A little more than three weeks ago the baseball team left Greensboro as 10-8 losers to UNC-Greensboro — a game in which N.C. State pitchers surrendered 10 hits and allowed the Spartans to put together a seven-run inning. Wednesday, though, was certainly a different story.
Greensboro only managed three hits on a warm, breezy evening at Doak Field as the Wolfpack easily won 6-0. Freshman right-hander Nate Karns started on the mound for State and threw four shutout innings, allowing just one hit, to pick up the win.
But according to coach Elliott Avent, his pregame bullpen session did not forecast the type of quality outing Karns had.
“Nate was good. He threw a lot of strikes,” Avent said. “It’s funny, though; he said his bullpen [session] wasn’t very good and he wasn’t throwing very many strikes warming up. But when he came out, everything was strikes.”
After Karns, the Pack turned to former weekend starter and redshirt junior Jeff Stallings, who pitched three innings in relief — a role with which he hasn’t had a lot of experience. After being the Sunday starter for the most of the season, Stallings, as of right now, has been relegated to the bullpen.
“As of right now I think that’s my role,” he said. “But I just want to do whatever I can to help the team.”
Against Wake Forest this past weekend, freshman Jimmy Gillheeney took Stallings’ start. But as for whether the move is a permanent one, Avent said there was no way to know.
“I don’t think anything’s permanent in a season this long,” he said. “I don’t think you can make permanent decisions. Jeff just didn’t have the velocity or the arm strength he had had before. The ball just wasn’t coming out of his hand good. So we made the move to Gillheeney last weekend.”
Avent added Karns’ midweek starting job was “not set in stone” either.
But even though the relief role may have been different, Stallings was effective in relief, going three perfect innings. A relaxed Stallings said after the game the outing was a much-needed confidence builder.
“I’ve been struggling lately with my command,” Stallings said. “But it felt good to get in a groove early, and that was a big part of it.”
With the win, State has won five of its last seven games and stands at 19-8 on the year — a far cry from the direction the team was headed in just 18 days before Wednesday’s game.
“The team’s feeling good. We’re finally starting to put it all together,” junior right fielder Ryan Pond said. “Pitching, hitting and defense are all starting to come around.”
But back on March 10, after the team lost the second game of a three-game series at home against Maryland, the Pack had dropped six of nine and frustration was setting in.
“They were very disappointed in the way they played against Maryland and Virginia Tech,” Avent said. “But I saw a different team out there tonight. They played with as much confidence as I’ve seen.”
State travels to Boston on Friday for a three-game set against Boston College (7-11-1 overall, 4-5 ACC).
“We need to go up [to Boston] and sweep,” Stallings said.