North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State Baseball Hosts Virginia Tech In ACC Series
3/31/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 31, 2005
RALEIGH, N.C. - While the weather forecast is a little on the gloomy side for Friday, the NC State baseball team hopes to get back into Atlantic Coast Conference action beginning Friday evening with a three-game series against Virginia Tech.
The Wolfpack, which has won its last four games, is 19-8 overall and 3-6 in the ACC. The Hokies, who defeated James Madison on Wednesday, are 8-9 overall and 1-7 in the conference. Virginia Tech has lost four conference games off of its schedule because of weather or field conditions in Blacksburg. Those games, two each against North Carolina and Virginia, will not be made up.
Game times are set for 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and 1 p.m. on Sunday. The games will be broadcast on WKNC-FM (88.1) and on the internet on gopack.com through Yahoo's subscription service. Gary Hahn will handle the play-by-play chores. Live in-game stats will be available on-line at gopack.com on the Gametracker.
THE STARTING PITCHERS: Sophomore righthander Jeff Stallings (3-2, 4.89) will start the first game of the series for the Wolfpack. This will be Stallings' eighth appearance and his seventh start. He has thrown 35 innings and allowed 20 runs, 19 earned, on 39 hits. He has walked 15 and struck out 23. Stallings' last scheduled appearance -- set for last Sunday vs. Lehigh -- was scratched when that game was moved up a day as part of a Saturday doubleheader. In his last start, March 18 at Georgia Tech, Stallings allowed two runs, one of them earned, on three hits in six innings, walking two and striking out four, but was charged with the loss in a 9-5 defeat.
Redshirt-junior lefthander Branden Knapp (1-1, 4.50), a transfer from Midland (Texas) Junior College, will start Saturday in the middle game of the series. Knapp has made six appearances, including three starts. In 24 innings, he has allowed 13 runs, 12 earned runs, on 26 hits. He has walked three and struck out 17. In his last appearance, a start March 26 vs. Lehigh, Knapp worked 4 2/3 innings and was charged with three runs on eight hits. He walked two and struck out four. He did not figure in the decision, a 7-5 victory for the Wolfpack. In his three starts, Knapp is 1-1 with a 3.50 ERA. He has allowed 20 hits, walked two and struck out 13 in 18 innings as a starting pitcher this season.
Sophomore righthander Gib Hobson (4-1, 5.30) will start the series finale for NC State on Sunday. Hobson has made eight appearances, all starts, and has allowed 27 runs, 22 earned, on 41 hits in 37 1/3 innings. He has walked 14 and struck out 29. In his last start, March 25 vs. Lehigh, Hobson worked just 2 1/3 innings and allowed five runs on seven hits. He walked one and struck out three. Since his no-hitter vs. Maryland on March 12, Hobson has allowed nine runs on 15 hits in seven innings covering two starts.
NC STATE VS. VIRGINIA TECH: The Wolfpack holds a 22-12-1 advantage in the al-time series with the Hokies. The two teams have not met since 1997, when they met in the second round of the NCAA South II Regional in Tuscaloosa, Ala. The Wolfpack won that game 12-6 and advanced to the finals of the winners' bracket, losing to Alabama. The two squads last met in the regular season a year earlier in a split-venue three-game series. The first two games of the series were staged at Doak Field, the third at English Field in Blacksburg. NC State swept the series. winning the two games in Raleigh by scores of 11-1 and 3-2. The Wolfpack won the game at Tech 7-2. The Hokies' last win in the series was an 11-1 decision at Doak Field in 1983.
SCOUTING VIRGINIA TECH: The Hokies have struggled this season, both on the field and getting on the field. They now have lost four conference games to the weather due to field conditions at English Field, which explains their 1-7 conference record. That includes four ACC series, two of which -- against North Carolina and Virginia -- wound up being single games. When Virginia Tech has gotten on the field, outfielder Jose Cueto has been the offensive leader. Cueto heads into action this weekend hitting .366 with three home runs and a team-high 15 RBIs. Infielder Bryan Thomas is at .365 , and outfielder Billy Marn is hitting .321 with four home runs and 11 RBIs. On the mound, righthander Nicky Bowers (0-3, 5.83) and lefty Ryan Kennedy (2-3, 3.79) have anchored the rotation.
ON DECK: Following this weekend's series with Virginia Tech, NC State will wrap up its current eight-game homestand with a 7 p.m. game on April 6 vs. East Carolina. The Wolfpack will have just 12 schheduled home games remaining after the game vs. East Carolina
BRACKMAN ALERT: For those wanting to know when Andrew Brackman will make his debut with the Wolfpack baseball team, this weekend is a good guess, but he will not start. Therefore, game situations will dictate when he will be used and for how long.
SAVES LEADER: With saves in his first four opportunities of 2005, Wolfpack closer Joey Devine now has 28 saves for his career. Devine, who became NC State's career saves leader last March 13 vs. Northeastern, currently ranks fifth in Atlantic Coast Conference history in career saves. Former UNC sidewinder Thad Chrismon is the ACC's career saves leader with 41. Devine has made 11 appearances this season, eight of them scoreless. He has walked three and has struck out 28, has won two of three decisions, and is a perfect 4-for-4 in save situations. For his career, Devine has allowed 93 hits and struck out 162 in 121 innings.
HOME SWEET HOME: With a 15-1 record at Doak Field, NC State already is off to one of the best starts at home in school history, and has the best home record after 16 games since Elliott Avent became head coach in 1997.
Avent's 1997 team finished 30-3 at the Doak, the best home record in school history, but that team was 14-2 through its first 16 home games. The 1994 Wolfpack was 22-1 at home before taking its second home loss of the season. In 1987, the Pack got off to a 17-1 start at home before losing its second home game. The 1990 and '93 teams were 16-1 before losing a second home game.
BATS: Hitting .318 as a team, NC State heads into play this weekend averaging 7.8 runs and 11.0 hits per game. NC State has collected 10 or more hits in a game 20 times in 27 games, including 11 of the last 14 games.
For some perspective, the Wolfpack got 10 or more hits in a game just 29 times in 60 games a year ago, and did not record its 20th game of 10 or more hits until the 33rd game of the season.
NC State has scored 10 runs or more in a game 11 times so far this season, surpassing last year's total of nine double-digit games all season.
MORE BATS: NC State opened the 2005 season by sweeping Delaware State, pounding the Hornets by scores of 18-3 and 15-1 in the first two games of the series. A year ago, the Wolfpack scored 15 runs in a game just twice all season. This year, the Pack did it twice in the first two games.
Lowering the threshold by two runs, NC State scored eight runs or more in a game only 15 times in 60 games in 2003. The Wolfpack has scored eight runs or more in a game 16 times in the first 27 games of 2005.
STILL MORE BATS: In scoring 33 runs the first two games of 2005, NC State scored eight runs in an inning twice, once in each game. The Wolfpack scored eight in the sixth inning of the opener February 4, and then had an eight-run inning in the third inning the next day. So in the first 12 innings of the season, NC State surpassed the number of eight-run innings it had in all of 2004, just one, on March 2 vs. Le Moyne.
