North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack Baseball Hosts Hofstra Over Weekend
2/9/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Feb. 9, 2006
NC State hosts Hofstra in a three-game series at Doak Field at Dail Park Feb. 10-12. The Wolfpack (3-0) and the Pride (0-0) will square off at 3:00 on Friday, 2:00 on Saturday and 1:00 on Sunday. All three ballgames will be broadcasted online as part of the Yahoo subscription service at www.gopack.com and Friday's and Saturday's games can also be heard locally on WKNC Radio.
THE STARTING PITCHERS: Junior righthander Gib Hobson (1-0, 5.40) will start on Friday against the Pride. Hobson will be making his 25th career start for the Wolfpack, including his 19th of the last two years. A week ago against Delaware State, he pitched a workmanlike five innings, allowing three runs on seven hits in a 21-3 blowout for NC State. Hobson walked three and struck out three. Hofstra will start junior righthander Ryan Dunn (2-5, 8.81 in 2005).
Redshirt-sophomore righthander Eryk McConnell (1-0, 0.00) will start the second game of the series for NC State. McConnell, a transfer from Western Carolina, was phenomenal in his first college start a week ago against Delaware State, working six innings and retiring all 18 men he faced. McConnell struck out two, got two outs on pop-ups, and retired 14 men on groundouts. He did not allow a ball to be hit out of the infield, and made just 59 pitches, 44 of them strikes. Junior lefthander Charlie Frago (2-6, 7.35) will start for Hofstra.
Senior lefty Jason Duncan (1-0, 0.00) will make the start for the Wolfpack in the series finale on Sunday. Duncan pitched four solid innings in a start last Sunday against Delaware State, allowing no runs on two hits. He walked one and struck out three. Junior righthander Will DeVito (5-5, 5.86) will start on Sunday for Hofstra.
NC STATE VS. HOFSTRA: NC State and Hofstra have met just once in baseball, on February 28, 2003, at UNC Wilmington¿s Brooks Field. The Wolfpack won 5-2 behind 8 2/3 sterling innings from All-America righthander Vern Sterry, who allowed one earned run on seven hits. Sterry, who retired the first 14 men he faced that afternoon and 17 of the first 18, struck out 10 and did not issue a walk. Justin Riley and Tim Coffield homered for the Wolfpack, with Coffield¿s blast driving in three runs.
NC STATE IN THE RANKINGS: The Wolfpack, which began the 2006 season ranked No. 24 in Baseball America¿s preseason rankings, remained at No. 24 after last weekend¿s sweep of Delaware State. The Pack moved up one spot to No. 25 in the Rosenblatt Report¿s weekly poll. Sports Weekly/ESPN did not issue a coaches poll this past week. Curiously, NC State actually dropped one spot, from 27th to 28th in the NCBWA poll. Apparently the college writers graded the Wolfpack down a spot for missing both PATs in the 12-2 victory in the middle game of the Delaware State series.
THE ACC IN THE RANKINGS: While NC State is ranked in the mid-20s in most of the weekly polls, five other Atlantic Coast Conference teams show up in this week¿s polls as well, with four ACC teams ¿ Clemson, Georgia Tech, North Carolina and Florida State ¿ in the top 10 in three polls. Collegiate Baseball, which had five ACC teams ranked 11th or higher in its preseason poll, has Clemson at No. 5, North Carolina at No. 6, Florida State at No. 7 and Georgia Tech at No. 9. Miami, which lost two of three to Winthrop last weekend in Coral Gebles, dropped from 11th to 21st.
The NCBWA has Clemson fifth, Florida State sixth, North Carolina seventh and Georgia Tech ninth. Miami fell from 13th to 21st. The Rosenblatt Report ranks Clemson at No. 3, Georgia Tech at No. 5, North Carolina at No. 6 and Florida State at No. 9. The college writers have Miami at 21.
Baseball America ranks just three ACC teams in the top 10, with Clemson ranked No. 1, followed closely by Georgia Tech at No. 3 and North Carolina at No. 4. Baseball America does not rank Miami.
HISTORIC OUTBURST: In blasting Delaware State by a combined 50-5 score in last weekend¿s season-opening series, NC State set a new school record for most runs in the first three games of a season, eclipsing the previous mark of 47, set in the first three games of a four-game season-opening series vs. Western Carolina. In the first three games of that series, the Wolfpack outscored WCU 47-13 in winning two of the three games. For the four-game set, which the two teams split at two games apiece, NC State outscored the Catamounts 50-18.
MANGINI¿S THREE-PEAT: While the entire NC State lineup hit the ball with authority against Delaware State, sophomore third baseman Matt Mangini put up especially gaudy numbers against the Hornets, going 11-for-13 with a double, five runs scored and seven RBIs for the series. Collegiate Baseball magazine and Louisville Slugger named Mangini the National Player of the Week for his performance. Mangini had three hits in the series opener and then had four hits each in the second and third games of the series. He is the only current NC State player to record three or more hits in three consecutive games.
DELAWARE STATE ¿ THE NUMBERS: The whipping that NC State laid on Delaware State the weekend of February 3-5 was frightful, and some numbers from that series bear that out.
NC State batted in 24 innings during the series (the Wolfpack did not have to bat in the bottom of the ninth in any of the three games). The Pack had baserunners in 23 of the 24 innings and scored in 19 of the 24. In 12 of those 19 scoring innings, NC State put a crooked number on the scoreboard. The Wolfpack scored two runs in an inning six times, three runs in an inning twice, and also had one inning each of four runs, six runs, seven runs and eight runs.
The longest streak of hitless at-bats that NC State hitters experienced in the series was four at-bats, which happened twice. The Pack went down in order in an inning, three up and three down, just once the entire series, and that was in the seventh inning of the middle game.
The pitching wasn¿t too shabby either. Wolfpack pitchers worked 27 innings, 25 of which were scoreless. The staff ERA for the series was 1.33. The bullpen allowed just two runs, one earned, on 11 hits in 12 innings of work for an ERA of 0.75. Relievers walked five and struck out 15.
FIRST-PITCH PAYNE: Sophomore RHP/OF Matt Payne hit the Wolfpack¿s first home run of 2006, a two-run shot in NC State¿s seven-run sixth inning of the season-opening 21-3 rout of Delaware State. The home run was not only Payne¿s first as a collegian, but came on the first pitch of his first collegiate at-bat.
TRIPLE-DOUBLE: Senior outfielder Brian Aragon belted three doubles in the Wolfpack¿s 21-3 season-opening rout of Delaware State. The last time a Wolfpack player hit three doubles in a game was March 12, 2003, when Justin Riley doubled three times against VMI.
A-ROD VISITS CORONA, WOLFPACK: Most college athletes were the best athlete in their high school and maybe in their entire hometown. As good as he is (All-ACC a year ago) sophomore second baseman Ramon Corona isn¿t even the best infielder in his neighborhood. Corona¿s neighborhood in Coral Gables, Fla., is the home of some pretty darned good infielders, it seems, the most prominent being New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, the reigning American League MVP. Rodriguez lives across the street and one house down from the Coronas, and it says something very good about Ramon Corona that before the 2006 college season began, Rodriguez decided to surprise his neighbor by showing up at Doak Field unannounced to watch Corona play for the first time.
Corona responded by going 3-for-4 with a double and three RBIs in NC State¿s 21-3 season-opening victory over Delaware State as A-Rod watched along with Corona¿s parents from the front row above the Wolfpack dugout. Corona added another double and an RBI the next day in a 12-2 victory for the Pack.
Before flying back to Miami, Rodriguez toured Doak Field, spent an inning on the radio with Wolfpack broadcaster Dave Slade, filmed a TV promo touting Wolfpack baseball, and addressed the Wolfpack team in the NC State locker room following the second game of the Delaware State series. He also purchased a brick for the Doak Field entryway.
GROUNDBALL MACHINE: Two years removed from Tommy John ligament transplant surgery and almost three years since the last time he pitched competitively, redshirt-sophomore righthander Eryk McConnell was remarkable in his first college action, February 4 against Delaware State. McConnell worked six perfect innings ¿ 18 up and 18 down ¿ and recorded 14 of the 18 outs on ground balls. He struck out two and retired two men on pop-ups. He did not allow a ball to be hit out of the infield. McConnell, who retired the first seven men he faced on groundouts, needed just 59 pitches ¿ 44 of them for strikes ¿ to plow through the Hornets lineup twice. He went to a three-ball count on just one hitter.
Because of early-season pitch counts, McConnell had no chance to try for a no-hitter or a perfect game, but the bullpen carried the perfect game into the eighth inning before allowing a walk, then lost the shutout and the no-hitter when Delaware State scored two runs, one unearned, on one hit in the ninth inning. The game¿s outcome, a 12-2 rout for the Wolfpack, was never in question.
