Heck of a first two games. Starting pitching continues to be awesome. Good to see Lawson bounce back with a really good performance. Nice to see the bats blow it open yesterday and make that one easy. Eli is going to be something special… let's go get the sweep!

CLTWolf said:

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ClePack said:

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CLTWolf said:

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ClePack said:

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Amazing game. This team has so many pieces and could really become something this year....

That being said, we need Avent to really shape up. He mismanaged the game pretty badly tonight imo. And I'm not sure what's up with highfill, but he might not be healthy or just lost a ton of ability with his injury, Cut out the bad baserunning and clean up the mistakes... this team can be good

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mismanaged how?

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It was mainly pulling Whitaker for Highfill, and then leaving Highfill in WAY too long when it was beyond obviosu that he didn't have it. Miralia could have been inserted much sooer imo. In the end, It didn't matter, but it's exactly what ended up losing us the series against BC. He's got to be quicker in pulling highfill when he doesn't have it. Don't wait until he gives up 4 or more. i KNOW he loves the kid and trust him.... but he's not who he used to be anymore.

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Interesting...(this is gonna be long, sorry lol)

I'll take this chronologically...
Against BC, he did hit the first guy up in the 6th but got the next guy to pop up to CF BUUUUUUUT Nolan got lazy and somehow didn't make a play on the ball. So instead of one out with a dude on first there's runners on 2nd and 3rd and no outs. Sam strikes out the next dude and then jams the guy after that with a pop up to LF and Trice doesn't really make an attempt on the that ball either. Maybe he played it right but the video doesn't really look good. So, again, Sam makes the pitch he needs to get the 2nd out and only give up at most one run but his defense does him zero favors. Nolan and Trice play defense that inning should've been over fairly quickly. The first hard hit ball of the inning was the HR to Wang on a fastball up and in a hair. Sam was ahead in the count 1-2 which sucks. The very next pitch after the Wang bomb was a base hit and then he gets pulled. Not sure how anyone thinks Sam should've been pulled any sooner when BC wasn't hitting him very well. Once they did he gets yanked which IMO was the appropriate time.

I don't necessarily disagree about last night but it was Friday, game 1 of the series so you want to try and limit the arms to save the bullpen for the rest of the weekend, if you can. Especially when Willadsen and Fritton aren't going to eat up innings Saturday and Sunday. Willadsen has thrown more than 6 innings just once all year, going 7 against UVA (on 118 pitches). Fritton hasn't thrown past the 6th inning in league play. He did go 5 and two thirds against UVA but didn't make it a full 6. Knowing that, you gotta let Sam work it out, if possible. He didn't and Miralia goes in against a lefty/lefty situation. If you notice, Rio was warming up earlier in the inning but when Louisville pinch hit a righty for the lefty DH, they kept Sam in. Once they eventually put 4 runs on the board that inning we pivoted to Miralia to save Rio (IMO). Thankfully John did his job and then some to set up the comeback. They kept him out there in the 9th b/c there were 2 lefties coming up as well.

Sam doesn't have it? Dude was lights out against UVA (5.2 innings total , no hits, no runs and 3 K's), the best hitting team in the conference and a top two hitting team in the country. He was damn good against Miami the weekend before that, another really good team. He's coming back from an injury and many of us have said it can be an up and down experience managing it. IMO, him throwing in 50 degree weather up in Boston and pouring down rain Friday night wasn't the most comfortable situations for him. I know the hot takes are fun but...

We're going to need Sam to be Miami/UVA Sam especially next weekend playing at Wake Forest and their lil middle school ballpark. He only threw 21 pitches Friday night so I wouldn't mind seeing him get some confidence innings tomorrow, if possible. Hell, the bullpen is super fresh so everyone is good to go tomorrow so we probably don't get Sam again.

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Good response. I agree that we will need Highfill if we want to make noise like we know we can this year. Reading your breakdown, maybe it was flukier than it seemed, and I'd like to see Highfill go out there and get a shutdown inning just for his own confidence soon. We're gonna need him this season

Alex Gee said:

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ClePack said:

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CLTWolf said:

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ClePack said:

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Amazing game. This team has so many pieces and could really become something this year....

That being said, we need Avent to really shape up. He mismanaged the game pretty badly tonight imo. And I'm not sure what's up with highfill, but he might not be healthy or just lost a ton of ability with his injury, Cut out the bad baserunning and clean up the mistakes... this team can be good

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mismanaged how?

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It was mainly pulling Whitaker for Highfill, and then leaving Highfill in WAY too long when it was beyond obviosu that he didn't have it. Miralia could have been inserted much sooer imo. In the end, It didn't matter, but it's exactly what ended up losing us the series against BC. He's got to be quicker in pulling highfill when he doesn't have it. Don't wait until he gives up 4 or more. i KNOW he loves the kid and trust him.... but he's not who he used to be anymore.

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Pulling a guy after 90+ pitches for your former all-American/best bullpen arm is not mismanaging. Letting him try to work through a seeing eye single and a fluke HBP is not mismanaging. His stuff this year has been as good as it was in 2021 if not better. I feel like this is hating for hating purposes.

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I don't agree with this. Maybe it was because of the weather? But It certainly doesn't seem so. We'll see if it was flukey like CLT pointed out.

UP NEXT
The Wolfpack looks to record its fourth weekend sweep of the season on Sunday. NC State's matchup against Louisville is set for noon and will be televised on ESPNews.

We've seen the same thing happen to Highfill and Lawson. A few weeks ago I was critical for pulling SH for lawson. Lawson got shelled. Friday night Sam was off somewhat. Yes the defense did him zero favors. Lawson was absolutely spot on last night. Trust me on this, as a former pitcher. When your defense is letting simple plays get past them it messes with your head. You then feel like you have to make perfect pitches to avoid misques in the field. Some times you want to pitch to contact. Sometimes you don't feel like you can

College Baseball
Louisville at North Carolina State ESPNews, noon

About time to go for the Sunday sweep. It's 𝐆𝐀𝐌𝐄 𝐃𝐀𝐘!

⏰ Noon
📍 #TheDoak
🆚 No. 11 Louisville
📺 https://t.co/LWaAvdzon5 (ESPNews)
📻 Tony Haynes on @WKNC881
🎧 https://t.co/yjmgalMads……
📊 https://t.co/CD2VEwhj6m pic.twitter.com/pKjgeXMPal

— #Pack9 ⚾️ (@NCStateBaseball) April 2, 2023

Jacob Cozart (‘24, Elig) gets all of this one and puts @NCStateBaseball up 1-0 early over the Louisville Cardinals pic.twitter.com/Ml1I93qfoT

— PG College Baseball (@PGCollegeBall) April 1, 2023

𝙀𝙇𝙄𝙏𝙀 command 🎯 pic.twitter.com/smjyFjvK6w

— #Pack9 ⚾️ (@NCStateBaseball) April 2, 2023

Our Starting 9 for today's series finale against Louisville!#Pack9 pic.twitter.com/lp7tDRsCYj

— #Pack9 ⚾️ (@NCStateBaseball) April 2, 2023

Dom is flirting with disaster with all these 3-1/3-2 counts but credit to him for battling back and getting the outs.

Gotta wake up the bats again today.

Defense, man. Nelson gets you a ground ball too short and it turns into two runs.

SportManagementEngineer said:

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Defense, man. Nelson gets you a ground ball too short and it turns into two runs.

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At least jump on it after the misplay and you can probably hold them to 1

SportManagementEngineer said:

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Defense, man. Nelson gets you a ground ball too short and it turns into two runs.

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Exactly what I said this morning. That gets in a pitchers head. And Sanchez is exactly right. The physical error cost us one run. The mental error of not getting the ball in quicker cost us another one

Solid appearance for Nelson.

2 runs on an error that would've most likely ended the inning

and then we get bad Rio who can't throw a strike walking in 2 runs...with 2 outs.

and Clint was pissssssssssssssssssssssssed too. and I don't blame him. Just throw some strikes.

Ok Sam....here's your confidence inning. Go get it son.

Good week/weekend

CLTWolf said:

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2 runs on an error that would've most likely ended the inning

and then we get bad Rio who can't throw a strike walking in 2 runs...with 2 outs.

and Clint was pissssssssssssssssssssssssed too. and I don't blame him. Just throw some strikes.

Ok Sam....here's your confidence inning. Go get it son.

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CLT, you and I watch games similarly. SS again. That was any easy play. 3 hopper and he got in front of the ball and just missed it. Then didn't hustle after it and gave up a second run. Mental thing, he doesn't attack ball's aggressive. Then came Britton's walks. Fritton doesn't deserve the loss, I think Britton does. I know what rules say, just agreeing with you about which guy pitched well and which one not so well. At least Sam got out of the inning. He has velocity of old or close but he seems to be flatter, less movement, than the CWS Highfill. Still working his way back.