North Carolina State University Athletics
Ryan Mathews Runs CPL Hitting Streak To Nine Games
6/28/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
June 28, 2011
(Note: This is the second in a series of reports on NC State players playing in summer collegiate baseball leagues.)
RALEIGH, N.C. — The Wilson Tobs pitching staff has allowed 13 runs in each of the team’s last two Coastal Plain League games, but the Tobs can’t complain about lack of offense, especially from NC State outfielder Ryan Mathews.
The Wolfpack’s rising senior from Orlando, Fla., went 3-for-3 with a double and two walks Monday night in a 13-8 loss at Peninsula, extending his hitting streak to nine games and lifting his average for the season to .328. Mathews is hitting .438 (14-for-32) with five doubles, five home runs and 12 RBIs during his nine-game streak.
On Tuesday, Mathews was named the CPL’s co-hitter of the week. He led the league in just about every offensive category during the week, batting .423 (11-for-26) with three doubles, four home runs, nine RBIs, nine runs scored, 26 total bases and a 1.000 slugging percentage in seven games. He also had a .467 on-base percentage to go with three walks and three stolen bases.
Through Monday’s games, Mathews was tied for the CPL lead with six home runs, was third with 48 total bases and 10th in batting. He has seven doubles, 15 RBIs, 15 runs scored, a .750 slugging percentage and a .397 on-base percentage in 18 games played. He has stolen three bases in four attempts. Mathews has accomplished all this despite missing the Tobs’ first seven games while the Wolfpack was playing at the NCAA Columbia Regional.
At the other end of the state, four Wolfpack players were helping the Forest City Owls in their quest to become the CPL’s second team ever to win three consecutive league championships. Forest City won the league title in 2009 and ‘10 to become the fifth team to win back-to-back CPL championships.
Rising sophomore lefthander D.J. Thomas made his third appearance and second start of the season for the Owls on Monday, dazzling the Petersburg Generals in a 12-inning, 2-0 defeat. Thomas allowed just five hits and three walks in nine shutout innings, but the game went to extra innings a scoreless tie. Thomas struck out three. Despite the loss, Forest City holds a half-game lead over Asheboro in the CPL’s West Division.
In his two starts, Thomas is 1-0 and has allowed just one run on 11 hits in 16 innings. In three overall appearances this summer, he has a 0.53 ERA in 17 innings with 11 strikeouts and four walks.
Rising juniors Cameron Conner and Danny Canela both have joined the Owls and are playing regularly, Conner in the outfield and Canela at third base, but have seen limited action. Meanwhile, rising junior righthander Danny Healey also has moved into the Forest City rotation. Healey is 1-0 with a 2.00 ERA. In his first start, June 20 vs. Asheboro, he allowed two runs on seven hits in eight innings, striking out three and picking up his first win of the summer.
NC State has one other player of note in the Coastal Plain League this summer. Third baseman Grant Clyde, an incoming recruit from Angelina (Texas) Junior College, is hitting .247 with two doubles, a home run and 12 RBIs for the Morehead City Marlins.
Overman Commanding The Cape
Rising junior righthander Chris Overman emerged as a force out of the bullpen for NC State this spring, appearing in 30 games and posting a 6-3 record with seven saves and a 2.39 ERA. He is continuing his stellar pen work this summer for the Harwich Mariners of the Cape Cod League. Overman has made five appearances for the M’s, all scoreless, and has one win and one save.
His latest appearance was a 7-3 victory at Cotuit on Sunday. Overman entered the game with one out in the fourth inning with the Mariners holding a 4-3 lead, and pitched 2 2/3 innings, allowing one hit and striking out three. For the summer, Overman is 1-0 with a save and a 0.00 ERA. He has allowed three hits and a walk while striking out eight in 6 1/3 innings.
Harwich now has won five games in a row to improve to 10-4. The Mariners lead the Cape League’s East Division by five points over second-place Orleans. The Cape League uses a points system similar to that used by the National Hockey League, with wins counting two points and ties counting one.
In the Cape League’s West Division, righthander Josh Easley picked up his first save of the summer Monday night, nailing down a 2-1 victory for the Falmouth Commodores over the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox. Easley, a rising junior for NC State, pitched a scoreless ninth inning and struck out one. The victory was Falmouth’s fifth in a row, and the Commodores have risen from the division cellar to third place in the West Division with a 7-8 record, four points behind division leader Hyannis.
Easley has made four appearances for Falmouth and is 1-0 with a save and a 1.80 ERA in five innings.
