Yes, I’m fully aware that this title is merely a thinly veiled rip-off.
Apologies to Mel “How about that?” Allen.
At least I didn’t steal his theme music….yet.
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OK, so a week ago, Wolfpack Baseball was coming off a less than dazzling road trip, during which they saw their conference mark drop two games below .500 at 3-5. Warmer weather and home cooking seems to have been what the Pack needed however.
State got started on the right foot on the current homestand as they hosted Elon and NC A&T during the week this past week, scoring a combined 30 runs on 30 base hits over the course of the two games to take wins of 14-0 and 16-5 respectively.
#Pack9 Rise Above Phoenix in Shutout (GoPack.com)
#Pack9 Pounds NC A&T, 16-5 (GoPack.com)
So when ACC foe Pitt arrived in Raleigh for a 3 game series this weekend, the Pack was feeling somewhat better about itself and was able to keep things rolling quite nicely.
After a couple of laughers on Friday (14-5) and Saturday (7-1), the Pack came into Sunday’s contest looking for their first conference sweep of the season.
Things didn’t look good early as Johnny Piedmonte took the hill for the Pack and couldn’t survive the first inning. But with the Pack in a 1-0 hole early, Joe O’Donnell would come on in relief and put out the fire. Two innings later Wolfpack bats would erupt for five runs, including a Joe Dunand 3 run blast, and the Pack would never look back as they would pull away and take the game and the sweep by a final score of 9-2.
O’Donnell would work 6.1 effective innings to get the W (3-0, 1.35ERA), giving up only 1 run (unearned) on 2 hits.
#Pack9 Rocks Pitt 14-5 in Series Opener (GoPack.com)
State Pitchers Fan 15, #Pack9 Takes Series (GoPack.com)
#Pack9 Wins Sixth-Straight, Sweeps Pitt (GoPack.com)
With the weekend sweep of the Panthers, the Pack runs its current winning streak to 6 straight, and improves its record to 17-9 (6-5 ACC).
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There were more than a few remarkable individual performances over the weekend, but laziness and lack of time is only gonna get you one of them, I’m afraid. And that’s only because there’s a video to make my life easier.
Jake Fincher gets a mention mostly because his offense has been coming on for the past couple of weeks. He’s upped his avg to .337 on the year and has crossed the plate 22 times.
On Sunday, with runners on first and second, he was called on to move them over with the sac bunt. He would drop it down, but sac was the last thing on his mind as he beat out the throw from 3rd and would eventually come around to score on the Joe Dunand homer.
Fortunately, Fincher’s defense has never been in question and on Sunday he did this….
No SCTOP10 this time around for Jakey in all likelihood though, as ESPN didn’t see fit to televise any of the weekend’s festivities. Not even on the ‘Tres’.
The Worldwide Leader in Meh.
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ACC Standings
Louisville (11-1 ACC) continued their winning ways this weekend as they swept GT at home to open up a 2 game lead on FSU (9-3, 2 of 3 vs VT this weekend). The Pack’s sweep of Pitt moved them into sole possession of 3rd place in the Atlantic, 4.5 games back of ‘Ville and a half game ahead of 4th place Wake (6-6).
And for those who care about such things, the Pack’s current 6-5 conference record is also a half game better than Carolina’s 6-6 mark.
Atlantic
| Schools | Conf W-L-T | Conf PCT | W-L-T | PCT | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Louisville | 11-1-0 | .917 | 21-7-0 | .750 | |
| Florida State | 9-3-0 | .750 | 22-7-0 | .759 | |
| NC State | 6-5-0 | .545 | 17-9-0 | .654 | |
| Wake Forest | 6-6-0 | .500 | 19-11-0 | .633 | |
| Clemson | 5-7-0 | .417 | 13-13-0 | .500 | |
| Boston College | 4-7-0 | .364 | 11-13-0 | .458 | |
| Notre Dame | 3-9-0 | .250 | 16-10-0 | .615 |
Coastal
| Schools | Conf W-L-T | Conf PCT | W-L-T | PCT | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miami | 8-4-0 | .667 | 20-9-0 | .690 | |
| Virginia | 6-6-0 | .500 | 18-8-0 | .692 | |
| North Carolina | 6-6-0 | .500 | 16-11-0 | .593 | |
| Virginia Tech | 6-6-0 | .500 | 15-14-0 | .517 | |
| Georgia Tech | 5-7-0 | .417 | 17-10-0 | .630 | |
| Duke | 4-8-0 | .333 | 19-9-0 | .679 | |
| Pitt | 4-8-0 | .333 | 11-15-0 | .423 |
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On The Horizon
State hits the road to Charlotte mid-week this coming week to take on the 49ers (Tuesday 3/31, 6:05pm) before returning home to face FSU for 3 this coming weekend.
**Note: FSU series this weekend is a Thursday thru Saturday affair with all three games getting pseudo-TV coverage on the aforementioned ‘Tres’ (ESPN3) at 6pm, 6:30pm and 2pm respectively.
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Go Pack!!!
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