So the baseball team’s season didn’t end up exactly like coach Elliott Avent or his players wanted when they fell to the Georgia Bulldogs in last weekend’s Super Regional. The 17-8 loss in the decisive game was something that coaches and players will be thinking about for a long time.
I think that may be a huge understatement — let’s try again.
N.C. State’s performance on Sunday left coaches and players extremely disappointed and left me feeling let down by another Wolfpack sports team that simply did not perform in a clutch situation.
The Pack — which had been in the top ten in team Earned Run Average throughout the year — uncharacteristically gave up nine runs in the first inning. For those wondering, that was not a typo. Nine Bulldogs crossed the plate in the first inning and State had to use three different pitchers to get the game’s first three outs.
Needless to say, the year did not finish the way the Pack wanted — not even close.
State’s chance to go to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. — a trip that would have been the first for the program in 40 years — will have to wait until at least year 41.
While the pack will lose a lot of talent from this year’s team — seniors Tommy Foschi, Ryan Pond, Matt Payne, and Jeff Stallings, and juniors Eric Surkamp and Clayton Shunick — the program has never been in better shape.
When the Major League Baseball held its annual draft last week, nine Wolfpack players — one more than the record set in 2006 — were selected.
State, which finished at 42-22 for the year, went over the 40 win plateau for only the 13th time in school history, but accomplished the feat for the third time in the last four seasons.
The fact that Doak Field finally hosted a regional after 42 years shows that State is heading the right way. Perennial baseball power South Carolina came to Raleigh and fell twice at the hands of the Pack. Perhaps the most telling sign of what’s to come for the future of Wolfpack baseball were the crowds of 2,500 plus cramming the seats, hill and concourse at Doak.
The baseball team’s success this year, especially late in the season, created an excitement that few Wolfpack teams, regardless of sport, have been able to muster lately.
The Raleigh Regional had a buzz in the air, a feeling that comes fairly easily when you do one thing: win.
The momentum of the regional win carried its way to Athens, Ga. this past weekend.
Now I know the Pack did not exactly finish like it wanted to or like Wolfpack fans wanted it to or heck, even like I wanted it to, but the team created an excitement about baseball that will most definitely be back.
So for coach Avent and the players that are still stinging after Sunday’s loss to the Bulldogs, don’t worry. The Pack, and its success, is here to stay, planted firmly in the soil of beautiful Doak Field for years to come.
More regionals will be hosted and won, more super regionals will be attended, and eventually, probably sooner than you think, State will make that trip back to Omaha and find itself in an elite group of college baseball.
For the nonbelievers and fair-weather fans who think it will never happen, come out to Doak Field and watch. You will see. And when the day comes that you are trying to get tickets to the College World Series, don’t say I didn’t tell you so.
