North Carolina State University Athletics
Baseball Looks To Right Ship In Series At Boston College
4/2/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
NEWTON, Mass. - The midway point of the college baseball season has arrived and finds NC State with a 15-13 record heading into a three-game Atlantic Coast Conference series this weekend at Boston College.
Game times are scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on Friday, 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, and 1 p.m. on Sunday.
The Wolfpack stands at 5-7 in the ACC and is fourth place in the ACC’s Atlantic Division, 10th in the overall conference standings. The Eagles come into the series at 17-9 overall and 5-5 in the conference.
“Boston College obviously is playing well this season,” NC State head coach Elliott Avent said. “Winning two of three at Florida State opened everyone’s eyes, and they’ve continued to play well. We’re going to have to play well.”
NC State is coming off a 14-4 loss at the hands of East Carolina and has struggled since Miami snapped the Pack’s seven-game winning streak March 6 in Coral Gables. NC State is 8-11 since then and comes into the series at Boston College hitting .267 as a team and sporting a 4.83 staff ERA.
Junior lefthander Jimmy Gillheeney (3-1, 4.05) will start for NC State on Friday, against senior righthander JB McDoanld (3-2, 2.16) for BC. Sophomore righthander Jake Buchanan (2-2, 4.87) gets the start for the Wolfpack on Saturday. Sophomore righthander John Leonard (1-1, 7.20) will start for BC. NC State’s starter for Sunday is still to be determined. The Eagles will send freshman righthander Mike Dennhardt (2-0, 6.65) to the mound for the series finale.
Junior catcher Tony Sanchez is the offensive bellwether for the Eagles. Sanchez is hitting .406 with eight doubles, 10 home runs and 32 RBIs. Junior first baseman Mike Belfiore also is scolding the ball for BC, hitting .300 with eight doubles, six home runs and a team-best 35 RBIs. Junior outfielder Robbie Anston (.410) and sophomore infielder Mickey Wiswall (.330-3-25) also are producing for Boston College.
Freshman outfielder John Gianis leads NC State with a .378 average and comes into the series riding a 10-game hitting streak, during which he is batting .467 (14-for-30) with eight RBIs. Freshman catcher-outfielder Pratt Maynard is hitting .270 and has an eight-game hitting streak. He is hitting .344 (11-for-32) with five doubles and eight RBIs during his hitting streak. Overall, however, the Pack has just three players hitting better than .300.
The pitching staff, which began the year mowing down the opposition, also has struggled recently. In the last five games, the staff ERA is 11.40, although the team has gotten encouraging outings from John Lambert (1.93 ERA in his last three appearances and 1-1, 4.76 overall) over the last week, while Alex Sogard and Vance Williams have combined for 10 scoreless innings out of the pen between them.
A resident of the bottom third of the conference in its first several seasons in the conference, BC is making a push for respectability this season. The Eagles shocked the college baseball world when they opened the conference season by winning two of three games from Florida State in Tallahassee, then took two of three at Maryland before dropping two of three to Clemson at week ago in Chestnut Hill. Boston College pounded the Tigers 13-1 in the first game before losing a pair of close contests in the second and third games of the series.
The Wolfpack began the ACC season at Miami and got swept, then dropped two of three at home to Maryland. The Pack took two of three from Wake Forest and Virginia Tech the last two weekends, but BC clearly is better than in the past, and the remainder of the season is a gauntlet that starts in Durham against a vastly improved Duke team followed by series with traditional heavyweights Florida State, Virginia, North Carolina and Clemson.
Despite the difficulty of the upcoming schedule, the fact remains that NC State is two games behind Clemson and Florida State at the top of the division and plays both at home. The Wolfpack will need to win this weekend first.
“We’ve put ourselves in a difficult situation,” Avent said. “We’ve won our last two conference series, and we have to keep winning our weekend series. The effort is there, but the results haven’t. We have to start playing better and soon. We have a tough road ahead of us.”
Game times are scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on Friday, 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, and 1 p.m. on Sunday.
The Wolfpack stands at 5-7 in the ACC and is fourth place in the ACC’s Atlantic Division, 10th in the overall conference standings. The Eagles come into the series at 17-9 overall and 5-5 in the conference.
“Boston College obviously is playing well this season,” NC State head coach Elliott Avent said. “Winning two of three at Florida State opened everyone’s eyes, and they’ve continued to play well. We’re going to have to play well.”
NC State is coming off a 14-4 loss at the hands of East Carolina and has struggled since Miami snapped the Pack’s seven-game winning streak March 6 in Coral Gables. NC State is 8-11 since then and comes into the series at Boston College hitting .267 as a team and sporting a 4.83 staff ERA.
Junior lefthander Jimmy Gillheeney (3-1, 4.05) will start for NC State on Friday, against senior righthander JB McDoanld (3-2, 2.16) for BC. Sophomore righthander Jake Buchanan (2-2, 4.87) gets the start for the Wolfpack on Saturday. Sophomore righthander John Leonard (1-1, 7.20) will start for BC. NC State’s starter for Sunday is still to be determined. The Eagles will send freshman righthander Mike Dennhardt (2-0, 6.65) to the mound for the series finale.
Junior catcher Tony Sanchez is the offensive bellwether for the Eagles. Sanchez is hitting .406 with eight doubles, 10 home runs and 32 RBIs. Junior first baseman Mike Belfiore also is scolding the ball for BC, hitting .300 with eight doubles, six home runs and a team-best 35 RBIs. Junior outfielder Robbie Anston (.410) and sophomore infielder Mickey Wiswall (.330-3-25) also are producing for Boston College.
Freshman outfielder John Gianis leads NC State with a .378 average and comes into the series riding a 10-game hitting streak, during which he is batting .467 (14-for-30) with eight RBIs. Freshman catcher-outfielder Pratt Maynard is hitting .270 and has an eight-game hitting streak. He is hitting .344 (11-for-32) with five doubles and eight RBIs during his hitting streak. Overall, however, the Pack has just three players hitting better than .300.
The pitching staff, which began the year mowing down the opposition, also has struggled recently. In the last five games, the staff ERA is 11.40, although the team has gotten encouraging outings from John Lambert (1.93 ERA in his last three appearances and 1-1, 4.76 overall) over the last week, while Alex Sogard and Vance Williams have combined for 10 scoreless innings out of the pen between them.
A resident of the bottom third of the conference in its first several seasons in the conference, BC is making a push for respectability this season. The Eagles shocked the college baseball world when they opened the conference season by winning two of three games from Florida State in Tallahassee, then took two of three at Maryland before dropping two of three to Clemson at week ago in Chestnut Hill. Boston College pounded the Tigers 13-1 in the first game before losing a pair of close contests in the second and third games of the series.
The Wolfpack began the ACC season at Miami and got swept, then dropped two of three at home to Maryland. The Pack took two of three from Wake Forest and Virginia Tech the last two weekends, but BC clearly is better than in the past, and the remainder of the season is a gauntlet that starts in Durham against a vastly improved Duke team followed by series with traditional heavyweights Florida State, Virginia, North Carolina and Clemson.
Despite the difficulty of the upcoming schedule, the fact remains that NC State is two games behind Clemson and Florida State at the top of the division and plays both at home. The Wolfpack will need to win this weekend first.
“We’ve put ourselves in a difficult situation,” Avent said. “We’ve won our last two conference series, and we have to keep winning our weekend series. The effort is there, but the results haven’t. We have to start playing better and soon. We have a tough road ahead of us.”
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