NC State baseball just won a series over then-No. 14 Louisville and the final two games didn’t even go the distance. Both contests ended in run rules. The Cardinals won Game 2 25-8 in seven innings and the Wolfpack won Game 3 11-1 in eight innings.
These kinds of lopsided scores aren’t as rare as you’d think. Run rules have become a common occurrence for the Wolfpack, with five of its 15 conference games ending early due to the 10-run mercy rule. This is not unique to the Wolfpack, though. There were four other run-rule games in the ACC last weekend and five the weekend prior. In total, 27 ACC games this season have ended early — often with elite teams on both ends of the blowouts.
Just look at some of the recent scores across the ACC: 14-1, 19-5, 14-0, 17-2, 18-0, 25-8, 17-1. It’s a puzzling pattern in a conference known for elite, competitive baseball. The best teams in the country are squaring off, and the games aren’t close.
“It’s crazy, it’s absolutely insane,” said head coach Elliott Avent.
It’s not like the top-tier teams are just beating up on the lower-tier squads either. There are four instances where a team was run-ruled and still won the series, and the Wolfpack is responsible for two of those.
“Sometimes the best teams are getting run-ruled, and it’s in the middle of the week,” Avent said. “I don’t know what’s going on in sports, but we know there’s a lot of craziness going on with sports right now, and hopefully somebody’s going to get a hold of this.”
So what’s behind the chaos? Avent believes there are two reasons.
First, he hypothesizes, the new rules have altered the game’s rhythm. The pitch clock, he says, disrupts the game’s flow, while the frequent use of replay reviews stalls momentum.
“They’re doing too much, which is what I was afraid of,” Avent said. “I wish they could go back. Randy Travis wants to go back to 1982. I think that’s an excellent idea.”
Second, blowouts often result from teams strategically waving the white flag when the game — and not the series — gets out of hand. If the series isn’t on the line and one team jumps out to a big lead, the other will often preserve its bullpen and live to fight another day.
Take Game 2 of the Louisville series. After falling behind 8-0 in three innings — and having already won Game 1 — Avent chose not to burn his best bullpen arms. The result? A lopsided 25-8 blowout loss, but fresher arms for the rubber match. While the Wolfpack didn’t need its high-leverage arms in the third game, they were available because Avent chose to save them instead of trying to mount a miraculous comeback when his team went down early in Game 2.
“You all seen the scores in college baseball, when people try to save their bullpen just to win a series, and things get out of hand,” Avent said after the 25-8 loss to Louisville. “Didn’t want it to happen quite to this extent, but tried to pitch a couple guys and save a couple guys for tomorrow.”
What’s perhaps most impressive is NC State’s bounce-back ability after an embarrassing loss. The Wolfpack has been on the wrong end of a run rule three times in conference play and has won its next game each time.
“You can’t do anything about the game before,” Avent said after NC State beat Louisville 11-1 after losing 25-8. “If you dwell on the game before, it will affect the way you play. You got to look at the opportunity you have and play with the opportunity you have. And I think our guys did that.”
While it may be humiliating to lose a game in less than nine innings, Avent thinks it’s easier to get over a game like that rather than losing by one run or a walk-off. The sting of defeat doesn’t seem to last nearly as long.
“This is one you were never really in, and it got out of hand early, and it stayed out of hand,” Avent said after losing to Louisville in seven innings. “This is an easy one to go home and wash off.”
In college baseball, series wins matter more than the humiliation of a single-game blowout. As coaches manage arms with the long game in mind and with new rules continuing to reshape the tempo of play, run-rule scores might only become more common. Ugly losses will just become part of the deal. Good teams know how to move past them — and win the ones that count.
