© NCSU Student Media
Freshman Cameron Conner slides safely back into first after getting caught trying to steal second base in the game against Santa Clara Feb. 22. The Pack will face Virginia Tech this weekend in its fourth ACC series of the year. The Pack is 3-6 in the ACC while V.T. has a 2-6 conference record.
The Wolfpack is looking to put Wednesday’s blowout loss to Liberty behind and prepare for a big series against the Virginia Tech Hokies this weekend. The Pack, 13-11(3-6 in ACC), will play the Hokies, 14-8(2-6 in ACC), in the first game of the three game series tonight at 6:30 p.m. at Doak Field. The remaining games are Saturday at 2:00 p.m., and Sunday at 1:30 p.m. The Pack, who hold the series lead versus Virginia Tech 7-4 since they entered the conference, are desperate for some momentum this series is in important one that can have huge implications for the rest of the season.
“It’s huge, we need to have a big weekend, for team moral, our standings in the ACC, even for a regional,” junior Wade Moore said. “This weekend is huge.”
Coach Elliott Avent said he believes this is the series in which he will see what this team is actually made of and will also show what he will get from the team the rest of the year.
“It’s definitely going to be a gut check time. We need to see if there is any fight to us or if we are just going to let what happens, happen,” Avent said. “There is a serious gut check time for N.C. State baseball to see what we are made of.”
Avent said he belives the struggles the Pack has gone through this year, at this point, are due to the absence of a leader on the team, or a player who steps up when they need to and rally the team.
“There is something in this game when things arent going your way, some people step up and turn things around and say I’m not going to continue to do this. It’s a mental thing, people step up and say this is not the way we play ball at N.C. State but nobody has stepped up,” Avent said. “We can line out and hit balls hard and feel sorry for ourself or we can step up and turn things around.”
After taking two out of three at Wake Forest last weekend and beating UNC-Greensboro Tuesday the team thought it had gone through the worst of its struggles, but Wednesday’s loss to LIberty seemed to be proof this was not the case.
“It’s a very big series for us. We need to turn it around. We thought we had it kind of turned around right there for a second. We won a couple games and we thought we were good again,” junior Dallas Poulk said. “We thought [the Liberty game] was just another game but it was defiantly not like that, and hopefully this weekend we can turn it around.”
But even after the big loss, Moore said this is a time when the team can learn and move forward.
“You can only do so much now, you need to look back at it, learn from it and try to take away some positives and something’s you can improve on,” Moore said. “Dwelling on it is certainly not going to put us at an advantage.”