The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/80446
International PASTIME Two Wolfpack Standouts Spent Their Summer Traveling With USA Baseball H BY BRUCE WINKWORTH ave a good summer vacation? Get to travel and see the sights? Well, odds are that as interesting as your summer may have been, Trea Turner and Carlos Rodon can top it. Easily. Turner and Rodon, who earned All- America honors as freshmen playing for NC State this spring, spent the summer with USA Baseball's Collegiate National Team. Beginning the day they reported to USA Baseball's National Training Com- plex in Cary on June 23 and running un- til the end of Honkbal-Haarlem Baseball Week at Pim Muller Stadium in Haarlem, The Netherlands, on July 22, they experi- enced a month-long whirlwind of hotels, bus rides, team meetings, airplane flights, jet lag, practices and games in three coun- tries and two hemispheres. "It was really long and really tiring," said Turner, the Wolfpack's third baseman and leadoff hitter in 2012. "I'd say the perfect word would be a grind." Rodon, the Wolfpack's consensus first-team All-American left-hander, and Turner, a third-team All-American, both made significant contributions to Team USA's 12-5 record, which included games in the USA, Cuba and The Netherlands, and culminated with Honkbal-Haarlem Week in The Netherlands. Turner batted .320 and led the team with a .493 on-base percentage, 16 runs scored and 10 stolen bases. He slugged .380 and was second on the team with a .873 OPS (on- base percentage plus slugging percentage). He mostly played second base, but also saw action at shortstop, third base and left field. Rodon was 2-0 with a 1.42 ERA. Both of his victories came against Cuba, an in- ternational juggernaut comprised almost entirely of potential major leaguers. Three of Rodon's five appearances were starts, and he allowed 17 hits, struck out 21 and walked seven in 19 innings. Team USA reported to Cary and head coach Dave Serrano of Tennessee on June 23, two weeks to the day after the Wolf- pack's 2012 season ended. Following a day of meetings and a practice on June 24, Team USA jumped on a bus for three games in three days against Coastal Plain League clubs, followed by a home game in Cary against an all-star team from the Carolina-Virginia Collegiate League. "Those were some long bus rides," Trea Turner batted .320 with a .493 on-base percentage, 16 runs scored and 10 stolen bases in a month of games this summer for USA Baseball's Collegiate National Team. PHOTO COURTESY BRIAN FLEMING PHOTOGRAPHY 58 ■ THE WOLFPACKER Rodon said. "We played this game called Mafia on the bus and it got pretty rowdy and loud at times. That's how we got to know each other and built team chemistry." Team USA next participated in four games at the Prospect Classic, which took place from June 30-July 3 at Durham Bulls