The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/223560
A By Bruce Winkworth year ago, NC State made its first College World Series appearance in 45 years, largely on the strength of a heralded sophomore class and a vastly underrated senior class. The sophomores are juniors now. Led by two-time All-Americans Carlos Rodon and Trea Turner, that class is teeming with elite ■PREVIEW Baseball talent. Rodon, the best pitcher in college baseball, was 10-3 with a 2.99 ERA and a nation-high and school-record 184 strikeouts in 1321⁄3 innings. Turner, a shortstop, batted .368 with a .455 on-base percentage, a .553 slugging percentage, 13 doubles, seven home runs and 30 steals while playing most of the season on a broken ankle. Beyond those two, center fielder Jake Fincher (.313, 14 steals), catcher Brett Austin (.251, 21 doubles, 37 RBI) and second baseman Logan Ratledge (.250, 28 runs, 11 steals) return to provide reliable veteran leadership and production up the middle. "You're talking about great players there, and great players do great things on the field," head coach Elliott Avent said. "There'll be some pressure on them. The expectations, especially for Carlos and Trea, are tremendous. And they're juniors, which means it's their draft year. That brings pressure. But these are guys who love to play the game. They live for the game. And because of that, I believe they'll handle the pressure." The sophomores got most of the ink in 2013, but the seniors did much of the heavy lifting. The 2013 senior class may have been Avent's best in his 17 years on the job, and nowhere did those seniors flex their muscles more than in what may have been the best bullpen in the country. "People who studied our team last year know that what made us a great team was our bullpen," Avent said. "I don't know how those guys got us out of some of the situations we put them in. They were just incredible." How great was NC State's bullpen in 2013? During one 18-game stretch, in March, Wolfpack starting pitchers failed to pitch five full innings 14 times. They failed to get out of the second inning nine times. The average outing by a starter in that stretch, in fact, was less than three innings. That stretch could have been an utter disasIn 2013, junior shortstop Trea Turner batted .368 with a .455 on-base percentage, a .553 slugging percentage, 13 doubles, seven home runs and 30 steals while playing most of the season on a broken ankle. photo by Larry Blankenship ter, but thanks to the bullpen NC State went 10-8 in those games. Wolfpack relievers were 31-5 with a 2.57 ERA and 19 saves. In 315 innings, they limited opposing hitters to a .210 batting average. Left-hander Grant Sasser (3-0, 1.03 ERA, eight saves) and right-hander Chris Overman (1-1, 0.33 ERA, six saves) anchored the back end of the pen. Setting up those two and also pitching middle relief, Josh Easley was 7-2 with a 1.31 ERA and a save. "Those three guys carried us down the stretch, and all three of them were seniors," Newcomers To Watch Junior Patrick "Bubby" Riley, OF Riley batted .314 with 11 doubles, seven triples, six homers, 50 RBI and 12 steals in 55 games as a sophomore at Delgado Community College in New Orleans to earn first-team Junior College All-America honors. He had a big fall and should give the Wolfpack some oomph in the middle of the lineup. Look for him to begin the year in left field. Freshman Joe O'Donnell, RHP O'Donnell is one of four highly touted freshman pitchers on the Wolfpack roster, and a multitude of opportunities await them this spring, both as possible midweek starters and in the bullpen.While all four could see prominent roles as freshmen, O'Donnell and left-hander Ryan Williamson were the most polished of the four entering college. O'Donnell was 5-3 with a 1.68 ERA as a senior at Wilmington's Hoggard High School a year ago, and was 3-2 with a 1.01 ERA as a junior. Freshman Ryan Williamson, LHP Like O'Donnell, Williamson brings excellent ability into his freshman season, and has the advantage of being left-handed. Hailing from the same New Jersey high school that produced former Wolfpack standouts Rob Chamra and Andrew Ciencin, Williamson was 10-0 with a 0.56 ERA as a senior in 2013 and led Cranford High School to its second consecutive state championship. He was an all-state and honorable-mention All-America selection, and was drafted by the Texas Rangers in the 28th round of the 2013 MLB Draft. Avent said. "The only guys back from last year's bullpen are Andrew Woeck [6-1, 3.09 ERA] and D.J. Thomas [2-0, 2.89 ERA], and they made their biggest contributions earlier in the year." The candidates to fill the many holes in the bullpen are largely unproven. True freshmen Ryan Williamson, Joe O'Donnell, Cody Beckman and Cory Wilder were highly recruited, but are newcomers. Likewise, redshirt freshman Johnny Piedmonte has never pitched a college inning. Sophomores Brian Donovan, Will Gilbert, Karl Keglovits and Jon Olczak combined to pitch 302⁄3 innings in 2013. "We're replacing proven seniors with guys who've never done it at this level, and that's a concern in a league as tough as the ACC," Avent said. "But I'm not going to sit here and say no one will step up to fill those roles. We need for Woeck and Thomas to pitch like they have in the past, and we need some of those younger guys to come through for us." A year ago, Avent never hesitated to go to the bullpen, even in the first inning. He'll need to be more patient with his starters this year. The deeper into games the starters can pitch, the better. Rodon has always been the staff workhorse, but right-hander Logan Jernigan (1-1, 1.56 ERA, 342⁄3 innings) and lefty Brad Stone (3-2, 5.49 ERA) need to give the Wolfpack consistent innings. A little support from their teammates would help. "The first thing we have to do is play great defense," Avent said. "Our pitching isn't good enough to overcome poor defense. If we want our starters to pitch deep into games, we have to play flawless defense behind them." It would also help if the Wolfpack could score more runs. It's hard to imagine NC State scoring fewer runs than it did in 2013. The Wolfpack batted .277, scored just 5.3 runs per game, and slugged a meager 29 home runs, the fewest by a Wolfpack ■ Key Dates To Watch At Florida State, March 14-16 — After opening the ACC season a week earlier with Notre Dame in Raleigh, the Wolfpack will head to Tallahassee for a series between what should be the two best teams in the ACC's Atlantic Division.The Seminoles, who return a strong nucleus from 2013, will be bolstered by a return from injuries by shortstop Justin Gonzalez and right-handed pitcher Mike Compton, plus a strong recruiting class. At Clemson, April 4-6 — The Tigers rolled into Raleigh the first weekend of the ACC season a year ago and shocked the favored Wolfpack by winning two of three games. Two years ago, the Wolfpack blew into Death Valley and stunned the Tigers, thanks in large part to Trea Turner, who stole five bases in the series opener and eight in the series. A traditional power in the ACC, Clemson was 40-22 a year ago and augments a strong returning group with an excellent recruiting class. Vs. North Carolina, April 15 — Four of the last five games the Wolfpack and Tar Heels have played against one another, dating back to 2012, were nationally televised instant classics, two in the ACC Tournament and two in the 2013 College World Series. Those four games raised interest in college baseball in the state of North Carolina to an all-time high. Instead of allowing the two schools to build on the buzz those four games created, the ACC inexplicably chose not to schedule NC State and North Carolina against one another in 2014. Fortunately, head coaches Elliott Avent and Mike Fox agreed to play a single midweek game in Durham, site of last year's 18-inning ACC tourney thriller. While it's unlikely that either team will use its weekend pitchers, it's still NC State and North Carolina in a rivalry that has been one of the best in college baseball the last two years. January 2014 ■ 55 54-55,57-58.Baseball Preview.indd 55 12/5/13 3:32 PM