After a successful 2-1 trip to Myrtle Beach for the “Baseball at the Beach” Tournament, the NC State Wolfpack baseball team returns to Raleigh for two mid-week games against Morehead State and St. John’s to open its home slate.
The Wolfpack started slowly over the weekend, losing its opening game 5-0 to the Old Dominion Monarchs as the bats went cold, and the pitching staff struggled to get on track in the cold weather.
The team turned it around quickly by defeating No. 24 Coastal Carolina and Kent State to earn a winning record for the weekend. The bats awakened, scoring 20 runs over the final two games.
The starting pitchers also struggled, as redshirt junior Johnny Piedmonte and sophomore Brian Brown both failed to reach three innings. Sophomore right-hander Joe O’Donnell rescued the team on Sunday by going into the sixth inning before being pulled. He earned a no-decision for the outing.
The Wolfpack welcomes Morehead State (3-0) on Tuesday, a team that earned a clean three-game sweep of North Carolina Central in Durham this past weekend. Morehead State controlled the series from the beginning, earning a 4-1 win on Friday and bludgeoning North Carolina Central 24-4 on Saturday.
The Eagles were led by freshman catcher Hunter Fain and redshirt junior infielder Alex Stephens who combined for 11 hits and six RBIs. In total the Eagles tallied 44 hits on the weekend and the Wolfpack pitching staff will be pressed to try and keep the Eagles off the board after a rough weekend in Myrtle Beach.
Following its matchup with the Eagles, the Wolfpack faces the St. John’s Red Storm at Doak Field. St. John’s finished the series 1-2, losing two games in which it gave up 14 and 16 runs. It rebounded Sunday to defeat Western Carolina 14-3 to salvage the weekend.
It will be interesting to see who gets the nod on the mound for the Wolfpack this week, after Piedmonte, Brown and O’Donnell started games this weekend and appear to be locked into the weekend rotation.
Candidates to start include junior right-hander Cory Wilder, who started 14 games for the Wolfpack last season, notching a 2-5 record with a 3.50 ERA. His pitching embodied his name — wild. Wilder allowed 59 walks in 64.1 innings last season, and that may have been the reason he was excluded from the weekend rotation.
Another candidate for the rotation is junior left-hander Ryan Williamson, who started seven games last season and finished with a 4-4 record and a 5.17 ERA on the season.
The Wolfpack bats will have to be working again this week to keep up the winning streak for the Wolfpack as head coach Elliott Avent puts his pitching staff together.
