The No. 1 NC State baseball team (20-1, 5-1 ACC) will travel to Florida to take on the Miami Hurricanes (15-5, 3-3 ACC) in a three-game series this weekend.
Miami was ranked No. 29 in the most recent D1 Collegiate Baseball Poll, after dropping two games out of its three-game series to UNC-Chapel Hill, putting its ACC record at 3-3, with only one other loss to Georgia Tech.
On the other hand, NC State was ranked No.1 in the poll, the first No. 1 ranking in program history. The Pack suffered its first loss of the season to Florida State last weekend, but bounced back on Tuesday with an 11-1 win over Towson.
Sophomore outfielder Jonny Butler continues to show off his talent with two RBIs, a double, a walk and four runs on Tuesday. Junior shortstop, Will Wilson, also continues to impress with a hitting percentage of .330. He also hit his fifth home run and a double on Tuesday, allowing four runners to cross the plate for the Wolfpack.
As for Miami, sophomore Freddy Zamora is a top hitter for the Hurricanes with a batting average of .368 and a total of 28 hits on the season, including five home runs. Zamora was recently named ACC Player of the Week.
Two other strong hitters for the Hurricanes are sophomore Alex Toral and freshman Adrian Del Castillo. Toral has a promising swing, with a batting average of .274 and a total of 10 home runs this season. Del Castillo has a batting average of .321 and hit a three-run homer during Miami’s final game against UNC-Chapel Hill.
The biggest struggle for the Hurricanes is keeping a lead. They tend to score early on in their matchups and then allow their opponent to come back and take the lead. Head coach Gino DiMare said that allowing other teams to have big innings after scoring runs has happened far too many times this season.
As for the Wolfpack, the team seems to have no problem grabbing the lead early on and keeping it throughout the game. NC State will take on Miami at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field in Coral Gables, Florida in a series with first pitch at 7 p.m. on Friday, 7 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.
