wirewolf said:

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Alex Gee said:

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wilmwolf said:

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This ****ing board just makes me shake my head.

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18 innings into the season. Who had the under?

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Honestly we just need two game threads at this point for all the teams. One where the folks can only praise the team and one where people can say whatever they want. Every thread turns into the same bull*****

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I would be fine with just one, but talk about the game!

We never should have taken Fritton out.

Don was good but had some weird basebally stuff happen. Just one of those days. Didn't love some of our at bats after the early homers. Seemed like everyone got a little homer happy. Game 2 of like 55. We will be fine. Fielding was the only thing that slightly worried me. Just sloppy

Taking my son tomorrow. 3rd base line. Let's get a win! Would love him to get a foul ball.

Alex Gee said:

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wilmwolf said:

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This ****ing board just makes me shake my head.

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18 innings into the season. Who had the under?

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Man, it started the first inning yesterday brother. We used to have baseball to ourselves at least until basketball season ended. Lol.

Vandy lost today also 65.

The No. 13 NC State baseball team dropped its first game of the season in a 9-6 loss to VCU on Saturday afternoon at Doak Field.

NC State (1-1) held leads of three and four runs, respectively, before a five-run fifth inning from VCU (1-1) lifted the visitors to a series-tying victory.

The Wolfpack struck early with three runs in the bottom of the first. Noah Soles homered on the first pitch he saw for a solo shot to right field, giving NC State a 1-0 lead. Alec Makarewicz then smacked his first homer in a Wolfpack uniform to expand the Pack's advantage to 3-0.

Cooper Benzin's solo homer trimmed the Pack's lead to 3-1 in the top of the third before NC State answered with two runs in the bottom half. Soles crushed his second solo homer of the afternoon to re-establish a three-run cushion at 4-1 before Alex Sosa delivered an RBI single to center field to make it 5-1 Wolfpack.

The Rams scored one in the fourth before their five-run fifth inning. VCU capitalized on two Wolfpack errors in the inning to push five runs across, flipping a 5-2 deficit into a 7-5 advantage.

Matt Heavner homered for the second straight day to cut VCU's lead to 7-6 in the bottom of the sixth. The Rams, however, extended their lead to the game's final margin when Brandon Eike launched a two-run homer to center field in the seventh.

VCU's Cade Dressler earned the win after tossing four innings in relief of starter Christian Gordon, allowing just one hit and one run before Owen Tappy recorded the game's final six outs for the save. Logan Whitaker suffered the loss for NC State in Saturday's setback.

Soles' pair of solo home runs marked the first multi-homer game of his career. He and Heavner each tallied multi-hit performances, while Makarewicz tied Soles for the team lead with two RBI apiece.

Freshman pitcher Jacob Dudan made his NC State debut with a scoreless ninth inning. Dudan notched a strikeout and allowed just one hit in his first appearance for the Pack.

UP NEXT
NC State looks to secure its first series victory of the season in Sunday's series finale against VCU. First pitch at The Doak is set for 1 p.m. and will stream live on ACC Network Extra. Head coach Elliott Avent can also notch his 1,000th win at NC State with a victory on Sunday.

https://gopack.com/news/2024/2/17/baseball-13-nc-state-falls-9-6-to-vcu-on-saturday

NC State baseball seemed poised to cruise to its second win of the season and head coach Elliott Avent's 1000th victory at NC State. Instead, the Wolfpack fell apart in the fifth inning and never recovered during a 9-6 loss to VCU.
The Wolfpack (1-1) found itself up early, seemingly hitting everything into the outfield, while sophomore left-handed pitcher Dominic Fritton was dealing on the mound. Up 5-2, the red-and-white imploded and never recovered in the top of the fifth as the Rams (1-1) pulled off the upset.
"They were really, really good," Avent said. "When it was 5-1 early, we had a couple of opportunities to rip this thing open… We made some defensive mistakes, mental mistakes in the outfield for no reason and they took advantage of every mistake we made. You gotta give them a lot of credit, they took advantage of the mistakes we made and that's how you get beat."

The pivotal inning began with a line drive down the left field line good for a VCU double. Two at-bats later, the Rams' drilled an RBI-single to left field. Making matters worse, the cutoff throw to second base was inaccurate and VCU's runner sprinted into scoring position. The Rams then loaded the bases shortly after and Fritton's outing came to a close.
What had started out as a strong outing for Fritton quickly evaporated. The starter retired seven consecutive batters to open the game, but by the time Fritton returned to the dugout he had pitched 4.1 innings, posting four strikeouts and a concerning 10.38 ERA.
"He's developed his pitching repertoire, it's much greater than it was last year," Avent said. "He's got a good cutter, a good breaking ball and a good changeup. He couldn't land his breaking ball, the guy hit the cutter out… I wasn't sure if it was the cold weather or if he didn't have it."
Once redshirt senior right-handed pitcher Logan Whitaker replaced Fritton it was too late. With the tides shifting in VCU's favor, the Rams scored on Whitaker's first three batters faced, including a two-RBI single. By the time Whitaker finished the fifth inning, the damage was done and NC State's three-run lead had turned to a two-run deficit.
"Credit to them, they played a good game," said senior right fielder Noah Soles. "The back half of the game is unfortunate, but we'll be ready to go tomorrow."

Seemingly shell-shocked by the Rams' scoring outburst, the Wolfpack offense lost its groove and never looked the same. The last run that NC State did score came in the sixth inning. Breakout star and sophomore second baseman Matt Heavner blasted a solo home run his second in two games. Heavner's emergence has been one of the encouraging early stories of the 2024 season for the red-and-white.
"Heavner's had two really good games," Avent said. "I just told him we made a pre-set lineup before the weekend with Luke Nixon getting his shot at second tomorrow and Matt Heavner looks like our best player. It's difficult as you're trying to maneuver and get guys playing time."
VCU drilled a two run homer in the seventh to put the icing on the cake, sealing the 9-6 upset over the Wolfpack. The home run was one final blow to a disappointing start to the year for Whitaker, who pitched 3.2 innings for a 4.91 ERA and three strikeouts.
While the Pack struggled in the back half of the game, it showed positive signs of growth during the first four innings. On the very first pitch in the bottom of the first, Soles drilled a home run past the right field wall. Soles went on to hit a second homer to open the third inning, almost perfectly mirroring his first.
"Just trying to do my role," Soles said. "Obviously I've got leadoff, so just trying to get on base and just do my job."
The Wolfpack will look to build on what it showed in the first four innings going forward. With an influx of transfers, a rocky start isn't shocking. Ironing out fielding errors will be one of the most critical tasks for the red-and-white, which gave up four errors against the Rams.
"Yesterday we played a really clean game defensively and today we didn't," Avent said. "I'm talking about we bobbled some balls in the outfield with nobody even going. Then there was a ball we didn't come get in the outfield and then it winds up going to home plate and people move up."
NC State and VCU will square off one more time on Sunday, Feb. 17 at 1 p.m. in the series finale. With a victory, Avent would win his 1000th game at NC State a feat that no coach has come close to in Wolfpack baseball history.

https://www.technicianonline.com/sports/nc-state-baseball-suffers-fifth-inning-collapse-in-9-6-loss-to-vcu/article_2ddacd76-cdff-11ee-bf03-031ef2e296ce.html

Series finale on deck ⬇️

⏰ 1 p.m.
📍 #TheDoak
🆚 VCU
📺 https://t.co/Mh09KWCYtE
📻 @WKNC881
🎧 https://t.co/yOGDXQuNOm
📊 https://t.co/CD2VEwhj6m pic.twitter.com/yoOQkPvLV8

— #Pack9 ⚾️ (@NCStateBaseball) February 18, 2024

Alex Gee said:

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Cthepack said:

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Alex Gee said:

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wilmwolf said:

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This ****ing board just makes me shake my head.

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18 innings into the season. Who had the under?

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I had the under. Said the first time we are behind but think I was wrong. We were behind in the first inning of the year and I did not see fire EA.

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I imagine there were some close to pulling the trigger on Highfill yesterday after the 1st haha.

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because I was curious
page 1

First pitch from Sam looked great, been a struggle since.

not an ideal start for Highfill

Come on Sam.

Not ideal, but got out of that jam.

This is what I was afraid of with all the Highfill hype.
Not commanding it well, and fastball doesn't have any movement. It's early though.
Hope he can work through it with more innings.

Alex Gee said:

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ShaggyWolf said:

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Other Top 25 teams have lost or will lose a game this weekend to an unranked opponent. Win tomorrow, take the series, and keep rolling.

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Yup. And many to teams that aren't as good as VCU. I'm impressed with their squad. Not to mention they were a tournament team in 2021 and 2022.

Ethan had a good tweet on this. We have stuff to clean up obviously, but this is a good squad that we are learning things against.

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Yep VCu has traditionally been a good baseball program. There is plenty of talent in the Richmond area and Todeater to recruit from. Not a cupcake program. Having said that, if we don't get 2 out of 3 this weekend that would be a disappointing start. Doesn't mean a whole in the big picture but still disappointing.

Pack088 said:

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Dudan popped two 97s in the 9th

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Dude looked good. That slider was pretty nasty too.

First multi-homer game of No. 2’s career yesterday 💥💥 pic.twitter.com/NYE6CFREGF

— #Pack9 ⚾️ (@NCStateBaseball) February 18, 2024

Some folks don't understand baseball can be a funny game. Any team stand their ace on the mound and have a good chance of winning. Where we are better than the VCU's is that we have several higher caliber pitchers. Love this team and told my buddies to save up because we are going to Omaha baby!

Big missed opportunity there, may need to think about dropping Serrano down some of this keeps up, not a great first weekend at the plate for Eli

Just tuned in, has the strike zone been this small all day?

wilmwolf said:

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Just tuned in, has the strike zone been this small all day?

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Not to sound like that guy but not for VCU pitchers it hasn't smh

This camera work is....um....brutal. 'Bout all I can say without cursing a lot.

Leave Eli where he's at, he'll be fine. Gino started 2-17 last year before having a day in the 5th game of the year. He's a hitter, he'll figure it out.

I'm with Gee, I really like Marohn so far. Matches up with what I've read and been told about him. Very nice get out of the land of Mike Glennon. lol

I'm impressed with Butters so far as well, he's been pretty slick in the field from what I've seen.

Filthy pitching to get the third out and out of the jam. Impressive work from the freshman.

Neither one of these dudes have realized that Heavner is in at 2nd after he's fielded three balls already this inning.