North Carolina State University Athletics
Baseball Renews ECU Rivalry Wednesday In Greenville
4/20/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
RALEIGH, N.C. — NC State will look to build on its three-game sweep of Maryland this past weekend when it travels to Greenville on Wednesday for a 6 p.m. game vs. East Carolina at Clark-LeClair Stadium.
This will be the only meeting between the two rivals this season. In recent years they have played as many as three times in a season, and played one another twice each of the last three seasons.
The Wolfpack, 25-13 after its sweep of the Terrapins, has won 10 of its last 14 games. East Carolina, pending a game Tuesday at Campbell, has won six in a row and is 24-12. The Pirates are ranked No. 26 in the latest NCBWA top 25 poll.
Junior righthander Rey Cotilla (0-0, 3.72) will start for the Wolfpack. This will be Cotilla’s sixth appearance and his third start. Junior righthander Brad Mincey (2-1, 6.20) is slated to start for East Carolina.
The game will be broadcast live on WKNC-FM (88.1) and on-line at gopack.com through the Pack Pass package.
NC State vs. East Carolina — The Series: NC State and East Carolina have met 100 times previously in a long, intense and colorful rivalry on the baseball diamond. NC State holds a 62-38 advantage in the overall series, which has been much closer than that in recent years.
NC State is 12-10 vs. East Carolina since Elliott Avent became the Wolfpack’s head coach in 1997. Avent is 5-3 vs. the Pirates at Doak Field at Dail Park, 5-3 in Greenville, and 2-4 vs. ECU on neutral fields. East Carolina won both games between the two teams a year ago, winning 14-4 on April 1 in Raleigh and 7-0 two weeks later in Greenville.
Trent Whitehead homered twice and drove in five runs, and Drew Scheiber had four RBIs to lead the Pirates in the opener. Devin Harris also homered for the Pirates and chipped in three RBIs.
Andrew Ciencin drove in two runs to lead the NC State offense in the April 1 game. Pratt Maynard went 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles and an RBI. Scheiber doubled twice and drove in two runs in Greenville on April 15, and Kevin Brandt, Brad Mincey, Bailey Daniels and Seth Simmons combined on a four-hitter.
Who’s Hot For The Wolfpack: Several NC State hitters enter play this evening swinging hot bats, including Harold Riggins, Danny Canela, John Gianis, Drew and Dallas Poulk and Andrew Ciencin.
Riggins is 19-for-39 (.487) with four doubles, five home runs and 17 RBIs in his last 10 games. In 14 games since the start of the Miami series he is hitting .417 (20-for-48) with five doubles, five bombs and 19 RBIs.
Canela has hit safely in seven of his last eight games and is batting .519 (14-for-27) in those eight games. Gianis has hit safely in eight of his last 10 games and is hitting .429 (12-for-28) with five doubles in those 10 games.
Dallas Poulk has a team-longest nine-game hitting streak going and is hitting .450 (18-for-40) during the streak. Drew Poulk has hit safely in his last four games and 12 of his last 14. During the four-game hitting streak he is batting .368 (7-for-19) with two doubles, a home run and eight RBIs. Ciencin is hitting .350 (14-for-40) with five doubles, three homers and 15 RBIs in his last 10 games.
Hitting Streaks: Dallas Poulk enters the East Carolina game on a nine-game hitting streak, the longest current streak for the Wolfpack. 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 .450 (18-for-40) with two doubles, a triple and a home run during his current nine-game streak. Danny Canela is on a five-game hitting streak and is batting .571 (12-for-21) with a double, a home run and six RBIs during his 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.
