North Carolina State University Athletics
Baseball To Play Final Home Game Tuesday
5/16/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 16, 2011
RALEIGH, N.C. — The home portion of NC State’s 2011 baseball season will conclude Tuesday night when the Wolfpack takes on William & Mary in a 6 o’clock tilt.
The game will be broadcast live on WKNC-FM (88.1) and will be available on-line with videostreaming 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.
The Pack (29-23) comes into the game after salvaging the final game of a three-game ACC series Sunday vs. sixth-ranked Florida State. NC State has won 11 of its last 18 games. The Tribe (24-27) enters play Tuesday having lost seven of its last 10 games.
Sophomore righthander Danny Healey (1-4, 6.95) will start for NC State. William & Mary will send junior righthander Matt Davenport (2-7, 6.22).
NC State vs. William & Mary
NC State leads the series with William & Mary 19-2. The Wolfpack is 5-0 vs. the Tribe since Elliott Avent became head coach in 1997. NC State won single games vs. William & Mary in 1999 and 2005, then swept a three-game series in 2007. All five of those games were played at Doak Field at Dail Park.
In the series in 2007, which opened the season, NC State won by scores of 9-4, 23-0 and 6-3. In the opener, Jeremy Synan and Tommy Foschi homered, and Andrew Brackman, Kyle Rutter and Jake Kensmoe combined to scatter eight hits.
Synan homered again in the second game, and Ramon Corona and Marcus Jones also went deep, with Corona driving in five runs and Jones chasing home four. In that middle game, Eric Surkamp and Jimmy Gillheeney combined on a six-hit shutout, striking out seven.
In the series finale, Mike Roskopf snapped a 3-3 tie with a run-scoring groundout in the fifth inning, and Jones followed with a two-run double. Jeff Stallings went five innings to get the win, and Clayton Shunick and Eryk McConnell combined for four innings of shutout relief.
Attendance News
The weather didn’t cooperate for this past weekend’s series vs. Florida State, but Wolfpack fans still turned out in large numbers to see the Wolfpack and Seminoles play, with 3210 fans attending the three-game series.
Attendance for 2011 now stands at 41,262 with tonight’s game the only game left on the home schedule. The per-game average through 33 home games is 1250. We need a crowd of 585 at tonight’s game for this season’s attendance to rank as the second best in stadium history. The per-game average, currently 1250 and subject to fluctuation depending on tonight’s crowd, should rank as third-best in the history of the Doak.
The Bats Are Heating Up
The Wolfpack offense began heating up several weeks ago, and the last week has seen the Wolfpack lift its team batting average to a .284. The Wolfpack batted .327 in the series vs. No. 6 Florida State.
Harold Riggins had the biggest weekend offensively, batting .583 (7-for-12) and scoring six runs. Chris Diaz batted .500 (6-for-12) with a pair of doubles and a team-best four RBIs. Matt Bergquist hit .455 (5-for-11) with two doubles and two RBIs against the Seminoles. John Gianis batted .444 (4-for-9), scored three runs and drove in three.
NC State got 15 hits in the series finale vs. Florida State, the second-most runs allowed by the Seminole pitching staff in 2011.
Dating back to the final game of the previous weekend’s three-game series vs. East Tennessee State, the Wolfpack is hitting .333 (60-for-180).
Bergquist leads the offense over those five games, batting .444 (8-for-18). Riggins also is hot the last five games, hitting .429 (9-for-21) with seven runs scored. Gianis is hitting .400 (6-for-15) with five runs scored and four driven in.
Tarran Senay is hitting .357 (5-for-14) with two doubles, two home runs, four runs scored and four RBIs. Andrew Ciencin is hitting .350 (7-for-20) and has scored four runs and knocked in three.
Record Vs. Ranked Teams
NC State is 8-9 vs. ranked opponents so far in 2011, including a 5-4 mark vs. teams in the top 10. The Wolfpack swept fifth-ranked North Carolina the weekend of April 15-17, took one of three the following weekend at No. 1 Virginia, and one of three this past weekend vs. No. 6 Florida State.
Hitting Streaks
The second game of the East Tennessee State series, a two-hit shutout by ETSU’s Derek Bushey, pretty much put an end to any extended NC State hitting streaks. Entering play this week vs. William & Mary and Boston College, the Wolfpack’s longest hitting streak is a modest five games by Matt Bergquist. Harold Riggins and Brett Williams both have four-game streaks.
Bergquist is hitting .444 (8-for-18) with two doubles, three runs scored and three RBIs during his streak. Riggins is 9-for-17 (.529) during his streak. Williams is 6-for-16 (.375) during his streak.
Pratt Maynard had a team-best 12-game hitting streak snapped April 8 in the first game of the Miami series. He batted .386 (17-for-44) with two doubles, a home run, 10 walks, seven runs scored and eight RBIs during the streak. Earlier this season, the Wolfpack had a 10-game hitting streak from Chris Diaz, an eight game streak from Andrew Ciencin, and a seven-game streak from center fielder Brett Williams.
Up Next
Following tonight’s game vs. William & Mary, the Wolfpck will fly to Boston College Wednesday for the final ACC series of the season on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Game times at BC are 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, 1:30 p.m. on Friday, and 12 noon on Saturday.
As always, please visit GoPack.com regularly for full coverage of all NC State athletics news and events.
