North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: Pack Excited About Staying Home for NCAAs
5/26/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. There weren’t a lot of cheers, whoops or hollers when the NC State baseball players saw the school’s name pop up on the 10 flat screen televisions at Sammy’s Taproom during Monday’s announcement of the NCAA Baseball Championship pairings.
The real celebration came Sunday night, when the Wolfpack heard that Doak Field at
“We knew that we were hosting, so today we just came in to see who we were going to play,” said senior shortstop Tommy Foschi, who joined his teammates, the baseball coaching staff and dozens of supporters at the restaurant for lunch and to watch the selection show. “Yesterday was a bigger deal for us.”
In fact, Wolfpack head coach Elliott Avent was a little surprised how much getting a
regional site meant to the players. He started getting phone calls immediately after the sites were announced on ESPN2 around 7 p.m. Usually when the players want to communicate with their coach, they send him text messages.
This time, they wanted to chat.
“I think they feel like they really did something for the program,” Avent said. “This is special and they are proud of what they have done.”
Hosting is clearly an advantage to advancing to an NCAA Super Regional, especially for a team that just returned from a 12-day road trip to
“In years past, when we got back from the ACC Tournament, we would be here for two days and then we would have to leave for somewhere else,” said senior outfielder/third baseman Matt Payne. “I am really excited to be playing here, especially after being on the road for so long. Just being able to play in our own ballpark will be nice.”
The Wolfpack (38-20) will open play on Friday at 7 p.m. against fourth-seeded James Madison (38-17), which won the Colonial Athletic Association championship on Saturday in
| NCAA Baseball Raleigh Regional |
| | Friday, May 30 | |
| | Game 1: No. 2 South Carolina vs. No. 3 Charlotte | 2 p.m. |
| | Game 2: No. 1 NC State vs. No. 4 James Madison | 7 p.m. |
| | Saturday, May 31 | |
| | Game 3: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser | 2 p.m. |
| | Game 4: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner | 7 p.m. |
| | Sunday, June 1 | |
| | Game 5: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 loser | 1 p.m. |
| | Game 6: Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner | 6 p.m. |
Regional. Second-seeded
The winner of the Raleigh Regional will advance to face the winner of the NCAA Athens (
Last year’s Wolfpack team went into the post-season with a completely different mindset than this year’s team. Then, the players were reeling from two traumatic incidents just prior to the ACC Tournament, the death of Foshci’s father from a heart attack and the death of a close friend of Andrew Brackman in a car accident. It didn’t help that Brackman, an eventual No. 1 pick in the Major League Baseball draft by the New York Yankees, was suffering from elbow tendinitis at this time last year and did not make the trip with the team to
“We tried to put all of that stuff behind us,” Payne said. “But it felt like so many things happened to us at one time. A lot of times it’s hard to focus on baseball when things are going on with your teammates.”
The 49ers beat the Wolfpack 6-3 in the opening game, thanks to a superb pitching performance by
“There was so much going on with that team last year, I was actually proud of the way they played down there,” Avent said. “Even though we came up short, I thought they played well under tough circumstances.”
Those two losses to the 49ers have stuck in the back of the Wolfpack’s mind for a while now, but they also know that they can’t think about that heading into Friday night’s against the Dukes, who won the CAA tournament with four consecutive victories at UNC Wilmington’s Brooks Field.
The Dukes have two power hitters that should concern the NC State pitching staff, first baseman/designated hitter Steven Caseres (21 home runs) and outfielder Brett Sellers (16).
But pitching has been the Wolfpack’s strong point all season long, and Avent hopes that will continue through the weekend. Immediately after the pairings were announced, Avent said he had not yet discussed with associate head coach Tom Holliday who might start against JMU or what the pitching rotation might be. Last week at the ACC Baseball Championship the Pack went to senior Erik Surkamp in the opener against Georgia Tech, Clayton Shunick in the second round against Clemson and freshman Jake Buchanan against top-ranked
Strong pitching has certainly put the Wolfpack into position to host a regional, but Avent believes there are a couple of hidden reasons why the Wolfpack can continue to do well in post-season play.
“The thing that has surprised me about this team is that we have played outstanding defense and we have had phenomenal chemistry,” he said. “We have had great leadership from some of our older guys, like Ryan Pond and Jeff Stallings, who hasn’t pitched as much as he would have liked this year, and Matt Payne. This team has really bonded around them. They are proud of how they played and how they represented NC State.”
And they are looking forward to representing the school in front of a home crowd.
“We are at home,” Foschi said. “We have that fan support. I think if we can get that first win under our belt, it could give us confidence to push us through the next couple of games.”
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
