North Carolina State University Athletics
Baseball Back On The Road For ACC-Foe Maryland
4/15/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
RALEIGH, N.C. — The At;antic Coast Conference baseball season moves past the midway point this weekend, and for NC State that means a trip to Maryland. Game times are 6 p.m. on Friday, and 1 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Junior righthander Jake Buchanan (3-3, 4.38) will take the mound for NC State in the opener on Friday. He will be opposed by Maryland lefthander Eric Potter (2-5, 6.69). Sophomore righthander Cory Mazzoni (4-2, 5.56) will be on the hill for the Wolfpack on Saturday, while Maryland will pitch its ace, righthander Brett Harmon (4-4, 4.53), in the middle game of the series. Sunday’s finale will feature a pitching matchup of senior lefty Alex Sogard (0-0, 4.43) for NC State and righthander Sander Beck (0-5, 7.85) for Maryland.
All three games will be broadcast live on WKNC-FM (88.1) and on-line at gopack.com through the Pack Pass package.
NC State comes into the series with a 22-13 record overall, 6-9 in the ACC. Maryland is 14-21 overall and 4-11 in the conference. For the Wolfpack, this series will have seeding implications for the ACC Tournament, which will be held in Greensboro the week of May 26-30. NC State currently is in a three-way tie with North Carolina and Boston College for seventh place in the conference standings, but UNC has the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Pack. Only the top eight teams in the overall conference standings go to the tournament.
NC State vs. Maryland — The Series: NC State leads the overall series between the two schools by a 95-52-2 margin. Maryland has won two of the last three between the two, and five of the last nine. Prior to that, NC State defeated Maryland nine times in 10 tries. In 13-plus seasons since Elliott Avent became head coach of the Wolfpack, NC State leads the series 24-15. NC State is 12-9 vs. the Terrapins at Doak Field at Dail Park in that time, 9-6 at Shipley Field in College Park, 3-0 at Harry Grove Stadium in Frederick, Md., and 1-0 in the ACC Tournament.
Maryland defeated the Wolfpack twice in last year’s rain-delayed three-game series at Doak Field at Dail Park. NC State won the opener 8-3, but Maryland came back to sweep a Sunday doubleheader by scores of 3-1 and 9-3.
Pratt Maynard homered and drove in three runs in the opener, which was played on Saturday night, and Jimmy Gillheeney scattered seven hits in 8 1/3 strong innings to lead the Wolfpack.
A.J. Casario and Will Greenberg had RBI singles in the seventh inning as Maryland spoiled what had been a strong pitching performance from Jake Buchanan to win game one of the Sunday twin-bill.
Maryland blew open a one-run game in the series finale thanks to a five-run eighth inning, with Casario and David Poutier providing RBI singles.
Avent Surpasses The 500-Win Plateau: NC State’s 6-5 win over top-ranked Virginia on April 2 was the 500th win for head coach Elliott Avent in his 13-plus seasons in Raleigh. Avent became just the second coach in program history to win 500 games at NC State.
Heading into this weekend’s series at Maryland, Avent has a 730-533 overall record as a head coach, and 505-324 in 13-plus years at NC State. Avent needs nine wins to pass Sam Esposito and become the winningest baseball coach in NC State history. Esposito went 513-253 from 1967-87.
Who’s Hot For The Wolfpack: Several NC State hitters enter play this weekend swinging hot bats, none more than Harold Riggins, Danny Canela, John Gianis, Dallas Poulk and Andrew Ciencin.
Riggins is 15-for-28 (.536) with four doubles, two home runs and 12 RBIs in his last seven games. In 11 games since the start of the Miami series he is hitting .432 (16-for-37) with five doubles, two bombs and 14 RBIs.
Canela has hit safely in four of his last five games and is batting .467 (7-for-15) in those five games.
Gianis has hit safely in six of his last seven games and is hitting .474 (9-for-19) with four doubles in those seven games.
Poulk has a team-longest six-game hitting streak going and is hitting .400 (10-for-25) during the streak.
Ciencin is hitting .345 (10-for-29) with three homers and 13 RBIs in his last seven games.
Grand Slam Man: Sophomore third baseman Andrew Ciencin unofficially has set a new school record with three grand slams in a single season. Ciencin hit his first of the season on March 4 vs. Xavier, then went deep in consecutive ACC series vs. Virginia (April 4) and North Carolina (April 10).
NC State has hit 17 grand slams since the start of the 2003 season, including four in 2004, four in 2007 and four again so far in 2010. The Wolfpack hit no grand slams in either 2006 or 2008.
Dustin Knight hit two grand slams in 2004 and was the last player before Ciencin to go deep with the sacks juiced more than once in a season. Lee Mezistrano and Drew Poulk both hit a pair of grand slams for the Wolfpack since 2003, but hit them in different seasons — Mezistrano in 2004 and 2005, and Poulk in 2009 and 2010.
The only other current Wolfpack player other than Ciencin and Poulk to hit a grand slam is Kyle Wilson, who did so in 2009.
The school record for grand slams in a season in six, set in 1997.
Sasser Mowing ‘Em Down Out Of The Pen: With all the power arms NC State has recruited the last several years, who would guess that the team’s most effective pitcher through 35 games would be junior lefty Grant Sasser, whose fastball normally sits in the 75-78 mph range. On occasion, Sasser will dial it up and hit 81 or 82.
In 13 appearances, Sasser is 2-2 with a 2.28 ERA and a save. Opponents are batting .196 against him. Opponents are batting .194 against him when there are runners on base, .200 with runners in scoring position, .250 with two out, and .200 with two outs and runners in scoring position.
In his last seven appearances, dating back to the Wake Forest series, Sasser has a save and a 1.50 ERA in 18 innings. He has allowed 13 hits, walked two and struck out 18 in that time, and opponents are hitting .203 against him.
Sasser has inherited 13 runners this season and has stranded 10 of them, a 76.9 percent success rate that easily is best on the team.
Hitting Streaks: Dallas Poulk enters the Maryland series on a six-game hitting streak, the longest current streak for the Wolfpack this season. NC State has had five hitting streaks of 10 games or longer this season — a 16-game streak by Drew Poulk, two 14-game streaks by Kyle Wilson, an 11-game streak by Chris Schaeffer, and a 10-game streak by Pratt Maynard. All but Wilson’s second 14-game streak were season-opening streaks.
Dallas Poulk is hitting .400 (10-for-25) with a double, triple and home run during his current six-game streak.
Drew Poulk hit .366 with six doubles, three home runs and 20 RBIs in his season-opening 16-game streak. Toss in his five-game streak to end the 2009 season and Drew Poulk’s hitting streak became a 21-game streak, which is tied for the fifth longest in school history.
Kyle Wilson’s first 14-game hitting streak also was a season-opener, and he batted .455 (25-for-55) with four doubles, one homer, 24 runs scored and 10 RBIs. Wilson’s second 14-game streak came to an end April 10 in the middle game of the North Carolina series. He batted .367 (22-for-60) with two doubles, four home runs, 14 runs scored and 13 RBIs during that streak.
Schaeffer opened the season with an 11-game hitting streak and batted .486 (18-for-37) with four doubles, three homers and 13 RBIs.
Maynard batted .455 (20-for-44) with three doubles, two homers, 13 runs scored and 13 RBIs during his 10-game streak to open the season.
