The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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the Super Regional, ending NC State's sea- son in a 9-8 thriller in 10 innings, a game that featured three lead changes, three ties and nine runs between the two teams over the final four innings. The Wolfpack got heroic performances up and down the lineup in that season fi- nale, especially in the late innings, but the game — and the Super Regional — may have been decided during a two-hour rain delay at the end of the third inning. The delay forced Rodon out of action after he had cruised through the Gators without al- lowing a hit or a walk to that point. His de- parture changed the game's entire dynamic. "Carlos really wanted to go back out there [after the delay]," Avent said. "He begged me to let him go back out, but it was never going to happen." New Bats Force Offensive Changes The 2012 season marked a sea change in offensive style for NC State, from power and home runs to speed and the "little game," a change whose genesis came about when the NCAA changed the bats used in the college game. The new BBCOR bats, first used in 2011, dramatically reduced offense, especially home runs, which were down by nearly two-thirds nationwide. The new bats affected all teams, but teams built on power struggled badly. NC State hit 98 home runs and scored Freshman Trea Turner (center, No. 8) set a school record and led the nation with 57 "I began to get an idea that this team could be special somewhere the middle of the year, when I realized that the up- perclassmen, the guys who were the foun- dation of this team, wanted to win really badly and didn't care who got credit," Avent said. "When I saw how much they wanted to win, I knew this team had a chance of going pretty far." NC State got within two wins of its ul- timate goal, the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. The Wolfpack hosted a re- gional at Doak Field at Dail Park for the second time in five years, and came out of the losers bracket to prevail in back-to-back thrillers over Vanderbilt, advancing to the NCAA Super Regional versus top-ranked Florida at Gainesville. The Gators swept 571 runs with the old bats in 2010. With most of that team back for another year, the Wolfpack hit 37 home runs and scored 369 runs in 2011. A team recruited spe- cifically to hit home runs with the old bats was suddenly without its most reliable weapon. "We knew the bats had changed, and steals en route to earning All-America honors. PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN drastically so, abruptly so, overnight," Avent said. "It was a tremendous change, and it caught people by surprise. It caught us by surprise. We'd always constructed our teams around power hitters. We've had many days in the past when we'd be down seven or eight runs and we'd think to our- selves, OK, we just need to get a couple of innings going and we'll be fine. "You don't feel quite that way anymore, so we changed the way we recruited and the type of player we recruited, quickly." Led by the newcomers, the 2012 Wolf- pack stole a school-record 102 bases, with more than half of those steals coming from Turner, who set a school record and led the nation with 57 steals in 61 attempts en route to earning All-America honors. Turner broke the school record for steals in a season by midyear, and will enter his sophomore season next spring needing just 17 more to break the NC State career re- cord for stolen bases, set by Tom Sergio from 1994-97. Turner batted .336, hit 13 doubles and five home runs, drove in 43 runs and scored 72 — tied for eighth-most runs scored in a season. A natural shortstop, he moved to third for a year to accommodate junior Chris Diaz and gave the Wolfpack solid defense at the hot corner. Turner batted leadoff from the start of the season, but the Wolfpack offense re- ally took off the weekend of April 13-15 at Clemson when Avent moved Diaz up to second in the lineup, behind Turner and ahead of thumpers Danny Canela and Ryan Mathews. That move fueled an offensive explosion that lasted until the end of the season. A slick defender, Diaz earned All- America honors after batting .346 with 25 doubles, 56 RBI, 55 runs scored and eight steals. He tied for the fourth-most doubles in a season in school history and combined with Turner to give the Pack a pair of exceptional table setters for Canela and Mathews. Canela led the club in bat- ting with a .348 average, belted 18 doubles and six home runs, and drove in 46 runs. Mathews batted .327 and hit 17 home runs, the most by an NC State player since Colt Morton bashed 19 in 2003 with the old bats. Mathews also led the team with 62 RBI. Turner was the best of the new position players, but several made huge contribu- tions. Jake Fincher, slated to be a backup infielder and outfielder as a freshman, be- came the starting center fielder five innings into the season when incumbent Brett Wil- liams went down for the year with a torn ACL. A shortstop in high school, Fincher quickly developed into a star-caliber out- fielder. After batting .189 the first 11 games of the year, he rallied and finished at an even .300 with seven doubles, six triples, 23 RBI and 35 runs scored to go along with 16 stolen bases. Austin finished the year hitting .284 with 17 doubles, 37 RBI, 49 runs scored and six steals. Logan Ratledge, who filled in as a utility player at second and third base and in left and right field, batted .261 with 11 doubles, 21 RBI, 25 runs scored and four steals in part-time action. Rodon: The Dominator As good as the new position players were, by far the team's most important newcomer, possibly its most important player, was Rodon, a burly man-child from nearby Holly Springs who dominated North Carolina high school players in 2011, lead- ing Holly Springs High School to the state JULY 2012 ■ 129