The past three years have brought season-ending heartbreak for the NC State baseball team and its fans. Three straight regional championship game losses in which the Pack held a lead going into the seventh inning or later will definitely break some hearts.
In 2015, the Wolfpack blew an 8-1 eighth-inning lead to TCU, losing the game 9-8. In 2016, NC State blew a 5-3 ninth-inning lead to Coastal Carolina, losing 7-5. And last year, the Wolfpack led 5-4 going into the seventh inning against Kentucky before allowing six runs in the last three innings and falling 10-5.
The ghosts of years past will certainly be haunting the Wolfpack, but this year feels different.
At this point in the season the last three years, the Wolfpack had records of 20-20 (2017), 26-11 (2016) and 21-17 (2015).
The 2016 Wolfpack team, which was ranked No. 10 in the nation at this point in the season, hadn’t faced much competition yet, going only 4-3 against ranked teams at the time. That team faded down the stretch, finishing the season 12-11 from April 23, 2017, through the end of the season.
This season’s Wolfpack team, currently ranked No. 4 in the country by D1 Baseball with a record of 31-8, has proven to be battle-tested.
The Pack has already played 10 games against ranked teams, going 8-2 against the tough competition, including a three-game road sweep of then-No. 2 Clemson. A model of consistency so far, NC State has yet to lose a single series this year, going 9-0 in its weekend series.
This year’s Wolfpack team has one of the best offenses in the nation. As a team, the Pack is hitting .303 with a .398 on-base percentage and is fifth in the country in home runs with 56.
This is the part where a “The Pack is led on offense by …” statement would typically come into play. However, the Pack is literally led on offense by … everyone. Unlike years past, where the Wolfpack has typically had a top-heavy lineup, this year’s team is strong from top to bottom.
Senior outfielder Josh McLain leads the team with a .362 batting average, junior outfielder Brett Kinneman is first on the team with 13 home runs and 45 RBIs, junior infielder Evan Edwards leads the Pack with a .446 on-base percentage and senior outfielder Brock Deatherage has been the Wolfpack’s best baserunner, leading the team with 14 stolen bases in 19 attempts.
The 2015-17 Wolfpack teams all had serious red flags throughout the season when it came to the teams’ potential in the College World Series. The 2015 team struggled through three separate three-game losing streaks. The 2016 team lost a home series to unranked Boston College, got swept by Louisville, and lost 15-3 to rival East Carolina University. The 2017 Wolfpack team sat at only .500 through 40 games of the season.
The 2018 Wolfpack has zero such red flags this year. The Pack has yet to lose consecutive games, has lost to only three teams with losing records (Boston College, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech) and has proven it can handle the big stage against big teams, going 6-1 so far against rivals UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke and Clemson.
NC State still has an abundance of difficult games left. A pair of three-game series against No. 15 UNC and No. 18 Florida State following a home tilt with No. 12 East Carolina will go a long way in determining whether or not this year’s Wolfpack team is for real. Emerge from those seven games with a winning record and the Pack will likely be looking at a top-eight national seed come College World series time.
With nine ACC games remaining, the Wolfpack sits in first in the ACC Atlantic, holding a two-game lead over Clemson, which the Pack holds the tiebreaker over. The Pack is also first overall in the ACC, one game ahead of the Tar Heels.
If the Pack is able to fend off Clemson and UNC to win the ACC, it would be the Wolfpack’s first win since 1992; eleven years before 22-season head coach Elliott Avent took over.
The fact that the Wolfpack is on the verge of history sums up the season pretty well: this Wolfpack team feels different.
