After dropping its first game of the NCAA Greenville Regional, the second-seeded NC State baseball team will face off against first-seeded host ECU on Sunday at noon in the first elimination game of the regional.
The Wolfpack (42-18) will enter its game with basically an off day on Saturday under its belt, as it only had to play for 11 minutes while it completed the bottom of the ninth inning against Campbell after extensive rain delays, while the Pirates (43-16) will have had roughly 14 hours since their loss to Quinnipiac.
ECU will trot out its number two starter, left-hander Jake Agnos. The 5-foot-11 junior had an outstanding year for the Pirates, pitching to the tune of a 2.00 ERA in a team-high 90 innings. Agnos has racked up 131 strikeouts and is as close to unhittable as they come, holding opposing hitters to a miniscule .197 clip against him.
If the Wolfpack is able to force ECU to its bullpen, it will see some combination of righties Sam Lanier and Ryder Giles, and left-hander Alec Burleson.
Lanier is the Pirates’ best option out of the bullpen, recording a 2.60 ERA and 1.08 WHIP in 27.2 innings of work. Giles has had a similarly good season, pitching to a 2.61 ERA and allowing only 16 hits in 20.2 innings pitched. Burleson, also a starting outfielder, is prone to allowing baserunners, but is excellent at racking up strikeouts to limit the damage, with a 1.26 WHIP but 58 strikeouts in 53.1 innings of work.
Offensively, ECU has one of the best lineups in the country and is led by Burleson, Greenville native Bryant Packard, first baseman Spencer Brickhouse and singles machine Lane Hoover.
Burleson leads the Pirates with a .371 batting average and 21 doubles. Packard is second on the team with a .355 average and gets on base at a .444 clip. Brickhouse is second on the team with 12 home runs and leads the team with a .464 on-base percentage while maintaining a .326 clip at the plate. Lastly, Hoover is a dangerous light-hitting option, hitting .341 with a .463 on-base percentage but with just four extra-base hits.
The Pirates’ fearsome lineup is hitting .294 as a team and has eight starters with on-base percentages of at least .387. If the Wolfpack is to pull out a win over the home favorites, it is going to need to quiet one of the best-hitting teams in the NCAA.
On the mound for the Wolfpack will be junior right-hander Jason Parker, who has struggled over the last month and a half. Since allowing just one run in 6.1 innings in a win over Boston College on April 5, Parker has a 7.16 ERA and has allowed seven home runs in his last seven starts.
He will have his hands full all day, but if Parker can revert back to his first-half form, when he had a 1.98 ERA over his first eight starts of the season and was one of the most reliable pitchers in the ACC, he could be up to the task of slowing down the powerful Pirates lineup.
Once Parker has to be pulled, head coach Elliott Avent will likely utilize the depth of his bullpen to play matchups the rest of the way. With only sophomore left-hander Nick Swiney (58 pitches Friday) unable to go, any combination of redshirt sophomore Dalton Feeney, redshirt senior Nolan Clenney, sophomore David Harrison, sophomore Evan Justice and junior Kent Klyman could see their names called.
The game is scheduled to start at noon at Clark-LeClair Stadium on the campus of ECU, and if NC State wins, it will play in another elimination game at 8 p.m. against the loser of Campbell and Quinnipiac.
Sophomore outfielder Jonny Butler high-fives junior catcher Brad Debo during the game against Campbell on Friday, May 31, 2019 at Clark-LeClair Stadium. Butler and Debo went a combined 2-8 as the Wolfpack lost 5-4.
