North Carolina State University Athletics
Baseball Opens ACC Schedule at Duke
3/10/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 10, 2011
RALEIGH, N.C. — The preliminaries are over. NC State opens Atlantic Coast Conference baseball play this weekend with a three-game weekend series vs. Duke at Durham Bulls Athletic Park.
Game times are set for 6 p.m. on Friday, 2 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday. All three games will be broadcast live on WKNC-FM (88.1) and on-line on GoPack.com’s All-Access package.
NC State has won three of its last four games and five of its last seven to improve to 7-5 overall. Duke had a four-game winning streak snapped Wednesday at William & Mary and comes into play this weekend at 11-3.
The Series vs. Duke
NC State holds a 144-118-1 lead in the series, and has won six of nine vs. the Blue Devils the last three years. The Wolfpack is 23-15 vs. Duke since Elliott Avent became NC State head coach in 1997.
The Pack has won seven of 12 regular-season series vs. the Blue Devils under Avent, but only twice in Durham — 2003 and 2005 at Jack Coombs Field on the Duke campus. NC State and Duke have played once at Durham Bulls Athletic Park, during the 1998 ACC Tournament. NC State won that game, 10-4. NC State and Duke did not play one another in 2006 and 2007 due to ACC scheduling.
NC State swept Duke at Doak Field at Dail Park a year ago in the final home series of the year for the Pack. The Wolfpack won by scores of 8-3, 7-6 in 12 innings, and 8-4.
In the series opener, Dallas Poulk homered and drove in three runs, and cousin Drew Poulk homered twice and drove in three to back the complete-game, nine-strikeout performance of Jake Buchanan.
In the second game of the series, Kyle Wilson homered and drove in three runs, and Harold Riggins homered twice, but it was Andrew Ciencin’s 12th-inning RBI double off the wall in left field that was the game-winner for NC State.
In the series finale, Tarran Senay had three hits and two RBIs, and Pratt Maynard drove in a pair of runs, while six NC State pitchers combined to scatter eight hits.
The Starting Rotation
NC State will send junior righthander Cory Mazzoni (1-1, 3.98) to the mound Friday in the first game of the series. Sophomore Danny Healey (1-0, 1.96) will pitch Saturday in the middle game vs. Duke. Sophomore Ethan Ogburn (0-0, 2.00) will take the mound in the final game of the series on Sunday.
Mazzoni, a righthander from Evans City, Pa., has been nearly lights-out this season and would have sensational numbers except for three home runs allowed. Those three dingers have accounted for seven of the nine earned runs Mazzoni has been charged with in 2011.
Mazzoni gave up three-run second-inning home runs in each of his first two starts, a 17-4 win Feb. 18 vs. Elon and a 4-0 loss Feb. 26 vs. California. He surrendered a seventh-inning solo homer March 4 in a 3-2 loss to Penn State, although he did not figure in the decision.
Take out the three home-run innings and Mazzoni has allowed just three runs on nine hits in 17 1/3 innings for a 1.56 ERA. In his last start, March 4 vs. Penn State, Mazzoni struck out a career-high 13 with no walks in seven innings.
A righthander from Cooper City, Fla., Healey has been remarkably consistent for NC State, allowing no more than three hits in any of his three starts and pitching at least five innings in all three.
Healey allowed one run on two hits in five innings Feb. 20 vs. Elon, but got no decision in a 4-2 loss. He followed that by limiting then-No. 17 Coastal Carolina to two runs on two hits in seven innings Feb. 27 in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and this time got credit for NC State’s 12-3 victory.
On March 6 in the first game of a doubleheader vs. Penn State, Healey worked 6 1/3 innings and allowed just one run on three hits, but again got no decision for an outstanding performance.
Healey struck out six in each of his three games.
A righthander from High Point, Ogburn this weekend is making his second career start against an ACC opponent. He earned the start with his last two appearances, a start March 1 vs. Davidson and a relief appearance March 5 vs. Penn State.
Ogburn no-hit Davidson through five innings, allowing a third-inning walk and nothing else. He wound up pitching a career-high six innings and struck out a career-best 11. He retired 15 of the first 16 men he faced, 17 of 21 overall, and went to a three-ball count just twice through the first five innings.
Ogburn worked 2 2/3 scoreless innings March 6 vs. Penn State, allowing a hit and two walks, and pitching out of an inherited one-out, first-and-third jam by throwing a double-play grounder.
Pitching Prowess
Through 12 games, NC State’s pitching staff sports a 3.74 ERA with 38 walks and 111 strikeouts in 106 innings. The Wolfpack has allowed 50 runs, 44 earned, in those 12 games, but allowed 21 total runs and 18 earned runs in just two games, a 12-2 loss at Elon on Feb. 19 and a 9-4 loss to Penn State on March 5. The staff has allowed four runs or fewer in each of the other 10 games.
In those 10 games, NC State is 7-3 with 2.63 ERA in 89 innings. The starters are 3-1 with a 2.97 ERA and are holding opposing hitters to a .180 batting average. The starters have worked 57 2/3 innings and allowed 37 hits, walked 19 and struck out 64.
The relievers, meanwhile, are 4-2 with a save and a 2.01 ERA, and 32 strikeouts and seven walks in the 10 games.
Six-Game Strikeout Binge
NC State pitchers have struck out 70 batters in 54 innings the last six games heading into the Duke series, and have recorded double-digit strikeouts in five of those six games. You have to go back to late February and early March 2009 to find a comparable stretch of strikeout prowess by the Wolfpack.
In six games from Feb. 25 through March 6, 2009, NC State hurlers fanned 82 batters in 65 2/3 innings. Wolfpack pitchers began that stretch Feb. 25 at Elon and whiffed 12 in nine innings, then struck out 10 and eight in a doubleheader Feb. 27 vs. Hofstra.
Next up was a doubleheader March 4 vs. Villanova and Akron in Lake Worth, Fla., and Wolfpack hurlers fanned eight in nine innings vs. Villanova and an NCAA record 31 in 18 innings in a marathon vs. the Zips.
The final game of the streak was March 6 at Miami, and NC State pitchers struck out 13 in 11 2/3 innings in that game.
In this year’s strikeout run, the Wolfpack has fanned 13 vs. Davidson on March 1; 15 vs. Penn State on March 4; 10 and eight vs. Penn State on March 5; and 12 and 12 vs. Radford on March 8-9.
NC State pitchers have averaged 11.7 strikeouts per nine innings over the last six games. They averaged a comparable 11.2 K’s per nine innings in the six-game stretch in 2009.
Strong Relief For The Wolfpack
Pitching has been NC State’s strongest and longest suit through the first 12 games of the season, with a staff ERA of 3.74 through 106 innings, and the bullpen has been especially stingy. While the starters are a respectable 3-3 with a 4.04 ERA, the relievers are 4-2 with a 3.27 ERA and a save in 41 1/3 innings.
Five NC State relievers have ERAs of 3.00 or lower, and Grant Sasser, Brandon Price and Vance Williams have not allowed an earned run in relief this season. Ethan Ogburn and Nick Rice each have allowed one earned run in three innings of relief work.
NC State has a 2.86 ERA combined in the eighth and ninth innings, with a 1.80 ERA in the ninth. In his last two appearances, Price has inherited bases-loaded jams and not allowed an inherited runner to score. On March 8 vs. Radford, Sasser struck out four men in one inning, thanks to one strikeout victim safely reaching first base on a wild pitch.
Leading Off
After writing Brett Williams’ name into the five or seven spots on the lineup card the first five games of the season, NC State head coach Elliott Avent looked at the stat sheet and decided he should put his hottest and fastest hitter at the top of the lineup and see what happens. And good things happened.
In his first game as the Wolfpack’s leadoff batter, Feb. 27 vs. Coastal Carolina at Myrtle Beach, S.C., the righthanded-hitting Williams went 4-for-5, scored twice, drove in a run and was hit by a pitch. In a tight pitchers’ duel vs. Davidson on March 1, Williams went 1-for-4 and scored a run in the Wolfpack’s 3-2 victory over the Wildcats.
In four games as leadoff hitter, Williams is 6-for-16, has scored four runs, walked once and has been hit by a pitch. He has a .474 on-base percentage as a leadoff hitter.
When Williams isn’t hitting at the top of the lineup, John Gianis has excelled there. In seven games as the Wolfpack’s leadoff hitter, Gianis is hitting .407 with six runs scored and four RBIs.
Gianis, a lefty hitter, has four multiple-hit games as the Wolfpack’s leadoff hitter, inclufing both games of the Radford series March 8-9. He went 2-for-4 and scored twice in the first Radford game, then went 3-for-4 and drove in two runs in the series finale. Gianis also had two hits, scored twice and drove in a pair of runs Feb. 18 in the season-opener vs. Elon, and went 2-for-4 on Feb. 25 vs. Pacific during Baseball at the Beach.
Game Times Changed For Upcoming Midweek Games
Buffalo and George Mason come to Doak Field at Dail Park for midweek games this coming week, and then the Wolfpack will hit the road to Atlanta for a three-game ACC series next weekend vs. Georgia Tech.
Please note that the game times for both the Buffalo and the George Mason games have been changed from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.
NC State is 2-0 vs. Buffalo, which was known as SUNY Buffalo at the time. The Wolfpack defeated SUNY Buffalo 2-1 in 1985 and 12-0 in 1986. NC State is 21-4 all-time vs. George Mason. NC State and GMU last played in 2004, splitting a two-game midweek series. The Patriots won the opener 5-2, and the Wolfpack rebounded to win the second game 6-3.
