North Carolina State University Athletics
No. 22 Baseball Hosts Boston College This Weekend
4/24/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
RALEIGH, N.C. NC State will play its last home Atlantic Coast Conference series of 2008 this weekend when Boston College comes to Doak Field at Dail Park for a three-game series.
Game times are 6:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and 1:30 p.m. on Sunday. All three games will be broadcast live on WKNC-FM (88.1) and the broadcasts will be available on-line on gopack.com through the Pack Pass package.
The Wolfpack, ranked No. 22 in this week’s Collegiate Baseball and Rivals.com polls, has won 14 of its last 17 games and is 27-13 overall, 12-8 in the ACC. NC State is in second place in the ACC’s Atlantic Division, 5 1/2 games behind first-place Florida State, and five games ahead of third-place Clemson. The Pack is fighting Virginia (13-8) and Georgia Tech (10-11) for the fourth spot in the league’s overall standings.
Boston College comes into the series at 20-21 overall, 5-16 in the ACC. The Eagles have lost seven of their last nine games, including their last six ACC games. They are in sixth place in the Atlantic Division, two games behind fifth-place Maryland.
Junior righthander Clayton Shunick (4-4, 2.44) will start for NC State on Friday against junior righthander Dan Houston (2-2, 4.56) for Boston College. Junior lefthander Eric Surkamp (3-2, 4.20) will get the start for the Wolfpack on Saturday, against senior righthander Terry Doyle (3-5, 8.00) for the Eagles. Junior righthander James MacDonald (3-6, 6.86) will start for BC on Sunday. NC State has yet to name a starting pitcher for Sunday’s game.
NC State vs. Boston College: NC State and Boston College have met seven times in baseball, all since 2003, and NC State has won all seven meeetings. The Pack defeated the Eagles 4-3 at Riley Park in Charleston, S.C., in February 2003. That was prior to BC joining the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Golden Eagles played their first ACC series with the Wolfpack at Doak Field at Dail Park in 2006, with NC State sweeping by scores of 2-1, 12-7 and 11-9. A year ago at beautiful Eddie Pelagrini Diamond in Chesnut Hill, the Pack against swept the Eagles, winning 24-4, 10-1 and 6-2.
Up And Down On Offense: Through 23 games, NC State was 14-7 overall, batting .266 as a team and scoring a mere 5.5 runs per game. Over the last 17 games, the Wolfpack is 13-4, batting .344 and scoring 8.6 runs per game. Senior first baseman/outfielder Ryan Pond has led the Wolfpack during its offensive surge, batting .420 with seven doubles, two home runs and 22 RBIs. Junior first baseman Pat Ferguson is hitting .417 with five homers and 11 RBIs, and senior shortstop Tommy Foschi (.353-0-14) , senior right fielder Matt Payne (.328-3-13), junior DH Jeremy Synan (.328-3-14), sophomore second baseman Dallas Poulk (.328-2-14), and junior center fielder Marcus Jones (.323-4-15) all have swung hot bats during the hot streak.
A note of caution, however. While four games is hardly a large enough sample from which to draw serious conclusions, NC State went 2-2, batted .273 and scored 7.3 runs per game over the last four games (April 18-20 at Virginia Tech and April 23 at UNC Greensboro).
Rankings and RPI: NC State cracked the national rankings for the first time all season April 14 when it appeared at No. 24 in the Rivals.com poll. Collegiate Baseball checked in moments later with the Wolfpack at No. 28. This week, the other polls have followed suit in ranking the Wolfpack, with Rivals.com and Collegiate Baseball pushing NC State all the way to No. 22. Baseball America has the Wolfpack at No. 24, with the NCBWA listing the Pack at No. 28. The ESPN coaches poll did not rank NC State in its top 25, but had the Wolfpack second among its other teams receiving votes.
While the polls have only just begun to show the Wolfpack any love, the NCAA’s Ratings Performance Index (RPI), the much-heralded formula used by the selection committees in basketball and baseball in seeding the pairings for the NCAA’s postseason tournaments, has a much higher opinion of the 2008 Wolfpack baseball team.
The NCAA released its RPI for the first time this season on April 21, and NC State checked in at No. 11, the fourth Atlantic Coast Conference team listed in the rankings. Miami, Florida State and North Carolina occupied the top three spots, as they did in all the polls. NC State has played eight games against four teams ranked ahead of it in the RPI and has a 4-4 record in those eight games 1-2 vs. Miami, 1-1 vs. North Carolina, 2-0 vs. No. 9 East Carolina, and 0-1 vs. No. 10 Coastal Carolina. The Wolfpack also is 1-0 vs. No. 28 UNC Wilmington, 2-1 vs. No. 33 Virginia, 1-2 vs. No. 37 Clemson, and 1-0 vs. No. 39 Elon, making NC State 9-7 vs. teams in the top 40 of the current RPI rankings. The Wolfpack still has a three-game series remaining at No. 2 Florida State and one game at UNC Wilmington.
The Wolfpack’s Winning Ways: After going most of the month of March without winning a weekend series and struggling offensively, NC State has won 13 of 17 games heading into the Boston College series. Although the Wolfpack has split its last four games, it won five in a row and 12 of 14 before that.
The Wolfpack’s hot streak has come largely against impressive competition, beginning with an 8-6 road win over North Carolina, currently ranked No. 3 in all the major national polls. The streak continued with a 4-3 win at then-No. 24 East Carolina, a 12-0 win over a strong Elon team (31-13 heading to this weekend), a three-game sweep of Wake Forest in an Atlantic Coast Conference and a 12-5 win over then-No. 24 UNC Wilmington, off to its best start in school history. Coastal Carolina, ranked No. 22 at the time and currently ranked No. 15 by the NCBWA, ended the winning streak at seven games with an exciting 5-4 win at the Doak, but the Wolfpack rebounded to take two of three games from Duke two weeks ago, defeated No. 23 ECU 7-6 and Radford 11-2, the won two of three at Virginia Tech last weekend. On Wednesday, UNC Greensboro handed the Wolfpack an 8-7 loss in its first extra-innings game of the season.
NC State is 3-0-1 in its last three weekend series, including a split with North Carolina. For the season, the Pack is 7-6 vs. ranked opponents. Since March 29, NC State is 4-1 against ranked opponents. According to the NCAA statistical rankings of April 21, the Wolfpack ranked fifth nationally in ERA at 3.16, and according to the approximated RPI report from Nolan Warren, the Pack had played the 13th-toughest schedule in the country.
Maybe He Should Wear 42 All The Time: Marcus Jones has worn uniform number 20 since he arrived at NC State in the fall of 2005. Twice, however, he switched numbers. The results were dramatic. Specifically, Jones has worn uniform number 42 on April 15 the past two years to honor the late Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson on Major League Baseball’s Jackie Robinson Day.
Not only has Jones honored Robinson on April 15 the last two years, he’s hit like him as well. On April 15, 2007, at Miami, Jones wore number 42 and went 4-for-6 with a home run and three RBIs. It was the biggest game of his career to that point, and it launched him on an offensive tear that last the rest of the season. Over the final 25 games of 2007, Jones batted .374 (34-for-91) with five doubles, two triples, three home runs and 19 RBIs. He batted .421 (24-for-57) over the final 15 games.
This year, the April 15 opponent was East Carolina, and while the results weren’t quite as dramatic, Jones had a big night, going 2-for-4 with a homer. In two games on April 15 the last two years, Jones went 6-for-10 with two home runs and four RBIs.
Jones again has used Jackie Robinson Day as the springboard for a hot streak. In six games dating back to April 15, he is batting .409 with a double, a triple, a home run and three RBIs.
Pond Gets Hot, Racks Up The RBIs: Through 40 games, senior first baseman/outfielder Ryan Pond is NC State’s most productive hitter. He ranks third on the team in batting at .326, second with six home runs and a .516 slugging percentage, and leads the team with 33 RBIs.
Pond has done most of his damage in April. In 16 games this month, Pond is hitting .453 (29-for-64) with seven doubles, two home runs and 22 RBIs. For the month, he leads the team in batting by several laps, in RBIs by eight, in slugging percentage by 73 points, and on-base percentage by 22 points. Pond ended the month of March with a .211 average for the season and has raised that by 114 points in 12 games.
The Ferguson/Cartwright Platoon: When NC State faces righthanded pitching, lefthanded-hitting first baseman Pat Ferguson is in the lineup, with Ryan Pond in left field. When the Pack faces a lefty, Ferguson sits, Pond moves from left to first, and righthanded-hitting Devon Cartwright plays left field.
While Pond has mashed all pitching this season, the platoon of Ferguson and Cartwright has been especially effective for NC State. Ferguson is batting .348 with six doubles, a team-high seven home runs and 20 RBIs. Cartwright is hitting ..316 with 11 doubles, four home runs and 16 RBIs. For the season, they are hitting a combined .333 (57-for-171) with 17 doubles, 11 home runs and 36 RBIs.
Ferguson and Cartwright have played a huge role in NC State’s hot month of April. For the month, Ferguson is hitting .412 with five home runs and nine RBIs in 12 games. Cartwright is hitting .435 with five doubles, two homers and seven RBIs in 10 games. Combined, they are hitting .421 (24-for-57) with six doubles, seven home runs and 16 RBIs in 16 games.
Game times are 6:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and 1:30 p.m. on Sunday. All three games will be broadcast live on WKNC-FM (88.1) and the broadcasts will be available on-line on gopack.com through the Pack Pass package.
The Wolfpack, ranked No. 22 in this week’s Collegiate Baseball and Rivals.com polls, has won 14 of its last 17 games and is 27-13 overall, 12-8 in the ACC. NC State is in second place in the ACC’s Atlantic Division, 5 1/2 games behind first-place Florida State, and five games ahead of third-place Clemson. The Pack is fighting Virginia (13-8) and Georgia Tech (10-11) for the fourth spot in the league’s overall standings.
Boston College comes into the series at 20-21 overall, 5-16 in the ACC. The Eagles have lost seven of their last nine games, including their last six ACC games. They are in sixth place in the Atlantic Division, two games behind fifth-place Maryland.
Junior righthander Clayton Shunick (4-4, 2.44) will start for NC State on Friday against junior righthander Dan Houston (2-2, 4.56) for Boston College. Junior lefthander Eric Surkamp (3-2, 4.20) will get the start for the Wolfpack on Saturday, against senior righthander Terry Doyle (3-5, 8.00) for the Eagles. Junior righthander James MacDonald (3-6, 6.86) will start for BC on Sunday. NC State has yet to name a starting pitcher for Sunday’s game.
NC State vs. Boston College: NC State and Boston College have met seven times in baseball, all since 2003, and NC State has won all seven meeetings. The Pack defeated the Eagles 4-3 at Riley Park in Charleston, S.C., in February 2003. That was prior to BC joining the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Golden Eagles played their first ACC series with the Wolfpack at Doak Field at Dail Park in 2006, with NC State sweeping by scores of 2-1, 12-7 and 11-9. A year ago at beautiful Eddie Pelagrini Diamond in Chesnut Hill, the Pack against swept the Eagles, winning 24-4, 10-1 and 6-2.
Up And Down On Offense: Through 23 games, NC State was 14-7 overall, batting .266 as a team and scoring a mere 5.5 runs per game. Over the last 17 games, the Wolfpack is 13-4, batting .344 and scoring 8.6 runs per game. Senior first baseman/outfielder Ryan Pond has led the Wolfpack during its offensive surge, batting .420 with seven doubles, two home runs and 22 RBIs. Junior first baseman Pat Ferguson is hitting .417 with five homers and 11 RBIs, and senior shortstop Tommy Foschi (.353-0-14) , senior right fielder Matt Payne (.328-3-13), junior DH Jeremy Synan (.328-3-14), sophomore second baseman Dallas Poulk (.328-2-14), and junior center fielder Marcus Jones (.323-4-15) all have swung hot bats during the hot streak.
A note of caution, however. While four games is hardly a large enough sample from which to draw serious conclusions, NC State went 2-2, batted .273 and scored 7.3 runs per game over the last four games (April 18-20 at Virginia Tech and April 23 at UNC Greensboro).
Rankings and RPI: NC State cracked the national rankings for the first time all season April 14 when it appeared at No. 24 in the Rivals.com poll. Collegiate Baseball checked in moments later with the Wolfpack at No. 28. This week, the other polls have followed suit in ranking the Wolfpack, with Rivals.com and Collegiate Baseball pushing NC State all the way to No. 22. Baseball America has the Wolfpack at No. 24, with the NCBWA listing the Pack at No. 28. The ESPN coaches poll did not rank NC State in its top 25, but had the Wolfpack second among its other teams receiving votes.
While the polls have only just begun to show the Wolfpack any love, the NCAA’s Ratings Performance Index (RPI), the much-heralded formula used by the selection committees in basketball and baseball in seeding the pairings for the NCAA’s postseason tournaments, has a much higher opinion of the 2008 Wolfpack baseball team.
The NCAA released its RPI for the first time this season on April 21, and NC State checked in at No. 11, the fourth Atlantic Coast Conference team listed in the rankings. Miami, Florida State and North Carolina occupied the top three spots, as they did in all the polls. NC State has played eight games against four teams ranked ahead of it in the RPI and has a 4-4 record in those eight games 1-2 vs. Miami, 1-1 vs. North Carolina, 2-0 vs. No. 9 East Carolina, and 0-1 vs. No. 10 Coastal Carolina. The Wolfpack also is 1-0 vs. No. 28 UNC Wilmington, 2-1 vs. No. 33 Virginia, 1-2 vs. No. 37 Clemson, and 1-0 vs. No. 39 Elon, making NC State 9-7 vs. teams in the top 40 of the current RPI rankings. The Wolfpack still has a three-game series remaining at No. 2 Florida State and one game at UNC Wilmington.
The Wolfpack’s Winning Ways: After going most of the month of March without winning a weekend series and struggling offensively, NC State has won 13 of 17 games heading into the Boston College series. Although the Wolfpack has split its last four games, it won five in a row and 12 of 14 before that.
The Wolfpack’s hot streak has come largely against impressive competition, beginning with an 8-6 road win over North Carolina, currently ranked No. 3 in all the major national polls. The streak continued with a 4-3 win at then-No. 24 East Carolina, a 12-0 win over a strong Elon team (31-13 heading to this weekend), a three-game sweep of Wake Forest in an Atlantic Coast Conference and a 12-5 win over then-No. 24 UNC Wilmington, off to its best start in school history. Coastal Carolina, ranked No. 22 at the time and currently ranked No. 15 by the NCBWA, ended the winning streak at seven games with an exciting 5-4 win at the Doak, but the Wolfpack rebounded to take two of three games from Duke two weeks ago, defeated No. 23 ECU 7-6 and Radford 11-2, the won two of three at Virginia Tech last weekend. On Wednesday, UNC Greensboro handed the Wolfpack an 8-7 loss in its first extra-innings game of the season.
NC State is 3-0-1 in its last three weekend series, including a split with North Carolina. For the season, the Pack is 7-6 vs. ranked opponents. Since March 29, NC State is 4-1 against ranked opponents. According to the NCAA statistical rankings of April 21, the Wolfpack ranked fifth nationally in ERA at 3.16, and according to the approximated RPI report from Nolan Warren, the Pack had played the 13th-toughest schedule in the country.
Maybe He Should Wear 42 All The Time: Marcus Jones has worn uniform number 20 since he arrived at NC State in the fall of 2005. Twice, however, he switched numbers. The results were dramatic. Specifically, Jones has worn uniform number 42 on April 15 the past two years to honor the late Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson on Major League Baseball’s Jackie Robinson Day.
Not only has Jones honored Robinson on April 15 the last two years, he’s hit like him as well. On April 15, 2007, at Miami, Jones wore number 42 and went 4-for-6 with a home run and three RBIs. It was the biggest game of his career to that point, and it launched him on an offensive tear that last the rest of the season. Over the final 25 games of 2007, Jones batted .374 (34-for-91) with five doubles, two triples, three home runs and 19 RBIs. He batted .421 (24-for-57) over the final 15 games.
This year, the April 15 opponent was East Carolina, and while the results weren’t quite as dramatic, Jones had a big night, going 2-for-4 with a homer. In two games on April 15 the last two years, Jones went 6-for-10 with two home runs and four RBIs.
Jones again has used Jackie Robinson Day as the springboard for a hot streak. In six games dating back to April 15, he is batting .409 with a double, a triple, a home run and three RBIs.
Pond Gets Hot, Racks Up The RBIs: Through 40 games, senior first baseman/outfielder Ryan Pond is NC State’s most productive hitter. He ranks third on the team in batting at .326, second with six home runs and a .516 slugging percentage, and leads the team with 33 RBIs.
Pond has done most of his damage in April. In 16 games this month, Pond is hitting .453 (29-for-64) with seven doubles, two home runs and 22 RBIs. For the month, he leads the team in batting by several laps, in RBIs by eight, in slugging percentage by 73 points, and on-base percentage by 22 points. Pond ended the month of March with a .211 average for the season and has raised that by 114 points in 12 games.
The Ferguson/Cartwright Platoon: When NC State faces righthanded pitching, lefthanded-hitting first baseman Pat Ferguson is in the lineup, with Ryan Pond in left field. When the Pack faces a lefty, Ferguson sits, Pond moves from left to first, and righthanded-hitting Devon Cartwright plays left field.
While Pond has mashed all pitching this season, the platoon of Ferguson and Cartwright has been especially effective for NC State. Ferguson is batting .348 with six doubles, a team-high seven home runs and 20 RBIs. Cartwright is hitting ..316 with 11 doubles, four home runs and 16 RBIs. For the season, they are hitting a combined .333 (57-for-171) with 17 doubles, 11 home runs and 36 RBIs.
Ferguson and Cartwright have played a huge role in NC State’s hot month of April. For the month, Ferguson is hitting .412 with five home runs and nine RBIs in 12 games. Cartwright is hitting .435 with five doubles, two homers and seven RBIs in 10 games. Combined, they are hitting .421 (24-for-57) with six doubles, seven home runs and 16 RBIs in 16 games.
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