North Carolina State University Athletics
Baseball At Miami This Weekend
4/7/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 7, 2011
RALEIGH, N.C. — With eight wins in its last 10 games overall and four wins in its last six Atlantic Coast Conference games, NC State will travel to Miami this weekend for a three-game conference series at Mark Light Field.
Game times are set for 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and 1 p.m. on Sunday. All three games will be broadcast live on WKNC-FM (88.1) and will be available on-line on GoPack.com’s All-Access package. Live stats will be available on Gametracker. Just click the Gametracker icon on the baseball schedule page on GoPack.com.
NC State has won three games in a row, four out of its last five, and eight of its last 10, and enters play this weekend 18-12 overall and 5-7 in the ACC. Miami has won four straight and 13 of its last 16, and begins the series 18-11 overall and 8-3 in the ACC.
NC State vs. Miami — The Series
The Hurricanes lead the Wolfpack by a 24-11 margin in a series that dates back 21 years. The two first met in the 1990 NCAA Atlantic Regional in Coral Gables. NC State and Miami have faced one another five times in NCAA Tournament play, with the Hurricanes winning all five, and 20 times since the Canes joined the ACC for the 2004-05 school year.
NC State is 9-20 vs. Miami since Elliott Avent became head coach in 1997. The Wolfpack is 7-13 against Miami in ACC play. NC State is 4-7 vs. Miami at Doak Field at Dail Park, 3-6 since the ballpark was renovated from 2002-04.
Miami won two of three games from NC State at the Doak in 2010, winning the opener 6-5 and the finale 4-0. The Pack won the middle game 6-5 in 11 innings. The Hurricanes won the opener thanks to three hits and two RBIs from Nathan Melendres. NC State won the middle game on Harold Riggins’ sacrifice fly. Miami won the finale behind the combined shutout pitching of Eric Erickson, E.J. Encinosa and Eric Whaley.
This is NC State’s 10th trip to Coral Gables. The Pack has an overall record of 5-14 at Mark Light Field, including a 5-9 mark in the regular season — 3-6 since Miami joined the ACC — 0-3 in NCAA Regional play and 0-2 in NCAA Super Regional play.
Miami swept NC State in Coral Gables two years ago by scores of 7-6, 4-0 and 9-7. The Wolfpack had a late lead in the first game of the series and a big lead early in the third, but could not hold on.
The Starting Rotation
NC State will send junior Cory Mazzoni (2-3, 3.97) to the mound to pitch the series opener Friday evening. Senior Rob Chamra (4-0, 3.75) will start the middle game of the series Saturday for the Wolfpack. NC State’s pitcher for Sunday’s finale is still to be determined.
Mazzoni, a righthander from Evans City, Pa., has been outstanding this season save for a rocky outing April 1 vs. Wake Forest. In four starts from March 4 vs. Penn State through March 25 vs. Clemson, Mazzoni had a 1.27 ERA with 35 strikeouts in 28 1/3 innings.
Mazzoni tossed a complete-game four-hit shutout against No. 15 Clemson on March 25, retiring 16 batters in a row at one point and 20 of 21. He set a career high for strikeouts in an ACC game against the Tigers by fanning 10, which he matched a week later vs. Wake Forest.
On March 18 at No. 21 Georgia Tech, Mazzoni worked 5 1/3 innings, his only outing of the season less than six innings, but held the hard-hitting Yellow Jackets to two earned runs on eight hits. Mazzoni struck out a career-high 13 with no walks in seven innings March 4 vs. Penn State.
A righthander from Cranford, N.J., Chamra has made eight appearances this season, six of them out of the bullpen. He is 3-0 with a 3.31 ERA as a reliever, and 1-0 and 4.70 in his two starts.
In addition starts March 16 vs. George Mason and April 3 vs. Wake Forest, Chamra worked three innings or longer Feb. 26 vs. Pacific, March 9 vs. Radford, March 20 at Georgia Tech, and March 26 vs. Clemson. He pitched five shutout innings and allowed just one hit against Clemson. His longest outing of the season was 5 1/3 innings vs. George Mason.
Avent Now The All-Time Leader Of The Pack
NC State has had 16 head baseball coaches in a history that dates back to 1903, but current Wolfpack skipper Elliott Avent now stands atop the leaderboard for the Wolfpack.
Entering play this weekend at Miami, Avent has a 765-560 overall record in 22-plus years as a head coach, and 539-347 in 14-plus years at NC State. Avent became the program’s winningest head coach on May 9, 2010, when the Wolfpack pounded Towson 21-0.
Sam Esposito went 513-253 in 21 years as head coach (1967-87) and is second in school history in career victories. Only Esposito (21 years), Vic Sorrell (21) and Chick Doak (16) coached the NC State baseball program longer than Avent has.
Who’s Hot For The Wolfpack
The NC State offense began to heat up March 22-23 vs. Northwestern, and the Wolfpack has won eight of 10 games since then, batting .300 as a team and scoring 6.7 runs per game. This is the team’s best stretch of the 2011 season, and several players have swung the bat well over that time.
After hitting .180 in the first 20 games of the season, Matt Bergquist is batting .406 (13-for-32) with six doubles, one home run, nine runs scored and 12 RBIs in the last 10 games. Pratt Maynard, who has hit consistently all season, is hitting .405 (15-for-37) with two doubles, a home run and eight RBIs in the last 10 games. Andrew Ciencin’s average the last 10 games is .268 (11-for-41), but four of his 11 hits were for extra bases, including three home runs, and he has a team-best 11 RBIs in that time. Cameron Conner has five hits in 11 at-bats in the 10-game streak. Peter Bako has four hits in 10 at-bats.
Big Offensive Turnaround For The Pack
Whether it was the new bats, the phase of the moon or some superstition gone awry, NC State did not come out of the gates firing on all cylinders offensively this season. The offense has turned it on the last 10 games, however.
The first 20 games of the season, NC State batted .276 and averaged 5.2 runs per game. In the last 10 games, the Pack has batted .300 and scored 6.7 runs per game.
The Wolfpack hit eight home runs the first 20 games, an average of one every 2.5 games. In the last 10 games, NC State has hit 10 home runs, one per contest.
For those who like the new Sabermetric stats, NC State’s OPS, which is on-base percentage plus slugging percentage, was 761 (.383 slugging plus .378 OBP) in the first 20 games.In the last 10 games, the OPs is 858 (.459 slugging and .399 OBP).
The difference in the numbers is reflected in the won-lost records. NC State was 10-10 the first 20 games of the season, and 8-2 since then.
Maynard On 12-Game Hitting Streak
Pratt Maynard enters this weekend’s series vs. Miami on a 12-game hitting streak, the longest streak by an NC State hitter this season. Maynard is batting .386 (17-for-44) with two doubles, a home run, 10 walks, seven runs scored and eight RBIs during the streak.
Maynard Challenging School Walk Record
Pratt Maynard is a selective hitter, which results in a lot of bases on balls. He finished second in the nation a year ago with a school-record 64 walks and leads the Wolfpack this season with 23 through 30 games.
Maynard enters play this weekend vs. Miami with 118 career walks, which is tied for sixth in NC State history with Pat Clougherty (1991-94) and Jeremy Dutton (2000-03). ake Weber (1995-98) and Robbie Bark are the NC State career record holders with 154 walks apiece, with Tom Sergio (1994-97) third with 150. Next up the list for Maynard are Brian Wright (121 from 1999-2002) in fifth place and Brian Bark (127 from 1987-90) in fourth.
Up Next
Following this weekend’s series at Miami, NC State will host UNC Wilmington on Wednesday, April 13, at 6 p.m. at Doak Field at Dail Park.
Folowing the game with the Seahawks, the Wolfpack will play a three-game Atlantic Coast Conference series vs. North Carolina. Game times are 6:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and 1 p.m. on Sunday.
As always, please visit GoPack.com regularly for full coverage of all NC State athletics news and events.
