North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: Wolfpack Baseball Hopes to Prove Its Toughness
3/21/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 21, 2006
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH - When NC State baseball coach Elliott Avent watched his team lose a three-game series at home to UCLA earlier this month, he saw some disturbing trends about the internal makeup of his team. To him, it appeared that the Wolfpack had a fundamental lack of toughness.
So over spring break, he did everything he could to turn his players into $5 steaks.
"We weren't tough at all," Avent said. "That's all we worked on during spring break. I may have worn them out, but you can't win in college athletics if you aren't tough.
"It's not possible."
And over the last two weekends, the Wolfpack has shown impressive mettle, sweeping its ACC-opening series over Boston College and winning two out of three against Georgia Tech, which entered last weekend's series as the top-ranked team in the country in several polls and had won 16 of its last 18 conference series.
"I think we have gotten tougher in the last two weeks," Avent said. "We have to stick with that and keep believing in ourselves. You absolutely have to have toughness to succeed in this league."
The Wolfpack (21-5 overall, 5-1 ACC), which played its first two league series at home at Doak Field in front of heavily partisan crowds, will likely find out how far they have come along this weekend. It travels to face No. 11 Clemson and its well-known rowdy fans, which will likely be riled up after the Tigers (11-6, 0-3) opened the conference slate by being swept in their three-game series at Virginia last weekend.
"Clemson is a tough place to play," said sophomore leftfielder Ryan Pond. "But I take what we did [against Georgia Tech] and see that we need to just keep rolling. That will help us going to Clemson, because we can't let the crowd affect us. It will be a tough challenge."
As well as a toughness challenge.
After taking it on the chin against the Bruins, the Wolfpack has certainly bounced back in performance and in confidence. The offensive-minded team leads the ACC with a team batting average of .367 and 275 runs scored. That's an average of 10.6 runs per game.
"We are one of the best hitting teams in the country, if our guys would keep playing hard and working hard," Avent said. "We have a good team that can put up a lot of runs at any time."
Hitting is only half the battle, of course, which was highlighted in the final two games against the Yellow Jackets, when the Wolfpack's lack of pitching depth was made painfully obvious.
On Saturday, the Wolfpack led 9-3 going into the seventh inning, but the Georgia Tech scored six quick runs to send the game into extra innings. The Wolfpack won the contest with a three-run rally in the bottom of the 10th.
On Sunday, the Wolfpack took an 8-6 lead into the eighth inning and proceeded to give up 11 runs in the final two frames, something that didn't sit real well with Avent.
"You can't lose games like that," Avent said. "It's absolutely ridiculous. It came as a general result of not throwing strikes. There were some defensive breakdowns that went along with it.
"We got what we deserved."
The pitching staff has had some strong performances. Redshirt junior Sam Walls has thrived in his new role as closer, with four saves and two wins. Freshman lefthander Eric Surkamp has stepped into the weekend rotation and shown a maturity few freshmen have.
More help is on the way, too, as sophomore righthander Andrew Brackman returns to the team full-time, now that his basketball season has ended. Brackman has already made two starts this season, but got roughed up both times.
Overall, the Wolfpack can take much from its still exceeding expectations, however, Avent and his team are enthused about their offensive capabilities and pitching potential, the Sunday loss to the Yellow Jackets notwithstanding.
"To me, the last weekend just proves that we can play with any team in the country," Pond said. "It shows how great a team we have."
Junior catcher Caleb Mangum, one of the season's most pleasant surprises, believes that opponents will take better notice of the Wolfpack from this point on in the season.
"I hope our scouting report changes," said Mangum, who leads the team with a .460 batting average. "Teams see now that we play hard. We get after it. We are not going to be intimidated. We are going to get right after you.
"We are not scared. We are a tough team."
And that's exactly what Avent is hoping to prove.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
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