North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack Pitchers Continue to Excel
4/12/2004 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 12, 2004
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C. - What a difference a year makes. The NC State baseball team that head coach Elliott Avent fielded last year was a high-powered, slugging outfit that was capable of changing the complexion of a ball game with one mighty swing of the bat. Twelve months later, however, the Wolfpack is a totally different club that relies heavily on pitching and defense to win games. To this point, the transformation from one style to the other has gone as well as expected. Following a 3-game ACC sweep of Maryland over the weekend, the Pack stands 24-10 overall and 7-5 in a jumbled ACC race.
Last year's team, which posted a 45-18 mark and advanced to a Super Regional at Miami, combined to hammer 76 homers. But with the likes of Colt Morton, Joe Gaetti, Justin Riley and Jeremy Dutton now gone, the approach in 2004 is strikingly different. With just 18 homers in 34 games this season, the Wolfpack is a team that usually looks to manufacture runs by moving base runners and coming up with clutch hits.
But if the old adage of good pitching beats good hitting holds up, then NC State will have a chance to stay within striking distance of the league leaders for the remainder of the season. Anchored by rock-solid starters Michael Rogers and Vern Sterry, the Wolfpack pitching staff owns a miniscule by college baseball standards ERA of 2.85.
In the weekend sweep over the Terps, NC State got stellar starts from Rogers, Sterry and reliable veteran Phillip Davidson. Rogers, a three-time winner of the ACC Pitcher of the Week Award this season, opened things on Friday by allowing just two runs on five hits in 7 and 2/3 innings of work in a 6-3 victory.
Sterry came back in the first of two on Saturday by tossing a dandy complete game shutout in the Wolfpack's 3-0 win. In his first complete game effort of the season, the senior from Rowland Heights, California yielded just three hits, while striking out 11. Sterry is now 5-1 on the season.
On the back end of the double header and the final game of the series, Davidson came through with 5 and 2/3 quality innings of work, giving up just seven hits - four of which never left the infield. Now 4-1, the Warwick, R.I. junior paced the Pack's 8-3 triumph in a game that was played at Harry Grove Stadium in Frederick, MD.
In building a 6-1 record, Rogers has struck out 64 and walked only 11 in 63 innings pitched. Sterry has been equally as brilliant, striking out 60 and walking just 7 over 55.1 innings.
For the week, the NC State staff posted two shutouts, while allowing just six runs overall and 25 hits in four Wolfpack victories.
Thanks to Virginia's weekend sweep of Clemson, NC State is among a logjam of teams that are very much in the hunt for the regular season title in the ACC. The losses dropped the Tigers to 6-3 in league play. Virginia, meanwhile, owns a 9-game winning streak and an 11-4 mark in the ACC. North Carolina now stands 8-4 in the league after dropping two out of three to Georgia Tech over the weekend.
NC State will swing back into action for a non-conference home game against Campbell Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. before welcoming Wake Forest to Raleigh for a three-game conference series on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
