[Update] Wolfpack Drubs UNC-W 17-5, Stays Alive

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Ethan Ogburn

[Update] – Wolfpack Drubs UNC-W 17-5, Stays Alive

Quick turnaround so nothing fancy here:

-Ethan Obgurn comes up big for State going 8 2/3 innings, giving up 5 runs on 9 hits, striking out 7 and walking only one. Best move all day was not pulling him during/after a shaky 6th inning.

-The State defense backs Ogburn nicely, including turning 4 DP’s in the game.

-Wolfpack bats continued to pop as the Pack scores 17 runs on 22 hits on a very good Seahawks team. The Pack has scored 41 runs so far this weekend (49 hits).

-Ten different Wolfpack batters hit safely today and seven had multi-hit games:

  • Trea Turner (2 for 6, 2 doubles)
  • Chris Diaz (4 for 5, 2 doubles, 3RBI)
  • Danny Canela (2 for 4, RBI)
  • Andrew Ciencin (3 for 5, double, HR, 4RBI)
  • Brett Austin (3 for 5, triple)
  • Jake Fincher (2 for 5)
  • and Matt Bergquist coming up huge with a 3 for 5 day, a double, a HR, and 6 RBI.

 

GoPack.com – State Cruises 17-5 to Survive and Advance

RALEIGH, N.C. – NC State survived its first elimination game Sunday at Doak Field at Dail Park, racing past UNC Wilmington 17-5 with seven runs in the fourth inning and a career-high six RBIs from Matt Bergquist.

The Pack (41-18) put one across in the first, but UNCW (39-23) responded by tying the game 1-1 in the fourth. The track meet started in the bottom of that inning, when State hung seven on the board. After a Wolfpack run in the fifth, UNCW narrowed the gap to 9-4 with three in the sixth. The Pack put the game well out of reach from there, scoring one in the sixth, three in the seventh, and four in the eighth to leap ahead 17-4 before a Andrew Cain’s solo shot in the ninth made it 17-5.

Bergquist saved his best performance of the season for when the Pack needed it most, coming up with a career-high six RBIs in a 3-for-5 game with his first homer of the year and a double, scoring three times.

[snip]

Ethan Ogburn (5-3) came one out shy of his first career complete game, going 8 2/3 innings, allowing five earned on nine hits with seven strikeouts. Chris Williams made his second appearance of the year to record the final out, striking out the only batter he faced.

In three games at the Raleigh regional, the Pack has 41 runs, good for a school record. The next highest total for State in NCAA play is 33 (1994 in Knoxville, Tenn. and 1998 in Palo Alto, Calif.). The Wolfpack’s 17 runs sets a program record for most in a single NCAA Tournament game.

Every Wolfpack starter currently holds a batting average .313 or higher, and seven are batting higher than .400 for the regional. Ciencin sits 8-for-13 (.615), Bergquist leads the team with eight RBIs. Ryan Mathews rests one RBI shy of Bergquist’s total, and has two homers in the Pack’s three games.

Box Score

The Wolfpack now moves on to face Vandy again. First pitch scheduled for 6pm.

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[Original Entry] – Penthouse to Outhouse, Pack 9 Falls to Vandy

Carlos Rodon: Another quality no decision.

For the second straight Saturday night, Wolfpack Baseball had their ace, Carlos Rodon, taking the hill with the chance to make some tournament baseball noise. While this week’s game was about as different as possible from last week’s game, the result for Rodon and for the Pack was the same. An undeserved no decision coupled with a heartbreaking last inning loss.

The biggest difference is that this week, the Pack snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

Despite wrestling with a small and seemingly moving strike zone much of the night and falling behind 1-0 in the 2nd inning, Carlos Rodon nonetheless held his composure and held the Commodores batters mostly in check, departing in the 7th inning with a 6-3 lead. When the Pack extended the lead to 8-3 in the top of the 8th on Ryan Mathews’ 2 run homer, it appeared the Wolfpack was a safe bet to move on and await the winner of Sunday’s early elimination game, thereby taking the inside track to a regional win and the NCAA Super regionals.

Since I’m still angry and I don’t much feel like typing out what happened next, I’ll let GoPack.com do it for me…

GoPack.com – Pack Falls in Walk-Off Heartbreaker

The Commodores roared back with five runs in the eighth to knot the score 8-8. Pinch hitter Connor Castellano got the inning starting by being hit by a pitch with one out. Another pinch hitter, Riley Reynolds doubled to right center to score him. A fly ball represented the second out, then the flood gates opened. A wild pitch on a third strike helped Yastrzemski keep the inning alive. Anthony Gomez hit an RBI single up the middle. Conrad Gregor hit a ground-rule double into the Wolfpack bullpen to score another. With two in scoring position, a wild pitch scored Gomez, and an error on the flip to home let Gregor across to tie the game.

In the decisive ninth, Castellano reached with a one-out single, then advanced to second on a wild pitch. Reynolds grounded out to the right side to push him closer with two away. Kemp hit the walk-off, RBI single to center on an 0-1 pitch.

Box Score

No need to go into the decision making, not to mention the unforced errors (wild pitches included)…that’s what the comments section is for. But, the latest NC State “WTF Loss” did overshadow some fine performances not only by Rodon (6.2 ip, 3 runs, 5 hits, 5 BB, 6 K), but also by Jake Fincher (3 for 5, triple), Andrew Ciencin and Brett Austin (each 2 for 4, double), and of course Ryan Mathews (3 for 5, HR, 2RBI).

So, in only an inning and a half, State went from being in the driver’s seat for the super regionals to having to fight their way out of the loser’s bracket. So what’s the big deal, right? It’s only one loss and this is double elimination…right?

Well, instead of having no losses and waiting to face a one loss team with a chance to close it out TONIGHT; a one loss team facing elimination; a one loss team that already had to win a game earlier in the day and must now beat us two straight? Well, now we are that one loss team because we let Vandy take our candy.

State faces UNC-W today at 1pm in an elimination game. The winner will face Vanderbilt tonight at 6pm. If anyone but Vandy wins tonight’s game, then they’ll have to do it again tomorrow.

Tough road. Seahawks hit well and Pack seems to be pitching challenged lately and last night did nothing to help that.  Ethan Ogburn was originally scheduled to go today for State, and I presume he still is. Since the game ended last night I haven’t felt much like looking into details etc., however, so I can’t say for certain.

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About Wufpacker

A 2nd generation alumnus and raised since birth to be irrationally dedicated to all things NC State. Class of '88 and '92.

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81 Responses to [Update] Wolfpack Drubs UNC-W 17-5, Stays Alive

  1. BJD95 06/03/2012 at 12:14 PM #

    Cut and pasted from the other thread:

    Far be it from me to be an Avent defender…but criticizing pulling a young starting pitcher after 127 pitches? That seems crazy to me. You find very few veteran, established MLB pitchers that are allowed to go that far.

    The valid point of criticism (as I made at the time) is letting Rodon exceed 120 pitches against UNC. We are lucky he was as effective as he was yesterday. I wouldn’t expect dominance next week against Florida (assuming we somehow get there) after going over 120 in back-to-back outings.

    Think about this – how do you recruit the NEXT Carlos Rodon if you overwork this one and blowout his valuable left arm? Most kids don’t want to go somewhere that will cost you millions of dollars.

  2. elvislives 06/03/2012 at 12:23 PM #

    Can’t do anything about the past. Put it behind you and play your hearts out today. Go Pack.

  3. Astral Rain 06/03/2012 at 1:10 PM #

    overwork is common among college pitchers- I’ve seen aces throw 150-160 pitches.

    Overwork is a concern, but this is the end of the year, so it’s not as bad.

    Rough road to make it out, but this team can do it.

  4. BJD95 06/03/2012 at 1:20 PM #

    I also think we should look at this as a three year window. Not closing the deal ahead of time (in year one) isn’t a disaster. If we don’t advance, the key is to learn from it and be better equipped next season.

    I don’t know much about how college baseball works – can we troll the JuCo ranks for bullpen fixes?

  5. GAWolf 06/03/2012 at 1:21 PM #

    BJD: it’s pretty common knowledge that Rodon always WANTS to stay in games. This has been discussed regularly.

  6. TheCOWDOG 06/03/2012 at 2:20 PM #

    Rodon is made for 130-140 pitches IMO. His mechanics are nearly flawless.

    It really was a shame that the plate ump cost him a good 10-15 extra pitches, conservatively speaking.

    Hey, the Pack seems to be doing the right thing and putting it all behind, as there simply is nothing else to do.

    Take two today, it’s not like Vandy didn’t use alot of arms last night.

    Now, with apologies GA, if they can manage to lock you know who up in the equipment cage, the undoubted parade of State pitching may just get it done.

  7. Wufpacker 06/03/2012 at 2:35 PM #

    Maybe they can just not wake him from his between game nap.

  8. highstick 06/03/2012 at 3:23 PM #

    Just out of curiosity, did they send the plate ump to Columbia overnight? The guy calling the Clempson-Coastal game had a strike zone that only he understands..

  9. TheCOWDOG 06/03/2012 at 4:07 PM #

    Little shotheads went and broke a record with those 17 runs.

    In case it was a surprise to you guys when they rang up 16 on Friday, tying a NCAA post season school record score output, it was a bigger surprise to at least one guy on the ’75 team, that never knew the record existed.

    Good for them. Ring up 17 more in about an hour and a half.

    As I’ve said before. I like the makeup of these guys.

    Not near as baseball savvy as the old-timers, but just as game.

  10. imawolf 06/03/2012 at 4:29 PM #

    Any idea who will take the mound tonight?

  11. TOBtime 06/03/2012 at 4:35 PM #

    The “not pulling him during a shaky inning” strategy should be used more often.

    Come on guys. Take out at least 1 SEC team. You CAN do it.

  12. vtpackfan 06/03/2012 at 4:38 PM #

    Would love to see D Thomas and then by committee. Maybe TSpaz for Sunday.

  13. Wufpacker 06/03/2012 at 4:42 PM #

    “Any idea who will take the mound tonight?”

    Haven’t been able to find anything anywhere. Tzamtzis (or perhaps Jernigan) would be my guess. State will be the home team for the nightcap.

  14. BJD95 06/03/2012 at 4:44 PM #

    Pretty much every starting pitcher wants to pretty much always stay in the game. A manager, like a parent, has to set limits and know when to say no.

    Believe me, if a high profile guy like Rodon blows out his arm, the prevailing sentiment in the media and on the recruiting trail will NOT be “Avent lets you stay in games like you want to.” 🙂

  15. TheCOWDOG 06/03/2012 at 5:07 PM #

    BJD, I understand the sentiments, but this does not apply with some kids not named Brackman, with awful mechanics.

    I mean, you don’t load the whole haystack on him, but…

    As for tonite, no word at the moment, but I’d suspect that both TZ and Jernigan are throwing in the pen, right now.

    Flip a coin…heads or tails.

    Personally, I’d go with the Armenian kid.

  16. Wufpacker 06/03/2012 at 5:21 PM #

    Before game two gets the green light here, I’d like to be the first to suggest that we take up a collection, enough to build a 10-12 foot high scaffold for the CF camera. I hate that low angle where you can’t see the plate clearly (or maybe it’s just the internet…either way it sucks).

  17. BJD95 06/03/2012 at 5:30 PM #

    Post score updates, I’ve got a youth soccer game to incompetently coach. I will watch on the interwebs tomorrow if we force that action.

  18. Wufpacker 06/03/2012 at 5:39 PM #

    Don’t know how Tzamtzis managed to make that play. He was directing traffic and everything there. Not the prettiest throw, but good dig by Ciencin.

    After a little umpiring confusion at first, Vandy down 1-2-3 in the first, btw.

  19. Wufpacker 06/03/2012 at 5:44 PM #

    Mathews goes long again, 2 out solo shot, 1-0 Pack, still in 1st.

  20. Wufpacker 06/03/2012 at 6:11 PM #

    Tz works out of trouble in the 2nd, picks Kemp off first in 3rd. Going to bottom 3rd still 1-0 Pack.

  21. Wufpacker 06/03/2012 at 6:16 PM #

    Trea Turner gets a 2 run shot, 3-0 Pack, still nobody down in 3rd.

  22. Wufpacker 06/03/2012 at 6:26 PM #

    3-0 after 3

  23. Wufpacker 06/03/2012 at 6:32 PM #

    Vandy gets one back on a double, a passed ball and a sac fly, now 3-1 after 3.5

  24. BAM 06/03/2012 at 6:34 PM #

    Is Canela behind the plate today?

  25. Wufpacker 06/03/2012 at 6:40 PM #

    Yes. Austin caught first game.

    Pitching change. Pack has one in, one on second and one down in 4th. 4-1 Pack.

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