Pack vs Heels Part V – Win or Go Home [Update] Rodon to Start vs Heels

[UPDATE 7:05pm] – It was first rumored, but now confirmed.  Carlos Rodon will take the hill for the Pack vs the Heels Thursday night in Omaha….

NC State Baseball ‏@NCStateBaseball – #Rodon was going to be available out of bullpen, decision made this afternoon to start him instead. #CWS #wunltd

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[Original Entry]

There will be a flight leaving Omaha bound for RDU later tonight or early tomorrow.  Hopefully, the Pack won’t be on it.

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The Pack and the Heels roll it out for a fifth time tonight.  The winner must beat UCLA twice in two days in order to make the best of three national championship series of the 2013 CWS.

The loser gets to go home and think all summer about what might have been.

Both teams are very good.  Both teams are Top 10.  Both teams want to move on.

But only one will.

With a little luck, this will be one of three straight elimination games in which the Pack finds a way to assert themselves.

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NOTICE: I’m hereby banning all use of the phrase #NCStateSh!t (or anything like it) tonight.  If you use that phrase your post will be deleted.  That has become a self-fulfilling prophecy and nothing more.  We’ll win or we’ll lose based on what happens between the lines TONIGHT, and nothing else.

So resist your urges lest ye feel my wrath.

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The Pack is starting frosh lefty Brad Stone.  Heels will counter with Mr. Summer School, Hobbs Johnson.

No matter what happens, one cannot deny that it has been a helluva season already.  Having said that however, I don’t want to lose to those folks from the west ever.  In anything.

EVER.

Hopefully the Pack can get 3 or 4 serviceable innings out of the young Mr. Stone.  5 or more should be considered extremely fan-freaking-tastic.

Then do the committee thing and bring it home.  Or something like that.

Even more hopefully, the Pack’s bats won’t need a Jobu-like awakening….but just in case….

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Some Links

CWS: UNC, N.C. State baseball meet for fifth time in 2013 (CharlotteObserver.com)

OMAHA, Neb . North Carolina’s players and coaches gathered on Tuesday night to watch N.C. State play against UCLA in the College World Series. The Tar Heels were not impartial observers. They wanted another chance to play against the Wolfpack, who dealt UNC an 8-1 defeat on Sunday in the first game of the College World Series.

There was a moment late in the N.C. State game when it seemed like UNC might have to wait a while for a rematch – if one came at all. In the eighth inning on Tuesday, Wolfpack shortstop Trea Turner hit a ball well to deep left field. Off the bat, it looked like it might be gone for a three-run home run.

“We were all watching it at the same time, and we thought he hit it out,” Chaz Frank, the Tar Heels’ senior center fielder, said on Wednesday. “And I’m pretty sure he thought he hit it out, too. I think he raised his hand like he hit it out. But it’s the park. There’s not going to be many balls that are going to be hit out.”

Instead of sailing over the fence, Turner’s hit landed for an out. Not long after, the Wolfpack recorded the final out of a 2-1 loss that sent them to the loser’s bracket against a familiar opponent. N.C. State coach Elliott Avent wasn’t in the mood on Tuesday night to talk about playing UNC for the fifth time this season.

He was still focused on the mistakes his team made against UCLA. A base running error here. A wild pitch there. Even on Wednesday, a day later, the pain of that defeat still lingered.

“I still haven’t gotten over the emotions of losing that game last night,” Avent said. “That game has stuck with me probably longer than any game has ever stuck with me.”

Even so, Avent perked up when informed how badly the Tar Heels wanted another shot at N.C. State.

“It’s easy to say you want to play somebody, but then you’ve got to do it,” Avent said. “I don’t know if I’d want to play us again, but if that’s what they want to do then they get their opportunity (Thursday) night.”

Be careful what you wish for.

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CWS: UNC vs. N.C. State, Part 5: Who has the edge? (CharlotteObserver.com)

UNC, N.C. State need three wins to make CWS championship (CharlotteObserver.com)

CWS analysis: N.C State Wolfpack baseball team usually bounces back (CharlotteObserver.com)

UNC-NC State: Blowout or epic battle? (Omaha.com)

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Nice to see the team appreciating the CWS history, and keeping “loose” at the same time…

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And it pains me to link this video, believe me.  But here’s a little something courtesy of Carolina that should turn any self-respecting Pack fan’s stomach.  I just wish I could send it directly to the locker room and let our guys see the kind of self-aggrandizing chumps they’re up against tonight.

Hopefully they already know….

All we do is win….

And cheat. And attend institutionalized non-classes.  And lie to the media.  And lie to the NCAA.

Feels like Friday to me.

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8pm.  ESPN/ESPN3.

We’ll do our usual here on SFN for those that are away from TV and can’t get ESPN3.

There also might be a cat (and/or dog?) meme or two along the way for the mojo factor and to make BJD95 smile.  That’s always fun.  He’s way to sullen most of the time 🙂

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Speaking of mojo and awakening of past ghosts….Who is THIS handsome devil with a 10th inning walkoff jack vs the Heels?

Damn that newsprint yellows when it gets OLD…huh?

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Let’s Go Pack!!!  No Tomorrow!!!

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