North Carolina State University Athletics
Tony Haynes: A Washout
5/3/2004 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 3, 2004
By Tony Haynes
The feature film on Turner Classic Movies on Saturday night was "Singing in the Rain." How ironic. Earlier in the day, the baseball teams from Georgia Tech and NC State played a version of "Waiting in the Rain" as their double-header, scheduled to begin at 2:00 p.m., never got off the ground. After holding out hope for several hours, the two coaches - Tech's Danny Hall and NC State's Elliott Avent - agreed to end their face-to-face standoff with Mother Nature and call it quits at around 7:30. And although the weather improved on Sunday, the weekend eventually turned into a total washout for the Pack.
Because of the inclement weather, a series that was scheduled for three games was trimmed down to two in the form of a double-header on Sunday. Naturally, game one was delayed by rain for an hour before game two was stopped early with Georgia Tech holding a 7-3 lead in the top of the ninth.
In the end, the talented Yellow Jackets took both games on Sunday, handing the Wolfpack its fourth and fifth consecutive losses in conference play. Now 28-18 overall and 9-11 in the ACC, NC State will have to get things turned around quickly if it is going to have any hopes of continuing to play baseball after the ACC Tournament, which will be staged in Salem, Virginia from May 25-30.
As both clubs fidgeted on Saturday while the precipitation continued to fall from the overcast skies, the Doak Field public address system provided audio entertainment in the form of songs with rain themes. "Rain Drops Keep Falling on my Head" was followed by "Come Rain or Shine," "Rainy Days and Mondays," "I Made it Through the Rain"...etc....
Not coincidently perhaps, the first song that came up after rain halted and eventually ended game two of Sunday's twin bill was the theme from the motion picture "Titanic." No doubt, the Wolfpack had a sinking feeling after absorbing back-to-back home losses to the Yellow Jackets, who are finally just now starting to play up to their potential.
Picked to finish No. 1 in the ACC race before the season, Tech features virtually the same line-up it fielded last season when it edged NC State to win the ACC title. Four Georgia Tech players - second baseman Eric Patterson, pitcher/ designated hitter Micah Owings, shortstop Tyler Greene and catcher Mike Nickeas - played for the USA National Team last summer. Yet despite all that talent, the Yellow Jackets (27-17, 9-5) had been without much sting most of the season until their recent seven-game winning streak, a stretch that has allowed them to move up to fourth in the ACC.
And while Georgia Tech has returned almost its entire team in tact, NC State has been unable to recover from the loss of productive hitters like Colt Morton, Justin Riley, Joe Gaetti and Jeremy Dutton, four players who accounted for 62 of the Wolfpack's 76 homers last season.
Through 46 games this year, NC State has hit only 20 homers and is currently among the ACC's most anemic offensive teams with a batting average of .277.
A pitching staff anchored by superb starters Vern Sterry and Michael Rogers has been terrific, but in the high-scoring world of college baseball, good pitching can only take a team so far. Rogers and Sterry are a combined 13-5 on the season, which is an amazing feat given the lack of offensive support they've had to back them up. The Wolfpack's two aces have very little margin for error when they take the mound, a fact that was proven on Sunday when they were the losing pitchers in the double-header sweep at the hands of Tech.
In order to return to NCAA tourney play, NC State needs some quality wins and to be sure, plenty of chances to land such marquee victories will be available from here on out. Of the Wolfpack's final eight regular season games, six will be against nationally ranked opponents East Carolina, Texas and North Carolina.
Before entering that grueling stretch, however, the final exam period will allow NC State's players to step away from baseball his week. Perhaps that's not such a bad thing.
Who knows? When the schedule resumes with a game at Campbell on May 11, the theme song might be "Walking on Sunshine."
