North Carolina State University Athletics
Baseball To Host East Carolina on Wednesday
3/31/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
RALEIGH, N.C. - Coming off the momentum of a doubleheader sweep of Virginia Tech on Sunday, NC State will turn its attention Wednesday to the east, as in East Carolina.
The Pirates come to Doak Field at Dail Park for a 6:30 p.m. game that always stirs up fan interest and usually packs the stadium. Five of the 10 largest crowds in the history of the renovated Doak Field at Dail Park and four of the top seven at ECU’s Clark-LeClair Stadium were NC State-East Carolina games.
“Every year when the schedule comes out, we always look to see when we play East Carolina,” NC State second baseman Dallas Poulk said. “We always draw a big crowd for this game, and that makes it even more exciting.”
Even players not from North Carolina get caught up in the rivalry between the Wolfpack and Pirates. Wolfpack first baseman Pat Ferguson hails from Campbell, Calif., near San Jose. Wednesday’s game will be his fifth NC State-East Carolina game.
“The games are always so intense,” Ferguson said. “It’s great to play in an atmosphere like that. We have several freshmen who’ve never been part of this game, but they’ll understand what it’s all about by 6:15 or so.”
NC State has won the last five meetings between the two schools and nine of the last 10, and the games have all been close. The last seven meetings all have been one-run games.
ECU comes to town with a 21-5 overall record. Heading into Tueday evening’s victory over Elon, the Pirates were hitting .367 as a team and had won 10 of their previous 11 games.
Junior designated hitter Kyle Roller leads the ECU offense. He is hitting .371 and leads the Pirates with eight home runs and 36 RBIs. In addition, East Carolina has three hitters batting better than .400, led by sophomore outfielder Trent Whitehead, who is hitting .430 with nine doubles, two triples and 16 RBIs. Senior second baseman Ryan Wood checks in at .410 with 11 doubles, three homers and 22 RBIs, and senior first baseman Brandon Henderson is at .405 with eight doubles, four home runs and 27 RBIs.
“East Carolina has a veteran team that really swings the bats well,” Wolfpack head coach Elliott Avent said. Fans will recognize a lot of names in their lineup because they’ve been there and played together for several years. It’s a team with a lot of juniors and seniors, and that kind of experience is big.”
NC State is 15-12, but has won five of its last seven games, including a wild doubleheader sweep of Virginia Tech on Sunday. The Wolfpack won the first game 19-18 after blowing an early eight-run lead. The Pack scored four runs in the bottom of the eighth, then off a ninth-inning rally by the Hokies thanks to some clutch pitching from John Lambert.
In the second game, VPI scored five quick runs in the top of the first inning before Lambert again came out of the pen and worked 2 2/3 innings and held the Hokies to just one unearned run. Tech did not score again and the Wolfpack gradually climbed back into the game, taking the lead on Pat Ferguson’s two-run pinch-hit home run in the bottom of the eighth. Alex Sogard got the win with three stout innings of shutout relief.
“We’ve struggled to put it all together at times this year,” Avent said. “When we pitch and play defense, it seems like we don’t hit. Then when we hit, we struggle on the mound. We haven’t been consistent in picking each other up. Sunday, we didn’t pitch that well in the first game of the doubleheader, but we scored a lot of runs. The offense picked up the pitching staff. In the second game, our pitching out of the bullpen was outstanding, and that allowed us to come back and win the game.
“We picked each other up in both games, and it really seemed to give us a spark. We haven’t had that kind of intensity in the dugout all year.”
Freshman DH John Gianis comes into Wednesday’s game riding a nine-game hitting streak. He is hitting an even .500 (13-for-26) with eight RBIs. Gianis’s streak has lifted his season batting average to a team-best .390.
Freshman infielder Andrew Ciencin has hit safely in five of his last seven games and is hitting .429 (9-for-21) with four doubles and five RBIs in those seven games. He is hitting .333 with six doubles and 10 RBIs.
Freshman jack-of-all-trades Pratt Maynard is on a seven-game hitting streak and is batting .321 (9-for-28) with three doubles and seven RBIs during his hitting streak.
Pitching plans for both teams were TBA as of Tuesday.
WKNC-FM (88.1) will broadcast the game live, and the broadcast will be carried on-line on gopack.com. Fans will also be able to watch the game live through ACC Select.
