Jackets win 10-9; Pack needs a miracle to advance

Baseball General Non-Revenue72

The Pack lost a heartbreaker today. They were up 7-2 after the seventh inning, but the Yellow Jackets scored eight runs the rest of the way to win the 1st game of this year’s ACC tournament 10-9. The Pack did score two runs in the eight inning to retake the lead 9-8, but State’s shortstop was thrown out at home in a collision with the catcher. On the play, the umpire ejected shortstop Tommy Foschi due to a crazy rule in college baseball that protects fielders who make a choice to block the path of the runner.

That ejection led to NC State putting in a new 2nd baseman (Russell Wilson) and moving the starter at second base over to shortstop for the top of the ninth inning. To start the inning, errors were made by the first baseman, the second baseman and the shortstop consecutively which led to Georgia Tech’s decisive two runs in the inning.

While NC State should have won the game even with the questionable judgment by the umpire, this call certainly didn’t help us defensively in the pivotal 9th inning.

Updated

Miami beat Clemson today 8-1. For the Pack to advance, Miami must beat GT, NC State must win its last two games and Clemson must beat GT on Friday.

Scenario to advance:

Pack 2-1 (beats Miami and Clemson, loses to GT)
Miami 2-1(beats GT and Clemson, loses to NC State)
Tech 1-2 (beats Pack, loses to Clemson and Miami)
Clemson 1-2 (beats GT, loses to Pack and Miami)

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Morning writeup

State opens the ACC tournament at 10am (hope the boys had their coffee) against Georgia Tech. This will be the one and only meeting of the season against GT, so this is a critical game for both teams as they aspire to host an NCAA regional. I would say State is in a “power bracket” in the ACC tournament, but there are top 10 RPI teams all over the place, and Wake Forest is the only team in the Round-Robin event that has virtually no shot at the NCAAs. It will be interesting to see how much emphasis Avent places on this game– does he play for 1 win, or play for the bracket. Surkamp is likely to take the ball in game 1– he is coming off a stellar pitching performance against Florida State in a 12-2 Thursday victory. The offense needs to get back to swinging the bats; after the 12 run outburst against FSU they were stifled by FSU pitching in the last two games.

About Dr. BadgerPack

NCSU Class of 99 and PhD University of Wisconsin, 2006... Which should adequately explain the screen name I chose at 2am one Saturday...

Baseball General Non-Revenue

72 Responses to Jackets win 10-9; Pack needs a miracle to advance

  1. wufpaxno1 05/21/2008 at 12:47 PM #

    Pond strikes out for out two.

  2. Dr. BadgerPack 05/21/2008 at 12:49 PM #

    You are allowed to run into the catcher provided it is not (a) malicious or (b) flagrant.

  3. Dr. BadgerPack 05/21/2008 at 12:51 PM #

    I don’t care how good McConnell was at closer last year. You don’t put a guy in to close after losing his weekend rotation spot and not closing all freaking year…

    Mind-boggling.

  4. wufpaxno1 05/21/2008 at 12:55 PM #

    Pack puts two on but fails to score, final score GT 10, Pack 9.

  5. McPete 05/21/2008 at 12:56 PM #

    was it really mcConnell’s pitching or the 3 consecutive errors?

  6. 66pack 05/21/2008 at 12:59 PM #

    another pack loss due to poor execution.our teams are at least consistant in error filled play.

  7. Dr. BadgerPack 05/21/2008 at 1:01 PM #

    As good as Gilheeney has been in the closer’s role it doesn’t matter.

  8. StateofthePack 05/21/2008 at 1:02 PM #

    You couldn’t script this year in Wolfpack sports if you tried. Just when you think you’ve seen or heard it all, you find out a new way to suck out loud. And Lee wants us to stay positive about athletics?? By being apathetic? That appears to be the only way to keep your sanity at this moment. Totally disheartening.

  9. tulsapack 05/21/2008 at 1:04 PM #

    Is anyone genuinely surprised by this? Tech owns us in baseball, esp. in the ACC Tournament. I’d rather have played any other team in the conference in Game 1.

  10. wufpaxno1 05/21/2008 at 1:09 PM #

    Here is the rule on the runner making contact with the catcher direct from the NCAA rule book. In this case the Ga Tech catcher was not obstructing Foschi,s ability to reach the plate and the ump judged that the contact was initiated by Foschi in an attempt to dislodge the ball.

    SECTION 7. The rules committee is concerned about unnecessary and
    violent collisions with the catcher at home plate, and with infielders at all bases. The intent of this rule is to encourage base runners and defensive players to avoid such collisions whenever possible.
    a. When there is a collision between a runner and a fielder who clearly is in possession of the ball, the umpire shall judge:
    (1) Whether the collision by the runner was avoidable (could the runner have reached the base without colliding) or unavoidable (the runner’s path to the base was blocked);
    (2) Whether the runner actually was attempting to reach the base (plate) or attempting to dislodge the ball from the fielder; or
    (3) Whether the runner was using flagrant contact to maliciously
    dislodge the ball.
    PENALTY—If the runner attempted to dislodge the ball, the runner shall be declared out even if the fielder loses possession of the
    ball. The ball is dead and all other base runners shall return
    to the last base touched at the time of the interference.
    A.R. 2—If the flagrant or malicious contact by the runner was before the runner’s touching the plate, the runner shall be declared out and also ejected from the contest.

  11. packfan4ever 05/21/2008 at 1:35 PM #

    5 errors in the biggest game of the year? WTF?!

  12. packbackr04 05/21/2008 at 1:48 PM #

    and NC State chokes again.

  13. old13 05/21/2008 at 2:01 PM #

    On a positive note, Fowler shot a round of 97, caught two brim and a sun perch today, and was a successful (note the positive slant) no-show for three meetings.

  14. Clarksa 05/21/2008 at 2:37 PM #

    Was Amato roaming the sidelines…er…dugout?

  15. catchme16 05/21/2008 at 2:41 PM #

    I don’t trust Avent in close games he makes some very strange personnel decisions

  16. Daily Update 05/21/2008 at 2:54 PM #

    Gilheeny was not in Jville this weekend for personal reasons. That may have cost us the game as well.

  17. graywolf 05/21/2008 at 8:06 PM #

    Catchme16 is correct. Plus we have now lost our last 3 consecutive baseball games.

  18. kyjelly 05/22/2008 at 9:07 AM #

    ^”Pack lost a heartbreaker”? Really we were up 7-2 thats not a heartbreaker,kinda like saying Pack came up a little short in their last 9 mens basketball games!

  19. packfan4ever 05/22/2008 at 11:35 AM #

    What happens if Miami, Tech and the Pack are all 2-1 and Clemson is 0-3? Tech beat State, State beat Miami, and Miami beat Tech. Who gets to advance?

  20. Dr. BadgerPack 05/22/2008 at 12:16 PM #

    ^Miami adavances… Best conference winning percentage. We advance in a 3-way tie w/ Clemson and GT.

  21. statemech 05/22/2008 at 8:29 PM #

    good news everyone, Miami escapes a nail bitter with a 4-run 9th to win 15-12. it was an incredible game if anyone caught it that pushed our starting time from 8pm to around 9:40

    let’s all pray that Ga Tech takes a loss against Clemson on Saturday and that we can take on both Clemson and Miami to prove we deserve a hosting bid this year

  22. statemech 05/22/2008 at 10:40 PM #

    Pack stepped up tonight. 10-0 win after 7 innings thanks to the mercy rule. we looked unstoppable tonight

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