The baseball team fell 11-4 to the Patriots of George Mason Tuesday and played, according to coach Elliott Avent, as bad as a team has played in his memory of N.C. State baseball. The Pack fell to 7-6 on the season while George Mason improved its record to 8-3. According to Avent, the team did not show a solid performance in any aspect of the game.
“We just didn’t play well. We didn’t play well in any aspect from pitching to defense to offense to the mentality you need to have to play the game,” Avent said. “It was one of the worst games I have seen in N.C. State baseball memory.”
According to assistant head coach Tom Holliday, this is the type of a game coaches are afraid of and rightfully so, as the team could not step up for a victory.
“Today was a typical Tuesday baseball game that coaches fear the most. Every trap that was in there we feel into. Our kids played terrible. We probably coached them terrible,” Holliday said. “We needed to get out there and get a dominate start on the mound until your club wakes and realizes they are back at home. We have some young kids that don’t understand that every game counts.”
The Pack starter, freshman Zak Sinclair, started off the game by walking the first batter, Spencer Wiggins. Wiggins advanced to second on a walk to Chris Henderson and to third on a stolen base. Wiggins then scored on an RBI fielder’s choice. The Wolfpack answered back in the first, taking the lead by posting two runs of its own.
The Patriots tied the game back up in the third after Sinclair ran into more trouble with another leadoff walk. After an RBI double, freshman Cory Mazzoni took the mound and retired the next three batters to leave the score knotted at two.
In the fifth inning, everything hit the fan for the Pack as George Mason scored four runs on one hit and three errors. The one hit of the inning for the Patriots was a three run shot into left field by Scott Krieger. In the bottom of the inning, the Pack was able to notch one run off two hits to make the score 6-3, leaving hope for a comeback.
The Patriots put the nails in the coffin in the eighth as they scored two runs. The inning started with a leadoff walked issued by redshirt freshman Vance Williams followed by a single. Both runners were driven in by a double down the left field line. This was followed up by a three run ninth inning for George Mason.
According to Holliday, the team gave the Patriots opportunities by playing poor defense, and let opportunities slip through its fingers by striking out. He also said the team did not deserve to win this game and it was time for the young kids to grow up.
“We had to go to the bullpen early and they got some opportunities that we created with lousy defense and they took advantage of them. We had a couple chances to blow the game wide open and we struck out and didn’t put the ball in play,” Holliday said. “We committed every sin in a game like this that you could commit. We didn’t deserve to win. It’s time for a gut check to see if the young kids grow up.”
The team will host North Carolina A&T today at 6:30 p.m. before hosting ACC opponent Maryland this weekend. According to Avent, the games this weekend are very important in the grand scheme of things.
“It’s very important. It’s at home. We lost three games at Miami and two that we thought we should have won, it can be a bitter pill to swallow,” Avent said. “You have to understand what’s at stake. I remember last year playing very very poorly at one point heading into the Carolina series, and it was a game against Marshal that reminded you of this and we came back out and played very well that weekend.”
