Pack Nine One Game Away From the College World Series!

The Wolfpack baseball team beat Georgia on Saturday10-6 and can punch their ticket to their first College World Series in 40 years with a win in Athens on Sunday!!

We cannot over-emphasize the significance of today’s opportunity is for the entire NC State Athletics Department.

Since Lee Fowler became Athletics Director at NC State, Virginia – whose overall athletics program ranks near the top of the ACC with extremely strong, broad athletic success – and NC State are the only athletics programs in the ACC to have failed to participate in at least a Frozen Four, a College World Series, a BCS Bowl, or a National Basketball Championship game.

^THIS will (FINALLY) change with a win today and would also serve to position State for a chance to advance to the National Championship series. Since Fowler’s arrival in Raleigh, NC State is the only pre-expansion Atlantic Coast Conference school who has not won a National Championship in any sport. Virginia Tech, who joined the ACC with expansion in 2004/2005 is the only other ACC school to fail to win a National Championship.

GOOD LUCK BOYS!!!

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68 Responses to Pack Nine One Game Away From the College World Series!

  1. ClassOf95 06/08/2008 at 6:13 PM #

    I’m proud of our guys. Georgia after all is the #8 team in the country. Yeah today is embarrassing but at this point any State fan ought to be able to come to grips with loss and disappointment pretty quickly. We’ve said it before but it’s like the entire athletic department somehow knows exactly when we fans see that glimmer of hope. That thought that maybe this is the moment when we will break through and become the winner generations of fans have been waiting for. And when they realize that the moment has arrived and the fans are filled with hope, they crush it. Hope can lie dormant for weeks or months or even years but the moment hope rears its head, our athletic teams obliterate it. I mean absolutely destroy it. With a vengeful purpose. It’s like something was built on an Indian burial ground or something. Or Jimmy V went to a witch doctor upon being fired and paid for the ultimate whammy of a curse. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s just a 30 year life lesson. Don’t get too high and don’t get too low. Well God, I get the message.

  2. Octavian 06/08/2008 at 6:44 PM #

    We are the Mississippi State of the ACC. No wait, they’ve actually won baseball titles and made it to championship games in the past 25 years. Sorry folks but it’s truly a sad state of affairs.

  3. SaccoV 06/08/2008 at 6:56 PM #

    DBP —

    1) No one is claiming that NC State was necessarily a better team than Georgia. You yourself gave us the preview that told us Georgia was the best potential matchup in a Super Regional. Given that I believed that, and I agree still now (that Georgia was the best draw NC State could have received), I’m horribly upset that our team only played ONE game up to its potential and won. Yes, Georgia could do serious damage in Omaha, but so could have we.

    2) My contention all season was that the bats never lived up to pre-season expectations, and they still haven’t. I also said that the bats were needed to win this Super Regional and they didn’t show up (except in Game 2). Given that we never reached closer than 6 runs in a must-win game, I’m sickened at our performance.

    3) We had a good season, again, in another sport were I personally had great expectations because of potential talent and coaching. However, I’m still flaming mad that Russell Wilson (2 for 4 in Game 2 with an RBI) didn’t start today’s game. I thought Surkamp was the right choice for the start. I thought Cutler was clearly the 1st choice from the bullpen if Surkamp got in trouble. Cutler was easily the best pitcher today and he didn’t see the mound until we were down 9-0.

    4) The contempt that I happen to share with the posters should be expected. We all have too stark a recollection of too many championship games, must-win games, etc which we (as a university) have performed poorly in to expect anything other than scorn and ulcers from our passionate fan-base.

    5) I, although upset and hurt, am proud of our team. I hope that this is the building block for our baseball team and not the wrecking ball. Despite my pride, a 42-22 season is exactly the same place we’ve been during Elliot’s 12-year coaching stint. We’re the 4th best team in the ACC and the 9th best team (looking at the tournament pairings myopically) in the country. We’re all still going to be State fans and alumni tomorrow, with just one more scar on our hearts.

  4. Wulfpack 06/08/2008 at 7:18 PM #

    No way Georgia is so much better than us that they run out to a nine run lead in the very first inning of the biggest game of the season, essentially ending any chance we may have had.

    Being a State fan, quite frankly, blows.

  5. ncsslim 06/08/2008 at 7:51 PM #

    It wasn’t so much that we lost, it’s how we lost. You send out an upper classman and he can’t get a single out in the biggest game of his college career, the day after a freshman came in and did a super job to put you in that position. The game is virtually over before we get a single out! No one was expecting that and sorry, I don’t understand how we are somehow bad fans if we don’t have low expectations for the program on a year-in-year-out basis. And it does not make it OK to not COMPETE when we are finally, I mean finally, so close we can smell it, regardless whether you expected to be there or not.

  6. Octavian 06/08/2008 at 7:53 PM #

    I agree…Great comments ncsslim. That’s it and a bag of chips.

  7. vtpackfan 06/08/2008 at 8:43 PM #

    “My contention all season was that the bats never lived up to pre-season expectations, and they still haven’t.”

    This is so wrong it is frightful. Who outside of the Dail Park batting cages this last off season thought this team had any thunder in the line up. Dallas Paulk, a no name replacement middle infielder was the only star in the whole returning line up.

    Everyone knew that Pond and Synan could smoke the ball when it was grooved to them but they hadn’t shown anything better then that. Marcus Jones was good for a couple homers on Jackie Robinson day and that was it.

    Offense sucked last year and it improved tremendously over the course of this year. When you see how we match up bat for bat against Ohmaha teams you realize that the recruiting in hitting has left alot to be desired and that has to change.

  8. wolfbuff 06/08/2008 at 9:09 PM #

    “It’s like something was built on an Indian burial ground or something. Or Jimmy V went to a witch doctor upon being fired and paid for the ultimate whammy of a curse.”

    Now it’s clear. Like the Redsox had the curse of the Bambino, we have the curse of the Valvano. Let’s hope it doesn’t last 80 years!

  9. wufpup76 06/08/2008 at 10:13 PM #

    I was out all day and have just logged on to see what the team’s fate was … ohh dear, this is sad 🙁 …………………….

    but not surprising

    being an NC State fan RAWX !!!

  10. SaccoV 06/08/2008 at 10:30 PM #

    Vtpackfan, hitting is not always about power hitting. Everyone knew this team didn’t have a big home-run bat. As I read stuff from the pre-season (from gopack.com and a few other sites), I took their previews to mean that State had a good hitting lineup, meaning they were base-hitters, hitters-for-average. It turned out that they were average college hitters, which can work if your pitching is good, and ours was very good for much of the year. I was wrong to think that this team was improved in any way offensively from last year given our few runs scored over the season. Knowing that we didn’t have a stick hitter (like Aaron Bates), meant that we (fans and players) knew that the team needed to play a smaller game with timely hitting in the RISP category, and this team didn’t provide enough of that.

  11. Astral Rain 06/08/2008 at 11:49 PM #

    There’s no curse of the Valvano. There is a curse of a boob in the AD’s office, but that’s another matter.

  12. BoKnowsNCS71 06/09/2008 at 6:45 AM #

    Joe and Adam on 850 the Buzz used the lead in on this blog for mockery this morning. Basically made a lot of fun over the frozen Four and the “We cannot over-emphasize the significance of today’s opportunity is for the entire NC State Athletics Department.” line.

    At least you got air time — albeit not the best.

  13. Howler 06/09/2008 at 7:28 AM #

    Tough Last Game, but Congrats to the team for a great season.

  14. choppack1 06/09/2008 at 8:20 AM #

    And here lies the main problem w/ NC State athletics. Alone, while a disappointing ending on so many levels, this was a solid season. This was the kind of season that if this was your “average” – you’d be thrilled.

    Unfortunately, this is the high water mark for the baseball team – and unfortunately, for the sports that most people follow – this was the high water mark for men’s and overall athletic department programs for 2008.

    We shouldn’t let that fact dampen our collective enthusiasm, but you know, it’s been a long time since we’ve had a magical run that ended well in any sport allows bragging rights. It also doesn’t help that our rival is heading to their 3rd straight CWS.

    And IMHO, this is where I really get frustrated w/ Fowler. He should be frustrated – and he should understand how lucky he is to have fans who even show up for these games in a state where you’re athletic department is the worst of the Big 4. I would expect him to say, “I know it’s frustrating always being the bridesmaid…” instead of “Well, that’s just the lunatic fringe…”

  15. BoKnowsNCS71 06/09/2008 at 8:29 AM #

    Actually, I think we have another program on the upswing. IIf we can keep Holladay working with the Coach — we can have a strong line of recruits and overall team every year. Sort of like football — things are improving and we have to be patient. Patient in the sense that good decisions (finally) have been made and quality coaches are in place in baseball and football. And hopefully basketball — the jury is still out on that one.

  16. choppack1 06/09/2008 at 8:43 AM #

    BKN71 – I’m willing to wait. We do seem to be trending in the right direction. And I think we can take a lot of positives from this season on the kind of execution and intensity necessary to be a “player” on the national scene.

  17. fer06 06/09/2008 at 9:38 AM #

    As for the bats in states lineup———-it is my belief that Avent didnt tap into the talent that he had. we had several guys on the bench with much better numbers and potential than those on the field–that is ALWAYS a problem. the lineup against a team like georgia should consist of the guys with the most potential to get a HIT—not necessarily the guy who might make a play once or twice in a game. That batter will get up to bat 4 of 5 times–Just my opinion

  18. Dr. BadgerPack 06/09/2008 at 6:34 PM #

    SaccoV- I liked your rebuttal… Well thought out. Props to you. (Maybe I shoudn’t have made my preview indicte we had a “good” chance at beating Georgia…)

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