Wolfpack Baseball (19-13, 5-10 ACC, 5th Atlantic) continues their recent road swing this weekend, setting up shop in Durham for 4 of the next 5 days.
First the Pack will face Duke for a 3 game set Friday thru Sunday; then next Tuesday State and Carolina will face off for possibly the only time this season in what will be a non-conf game for both teams.
All four of those games are at the DBAP.
Looking ahead just a bit, after the Carolina game the Pack will return home to the Doak for the rest of April and the first two weeks of May for its longest homestand of the season, including weekend series vs BC, GT, Coastal Carolina and Wake.
Also sprinkled in will be single games vs Campbell, UNC-W and Richmond. A very favorable turn of the schedule if the Pack can pull things together. But first things first.
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Week In Review
Despite dropping the first game of the series on Saturday, the Pack9 finally got the monkey of a 10 conference game skid off their backs last weekend at Clemson, winning both Sunday and Monday to take the road series vs the Tiggers, thanks to some of the youngsters breaking thru.
CLEMSON, S.C. – NC State baseball took its second-straight series at Doug Kingsmore Stadium with a 7-1 win over No. 14 Clemson (20-11, 9-5 ACC) on Monday night thanks to strong performances from several newcomers.
Wolfpack (19-12, 5-10) freshmen Nathan Hood, Garrett Suggs, and Preston Palmeiro accounted for five of the seven runs scored in the win. Joe O’Donnell (1-0) retired the first nine batters he faced in four shutout innings for his first collegiate win. Patrick Peterson claimed his first save in Wolfpack red thanks to seven strikeouts in the final three innings, at one point fanning five of six.
In the Pack’s last trip to Clemson in 2012, after dropping a 7-6 decision in 12 innings, State rebounded in similar fashion with a pair of wins to take the series. State has now won four of its last six at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. Prior to that, the Pack had lost 13 of 14 at Clemson.
Hood finished 2-for-2 with two runs and a double. Suggs added a double of his own in a 1-for-3 outing with two runs. The Wolfpack improves to 5-0 with Palmeiro in the lineup, as the freshman first baseman went 1-for-3 with a run and an RBI. Palmeiro is batting .467 (7-for-15) since last Tuesday’s win at Campbell. Freshman Andrew Knizner drove in a pair. Logan Ratledge and Jake Fincher went 2-for-4.
Incidentally, Trea Turner got tossed from that rain-soaked affair by HP umpire Scott Kennedy after a called third strike went against him and he accidentally slung his rain slickened bat to the ground in disgust.
In all seriousness, despite the rain likely causing the bat to get away from him, he was still crossing the line of arguing balls and strikes (not to mention showing up the HP ump) and deserved to get the heave. But the bat slipping from his grip made it look worse than it was, and is likely the reason he ended up getting a one game suspension and sitting out the ECU game Wednesday. I don’t believe the suspension was deserved.
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Speaking of the ECU game, the Pack traveled to Greenville on Wednesday to take on the Pirates but never could string anything together, getting shut out 7-0. Whether Turner’s absence was pivotal is doubtful, but it’s a nice excuse I suppose.
Pack Falls in Midweek Tilt at ECU (GoPack.com)
GREENVILLE, N.C.- Missing its team captain, All-American shortstop Trea Turner, due to a one-game suspension following his ejection in the series finale at Clemson, NC State dropped a 7-0 decision to East Carolina at Clark-LeClair Stadium on Wednesday night.
The Pirates (20-13) hung single runs in the first and second, then added two more in the fourth to extend the lead to 4-0. The Wolfpack (19-13) fell into a 7-0 deficit after three more in the seventh.
Freshman lefthander Cody Beckman made his collegiate debut in the eighth, striking out the first batter he faced and retiring three of four overall without allowing a hit.
Starter Logan Jernigan (4-3) took the loss on six innings of work, allowing four earned on six hits with three strikeouts and three walks. Will Gilbert and Jon Olczak pitched one inning combined as the first two relievers out of the Wolfpack pen.
So after a week, the Pack is 2-2 on their current road trip. Currently trying to get themselves back on the menu for G’boro, it is imperative they take at least 2 of 3 from Duke this weekend in Durham.
But Duke is no pushover this season.
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Duke Blue Devils
17-16 (7-8 ACC, 6th Coastal); Last 10:4-6 ;Streak:Won 1
2013: 26-29, 9-21 ACC
Duke is one of those teams that’s hard to gauge. They managed to sweep both ND and Carolina (both at home); but they’ve also been swept by both Pitt and GT (both on the road).
They’ve also managed to do something only 4 other teams have managed to do so far this season, and that’s beat UVa, also at home.
They have yet to play a game at the DBAP this season, so hopefully this weekend will be more akin to neutral site games, giving them less of an advantage than if they were hosting the Pack at Jack Coombs. Time will tell.
Batting/Offense
With a team BA of .262, (8th ACC), Duke is middle of the conference at the plate (NCSU = .266, 7th). With only 11 HRs (10th) and a slgpct of .349 (11th) they don’t usually hit for power (NCSU = 17 and .360, 4th and 7th respectively).
Their biggest offensive threats are:
Matt Berezo (#5,SR,3B/DH) – .384 avg, 7RBI, 14 runs scored, slgpct .419, 12K/3BB, 1/3 SB
Jordan Betts (#41,SR,3B/DH) – .337 avg, 13RBI, 15 runs scored, 12 doubles, slgpct .490, 19K/9BB, 1/1 SB
Ryan Deitrich (#1,SR,OF) – .284 avg, 2HR, 14RBI, 11 runs scored, slgpct .379, 28K/7BB, 3/5 SB
Mark Lumpa (#4,SR,OF) – .279 avg, 1HR, 12RBI, 26 runs scored, slgpct .394, 21K/28BB, 0/2 SB
Mike Rosenfeld (#15,JR,C) – .276 avg, 1HR, 22RBI, 18 runs scored, slgpct .358, 27K/24BB, 6/8 SB
Chris Marconcini (#21,JR,1B/OF) – .267, 7HR, 30RBI, 26 runs scored, slgpct .481, 24K/16BB, 6/7 SB
Aaron Cohn (#12,JR,1B/DH) – .261 avg, 10RBI, 18 runs scored, 10 doubles, slgpct .348, 15K/15BB, 7/11 SB
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Pitching/Defense
Duke’s pitching is pretty good with strong starters and a fairly strong bullpen. They boast a team ERA of 2.93 (3rd ACC, only UVa and Carolina are better), and lead the conference in Ks (290).
Their weekend starting rotation has recently been somewhat piecemeal (much like State’s recently…more on that below), but it appears these three are this weekend’s starters for the Devils…
Drew Van Orden (#52,SR,RHP) – 2-3, ERA 4.17, 41.0 IP, 1HR, against avg .231, 43K/13BB
Trent Swart (#20,JR,LHP) – 2-1, ERA 1.29,, 21.0 IP, 0HR, against avg .162, 21K/5BB
Michael Matuella (#30,SO,RHP) – 0-1, ERA 0.82, 22.0 IP, 0HR, against avg .085, 29K/4BB
The Devils also have a pretty darned good closer…
Robert Huber (#16,SR,RHP) – 3-0, ERA 1.17, 23.0 IP, 5 saves, oHR, against avg .154, 25K/11BB
With a team fldpct of .977, Duke is second in the league defensively only to UVa.
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ACC Standings
| Conference | Overall | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| rank | schools | W-L-T | PCT | W-L-T | PCT |
| 1. | Florida State | 13-2-0 | .867 | 26-6-0 | .813 |
| 2. | Wake Forest | 10-5-0 | .667 | 22-13-0 | .629 |
| 3. | Clemson | 9-5-0 | .643 | 20-12-0 | .625 |
| 4. | Maryland | 6-8-0 | .429 | 20-11-0 | .645 |
| 5. | NC State | 5-10-0 | .333 | 19-13-0 | .594 |
| 6. | Boston College | 2-13-0 | .133 | 10-22-0 | .313 |
| 7. | Notre Dame | 1-14-0 | .067 | 12-20-0 | .375 |
| Conference | Overall | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| rank | schools | W-L-T | PCT | W-L-T | PCT |
| 1. | Virginia | 12-3-0 | .800 | 28-5-0 | .848 |
| 2. | Miami | 11-4-0 | .733 | 22-12-0 | .647 |
| 3. | Georgia Tech | 8-7-0 | .533 | 21-13-0 | .618 |
| 4. | Pitt | 8-7-0 | .533 | 16-16-0 | .500 |
| 5. | North Carolina | 7-8-0 | .467 | 19-14-0 | .576 |
| 6. | Duke | 7-8-0 | .467 | 18-16-0 | .529 |
| 7. | Virginia Tech | 5-10-0 | .333 | 14-16-1 | .468 |
Elsewhere in the ACC this Weekend
- UMd @ VT
- BC @ ND
- Clemson @ UVa
- WF @ Carolina
- FSU @ GT
- Pitt @ Miami
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Games Schedule – Probable Starters
*No TV of any sort this weekend
Disclaimer – Like I usually do, I was sorting thru both State and Duke’s recent starters, how they fared, and when they last pitched (and how many innings they went), in order to try to come up with a reasonable guess as to what the pitching matchups will be. About the time I started getting a headache (because both State and Duke have been shuffling starting assignments recently), I decided to check GoPack.com and see what they had to say about things.
A couple of Advil later, I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt again this week, even though they had a major fail last weekend. So if these are wrong, blame them. Also, the Pack’s Sunday starter is still TBA as of now, but I’ll update if/when that info becomes available ahead of time. I’m not even going to try to take a crack at guessing.
But for now….
- Friday 4/11, 6pm – Carlos Rodon vs Drew Van Orden
- Saturday 4/12, 1pm – Ryan Williamson vs Trent Swart
- Sunday 4/13, 1pm – TBA vs Michael Matuella
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Notes of Interest
- Carlos Rodon is 8 strikeouts away from setting the Pack’s career mark (Terry Harvey, 386)
- Trea Turner needs 3 stolen bases for 100 in his career, and 31 to set the ACC career mark (Ty Griffin, GT, 127)
- Andrew Knizner (.363) and Brett Austin (.352) sit at 2nd and 3rd respectively in the ACC in batting avg.
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Nobody does the National Anthem like Enrico Pallazzo…
He’s a pretty good HP Ump as well…
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Go Pack!!!
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