players named All-Americans in the same season, but never three. In addition, 2003 marks the first time the Wolfpack has had more than one pitcher named All-American in the same season.
"This season was very special for our team in so many ways, and this honor for these three young men really tops it all off," said Wolfpack head coach Elliott Avent, who earlier was named National Coach of the Year by CollegeBaseballInsider.com. "I'm very proud of Vern, Mike and Joey, and very happy for all three of them. They all certainly deserved to be named All-Americans. They had tremendous seasons, and they were vital to the success of our team."
Sterry, a junior from Rowland Heights, Calif., went 11-0 with a 3.25 ERA for the Wolfpack, becoming the first pitcher in the history of the program to win at least 10 games and go undefeated in the same season. He worked 116-1/3 innings and struck out a team-high 124, the fourth highest single-season total in NC State history. Sterry was previously named first-team All-America by Collegiate Baseball, second-team All-America by CollegeBaseballInsider.com, and first-team All-ACC in a vote of the league's coaches.
Rogers, a redshirt-freshman from Hamilton, N.J., went 12-3 with a 3.02 ERA. He became just the third pitcher in the history of the program to win 12 games in a season, joining Matt Donahue (14-2 in 1992 and 13-5 in 1991) and Brett Black (12-3 in 1996). He worked 125 innings, third most by a Wolfpack pitcher in a single season, and struck out 113. Rogers and Sterry both made 17 starts during the season, and only Donahue (20 in 1991 and 19 in 1992) ever started more games in a season for NC State. Rogers previously was named honorable mention All-America by CollegeBaseballInsider.com, first-team Freshman All-America by Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball, and second team All-ACC by the conference's coaches.
At 23-3 combined, Rogers and Sterry ranked as the winningest 1-2 pitching duo in school history, both in terms of total wins and winning percentage.
Devine, a true freshman from Junction City, Kansas, stepped in as the Wolfpack closer and went 6-3 with a 2.19 ERA and an ACC-record 14 saves. He finished the season just one save short of tying Jamie Wolkosky's school record of 15 saves, set in 1992, and only Wolkosky (15 saves) and Brian Bark (20 saves from 1987-90) rank ahead of Devine on the Wolfpack's career saves list. Devine earlier was named second-team All-America by CollegeBaseballInsider.com, first-team Freshman All-America by Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball, and first-team All-ACC by the league's coaches.
The postseason accomplishments of Sterry, Devine, Rogers and the entire Wolfpack team put the finishing touches on one of the most unlikely seasons in all of college sports. NC State began the 2003 season picked sixth in the Atlantic Coast Conference in a preseason vote of the league's coaches. The Wolfpack was not ranked in any preseason polls, and no projections of the NCAA Tournament had NC State pegged for the postseason field of 64.
The low expectations were not without some foundation. The Wolfpack was coming off a three-year absence from NCAA Tournament play, and had won just 30, 32 and 33 games in those three seasons. Three-time All-ACC outfielder Brian Wright, an All-American as a senior in 2002, was playing pro ball. Rising senior righthanders Daniel Caldwell and Derek McKee, the two most experienced pitchers on the staff, were lost for the season because of arm surgeries before the school year even began.
The Wolfpack began the year with no home field. Renovations began on Doak Field in the fall and lasted through the regular season and beyond, forcing the Wolfpack to hold fall practice at area high school fields. Preseason drills were held at nearby Broughton High School, and from February 10 through April 1, the Pack did not practice outdoors at all other than to take pregame batting practice. And because the team played its first 19 "home" games at six different ballparks away from campus (the closest was 18 miles away), even pregame batting practice was not a given as the team was at the mercy of the various host grounds crews. Six times in a seven-week span, NC State was forced to play a Saturday doubleheader because rain or the threat of rain. (The Pack won 10 of those 12 games.)
A week before the season started, pitching coach Bill Kernen took a leave of absence from the team for personal and health reasons. A month later, he officially resigned. The Wolfpack played the season's first 43 games without a pitching coach. Former NC State lefthander Corey Lee (1994-96), rehabbing from "Tommy John" ligament-transplant sugrery, joined the team as interim pitching coach on April 24 and stayed with the team for the remainder of the season.
NC State confounded all the experts by finishing with a 45-18 overall record and a 15-9 mark in the ACC, good for third place in the final league standings. The 2003 Wolfpack won 45 games, more than all but six teams in the program's history, and the most by an NC State team since the 1994 team won 46.
With Doak Field in the process of being renovated, the Wolfpack had to get on a bus and travel to 53 of its 63 games. The Pack won 38 games away from campus in 2003, far and away the most in school history, and possibly a national mark as well. NC State won 15 of the aforementioned 19 home-away-from-home games, including two of three from then-second-ranked Florida State, and two of three from then-10th-ranked Clemson. The Wolfpack missed tying the school record for road wins (wins at the opposing team's home ballpark) in a season by one. NC State went 14-9 in actual road games. The 1981, 1990 and 1993 teams each won 15 road games.
The Wolfpack reeled off a 16-game winning streak beginning February 28 and running through most of the month of March. The 16-game streak was the second longest winning streak in school history.
The Pack broke into the national rankings on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, at No. 25 in Collegiate Baseball, and stayed in the rankings the rest of the season, peaking at No. 5 on April 28. The Wolfpack spent seven consecutive weeks ranked in the national top 10, the first time in a decade that the Pack had cracked the top 10.
NC State had three players - Sterry, Devine and catcher Colt Morton - named first team All-ACC, and two players - Rogers and outfielder Joe Gaetti - named second team all-conference. The three first-teamers was the most by NC State since the 1992 squad had four, and the five total all-conference players was the most since six were named in 1997.
The Wolfpack finished second in the ACC Tournament, then hosted an NCAA regional for the first time and won the 2003 Wilson Regional, the first NCAA postseason tournament championship for an NC State team since the 1968 team won the NCAA District 3 champion and advanced to the College World Series. For the first time since the current postseason format was adopted in 1999, NC State advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals, playing eighth-seeded Miami at Coral Gables, Fla. The Pack lost two nationally televised heartbreakers to the Hurricanes, losing once in the bottom of the ninth and once in extra innings.
NC State finished the season ranked No. 12 in all three major polls, the second highest finish in the program's history.
Following the season, the Wolfpack had seven players taken in Major League Baseball's First Year Player Draft, a school record.
"Everyone familiar with our program knows the adversity we had to overcome in order to be successful this season," Avent said. "Because of all we had to go through this year, it made the season that much more special. I've never experienced a season as rewarding as this one, and that was because of everything that our players accomplished and the many obstacles they overcamein the process. Individual awards usually follow team success, and the success we achieved this season was a tribute to the dedication and all the hard work turned in by all of our players, coaches and support staff."
