After a disappointing loss in its season-opening series against Elon, N.C. State (1-2) looks to bounce back this weekend as it travels to Myrtle Beach, S.C., for the Baseball at the Beach tournament. The Wolfpack will take on Pacific, California, and Coastal Carolina. The Wolfpack previously played at Baseball at the Beach in 2007 and 2010 and hopes to continue its winning ways, taking two out of three games in each of those years.

After facing a tough team in Elon, the Pack continues to take on difficult competition this weekend. Starting the weekend off with a Pacific team that won over 30 games last year, State ends the weekend with a pair of nationally-ranked programs in No. 30 Cal and No. 17 Coastal Carolina. While some coaches prefer to build confidence with wins against easier teams at the beginning of the season, head coach Elliott Avent chose to go in a different direction.

“They aren’t going to let their story be told by wins and losses,” Avent said. “We are going to learn by playing tough opponents… you can only get better through competition.”

Sophomore Josh Easley is scheduled to start Friday’s game against the Pacific Tigers. A transfer student from Weatherford College in Texas, Easley took a loss in his Pack debut, allowing seven runs on eight hits in 4 1/3 innings in the 12-2 loss against Elon. He will be facing a Tiger lineup that is hungry for its first win after being swept in its opening series by Kansas State.

Junior Cory Mazzoni will take the bump Saturday against California, a team that is ranked as high as 17th in some national polls. Mazzoni pitched well enough to get the victory in the team’s season opener, allowing four runs on eight hits in six innings. He will face a Golden Bear team that won its first two games against Utah on Sunday and narrowly defeated No. 8 Stanford on Tuesday, suffering tough 3-2 loss against the Cardinal.

Cal returns three first-team All-Pac 10 players including a pair of freshman All-Americans in pitcher Justin Jones and second baseman Tony Renda. The Golden Bears also return three more players who were named honorable mention all-league and welcome a freshman class that ranked 11th in the country, according to Baseball America. Facing some formidable lineups this weekend, Mazzoni spoke about what the pitching staff learned from the season-opening loss to Elon.

“Cutting down on some of the walks and keeping the ball down is big,” Mazzoni said. “With the new bats, we need to pound the zone.”

Looking to avenge a 6-3 loss to Coastal Carolina in last season’s edition of Baseball at the Beach, the Pack will send sophomore Danny Healey to the mound for the weekend finale against the Chanticleers. After giving up only one run on two hits in five innings of work in his first start, Healey looks to maintain State’s 10-9 all-time record against Coastal above .500.

Coastal enters the weekend with a 3-1 record and is a top-20 team in virtually every college baseball poll. The Chanticleers have won the last two games against the Wolfpack, including a 9-6 win in the Myrtle Beach NCAA regional, and are coming off a strong 2010 campaign, finishing with a 55-10 record a year ago.

The Pack came out swinging in the first game of the Elon series, putting up 17 runs, but only scored six runs in the final two games of the series. The Pack will be looking to find some consistency on offense this weekend as it tries to replace players from a 2010 lineup that was arguably the best in school history.

Sophomore infielder Chris Diaz and junior catcher/infielder Pratt Maynard look to stay hot as they paced the Wolfpack offense against Elon. Diaz went 8-12 at the plate over the weekend, including a 4-4 performance on Friday and a home run in Saturday’s 12-2 loss. Maynard has a .538 average to start the season highlighted by driving in five runs in the season-opening victory.

Despite a critical error in the 9th inning of Sunday’s game, the Pack played well defensively behind a staff that pitched well overall. They allowed 17 earned runs in 26 innings this past weekend, thanks in large part to four three-run innings. Minus those four innings, the Pack allowed only 5 earned runs in 22 innings. State’s bullpen also made 10 appearances against Elon and totaled 10 2/3 innings of work.

“The more games we play the better our offense is going to be,” Mazzoni said. “If we keep pitching and with the way our defense is playing, once the bats come around we are going to be a good team.”