The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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66 ■ THE WOLFPACKER "Jake is a guy who's played for four years with every bit of emotion and passion that you want from a baseball player," Wolfpack head coach Elliott Avent said. "He's all about winning. He's banged up all the time be- cause he's always diving somewhere, diving to make a catch. He had three really good years, and this year he's really stepped it up a notch and been the best player he's ever been. He's been very valuable for us." Following the Wolfpack's doubleheader sweep of Virginia April 26, Fincher was hit- ting .305 (43 for 141) with 31 runs scored, seven doubles, three triples, three home runs and 16 RBI. He began the season recovering from a groin injury and didn't get his feet un- der him until early March, when he went on a tear at the plate and wound up hitting .385 (25 for 65) for the month. "I think in college, this is about the best groove I've ever been in at the plate," Fincher said. "I'm just trying to keep my foot on the gas and stay motivated and levelheaded, just keep this going." Fincher came to NC State as part of the heralded recruiting class that included first- round draft picks and future All-Americans Carlos Rodon, Trea Turner and Brett Aus- tin, along with Logan Jernigan and current Wolfpack teammate Logan Ratledge. That class was easily the greatest recruiting haul in NC State history and Fincher is one of the reasons why. An honorable-mention high school All- American and a two-time first-team all- state selection at Charlotte Providence High School, Fincher batted .466 as a senior in 2011, bashing five homers, driving in 40 runs in 25 games and combining with Aus- tin to lead Providence to a 23-2 record. In other words, he came to NC State with some game, and while Rodon and Turner grabbed the headlines that first year, Fincher earned Freshman All-America honors after batting .300, scoring 35 runs, stealing 16 bases and playing superlative defense in center field. Now in 2015, Fincher's still got game, and his career numbers are starting to add up. Through games of April 26, he had played in 218 games and started 216 with a career batting average of .297, 243 hits and 136 runs scored. He ranked in the top 10 in school history with 12 triples (tied for sixth) and 43 steals (seventh). He's made enough highlight catches in the outfield over the years that he should have his own YouTube channel. The Fincher story didn't start out this way. He came to NC State a shortstop, only to find his path to playing time blocked by the Wolf- pack's infield depth. He made a seamless move to center field instead, but still couldn't find playing time thanks to the presence of Brett Williams, one of the best center field- ers in college baseball. Left and right field were held down by Tarran Senay and Ryan Mathews, respectively. Despite the position switch, Fincher entered his freshman season stuck on the bench. Then it happened. In the fifth inning of the Wolfpack's season opener, a 10-3 romp over Marshall, Williams beat out a ground ball to shortstop but felt his knee pop as he crossed the first-base bag. Down he went, out for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament. Fincher went in to pinch run, went to center field when the inning ended and never came out of the lineup. "I get chills thinking about that," Fincher said. "I remember I was sitting right here on the end of the bench, watching my first colle- giate game and realizing that I'm maybe go- ing to get 50 at-bats at best this season and be a role player. And then Brett goes down and nobody else on our team could play center field. It was almost like something from God that wanted me to play." Fincher struggled offensively at first. He batted .190 through his first 17 games in the lineup, and went hitless in 11 of 17 games heading into the Wolfpack's third ACC series of the year, at North Carolina. That series was the turning point. He went 2 for 4 and scored twice in the opener, was 1 for 3 with a double and a run scored in the second game, and then went 3 for 4 in the finale with a national TV audience on ESPNU looking on. From there, all Fincher did was hit. He batted .342 with 21 runs scored, five doubles, four triples, a homer, 14 RBI and nine stolen bases the final 42 games of the season to earn Freshman All-America honors from both Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball/ TPX. "Once you finally accomplish something, you realize you can do it," Fincher said. "I figured out that I could bunt and could put the ball in play, and that gave me confidence. I remember Coach Avent telling me to just go out and play center field the best you can and don't worry about your offense. I think that approach really helped me get settled and establish myself as a pretty good player in the ACC." A loss to top-ranked Florida in the 2012 NCAA Super Regional ended NC State's season in bitter disappointment. Fincher and the Wolfpack began 2013 resolved to take care of unfinished business and after a slow start the Pack took off, winning 34 of its final 41 games and rolling through the postseason to earn the program's first trip to the College World Series in 45 years. Fincher was a major contributor to that CWS run. He finished second on the team FRONT AND CENTER Jake Fincher Has Been A Major Part Of The Pack's Success The Past Four Years Fincher, a former infielder who has turned into a stellar defender in center field, is a career .297 hitter, and ranks among the top 10 in school history in both triples (12, tied for sixth) and steals (43, seventh). PHOTO BY LARRY BLANKENSHIP BY BRUCE WINKWORTH B elieve it or not, for the first five innings of his college base- ball career Jake Fincher was a bench player. Of course, that was so long ago and for such a brief time that most fans only remember Fincher as the Wolfpack's all-star caliber, blood-and-guts center fielder. Now approaching the end of his college career, Fincher is an indel- ible part of the Wolfpack's everyday lineup. He has been in the lineup for so long and been so productive that it's hard to remember and even harder to believe that he began the 2012 season sitting on the bench.