North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State Baseball To Host Red-hot UNCW On Wednesday
4/12/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 12, 2005
RALEIGH, N.C. - The NC State baseball team will return to action on Wednesday with a 7 p.m. encounter with UNC Wilmington at Doak Field. The game will be broadcast live on WKNC-FM (88.1) and on the internet on gopack.com through Yahoo's subscription service. Live in-game stats will be available on gopack.com through the Gametracker.
THE STARTING PITCHER: Senior righthander Phil Davidson (3-3, 3.79) will make the start for the Wolfpack. Davidson will be making his ninth appearance and his eighth start. He has thrown 38 innings and allowed 24 runs, 16 earned, on 40 hits. He has walked 12 and struck out 25. In his last start, April 6 vs. East Carolina, Davidson allowed two runs on three hits in seven masterful innings as the Wolfpack defeated the Pirates 11-4. Davidson retired 15 of the last 16 Pirates batters he faced. Davidson is 2-0 with a 3.07 ERA in his last two starts.
Davidson has a lengthy history with the Seahawks. He tossed five shutout innings against UNCW on March 23, 2004, allowing four hits and a walk while striking out six, but got no decision in a 1-0 loss. On March 15, 2003, at Five County Stadium in Zebulon, N.C., Davidson pitched a complete game against the Seahawks, allowing two runs, one earned, on four hits. He walked one and struck out six and came away with the "W" in a 6-2 Wolfpack victory. On April 22, 2003, at Doak Field, Davidson again pitched well, but go no decision as NC State won 5-4 on Adam Hargrave's one-out RBI double in the bottom of the ninth. For his part, Davidson worked six innings and allowed three runs on six hits. He walked three and struck out three.
NC STATE VS. UNC WILMINGTON: NC State holds a 52-12 lead in the series with UNC Wilmington, including a 12-2 mark in the last 14 meetings. The Wolfpack won 6-0 on March 9 at Brooks Field in Wilmington behind six innings of nearly perfect baseball from lefthander Branden Knapp, who retired 16 of the 18 men he faced, and faced the minimum 18 batters in his six innings on the mound. He allowed two hits, one of which was erased on a double play, the other trying to advance on what would have been a wild pitch. Matt Payne worked three scoreless innings for his first save. UNCW's last win in the series was March 23, 2004, a 1-0 victory at Brooks Field.
SCOUTING UNC WILMINGTON: Since losing to NC State on March 9, the Seahawks have been on fire, winning 17 of their last 18 games, including the last 11 in a row. They won their last eight games -- seven of them on the road -- by a combined score of 119-37. Junior infielder Matt Poulk is the Seahawks' leading run producer. He is hitting .347 with team highs of 14 doubles, six home runs and 39 RBIs. Senior outfielder Tim Preston is the team's batting leader with a .381 average. He is tied for the club lead with 36 runs scored, and has 10 doubles, four home runs, 28 RBIs and 13 steals in 15 attempts. Junior outfielder John Rayne is hitting .349 with 10 doubles, three triples, three homers, 33 RBIs and 13 steals in 14 attempts. Junior infielder Michael Mabry and sophomore catcher Chris Hatcher check in with .317 batting averages. Mabry has six doubles, one triple, one homer and 18 RBIs, while Hatcher has 12 doubles, four home runs and 24 RBIs.
SCOUTING THE PACK: NC State comes into action against UNCW having won nine of its last 11 games. The Wolfpack has played well almost the entire season. Take away a 1-5 record against No. 9 Miami (1-2) and No. 4 Georgia Tech (0-3) and NC State is 23-5. The combined record of the teams that have beaten NC State is 132-90.
Junior catcher Jake Muyco, who had a 12-game hitting streak snapped on Sunday at Virginia, has led the Wolfpack all season, and comes into play against UNCW batting .385 with 10 doubles and 25 RBIs. Sophomore first baseman Aaron Bates is hitting .375 with nine doubles, four home runs and a team-leading 31 RBIs. Senior third baseman Matt Devine is hitting .364 with nine doubles, three triples, one home run and 25 RBIs. Junior outfielder Brian Aragon is batting .350 with 10 doubles, one triple, three home runs and 19 RBIs.
On the mound, NC State pitchers have not allowed a run in the past 20 innings. The Wolfpack has allowed just 10 earned runs in the past seven games, lowering the staff ERA in that time from 5.06 to its current 4.27. NC State pitchers threw three shutouts in their last seven outings.
THIS PAST WEEKEND: NC State moved to within a game of .500 in the ACC by winning two of three games at Charlottesville from Virginia, handing the Cavaliers just their second and third home losses of the season. Virginia won the first game of the series 2-0 thanks to a combined two-hitter from Matt Avery and Casey Lambert. Jeff Stallings allowed just one run on one hit in 5 2/3 innings for the Wolfpack. NC State came back the next afternoon and blanked the Cavaliers behind a complete-game five-hitter from lefthander Branden Knapp, the first complete-game shutout in a conference game this season. The solid pitching continued in the finale as Gib Hobson and Joey Devine combined on a seven-hitter to prevail 1-0. The back-to-back shutouts were the first by NC State pitchers since last May 15, when Mike Rogers and Vern Sterry each threw a complete-game shutout at Texas, the first time in the history of the Texas program than the Longhorns were shut out in both ends of a doubleheader. Virginia was shut out in consecutive games for the first time since 1999.
ON DECK: NC State will return to ACC action this weekend with a three-game series at Wake Forest. Game times are set for 3 p.m. on Friday, and 1:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
