After Monday night’s defeat at the hands of Kentucky, the NC State baseball team, for the third time in three years, lost in the regional final of the NCAA tournament after holding a lead in the seventh inning or later.
In what has been a series of heartbreaks for the Pack, head coach Elliott Avent and his squad just haven’t been able to get over the hump and advance to the super regional in recent years.
In 2015, the Wolfpack was awarded a two-seed in the Fort Worth regional. The team then went on to defeat Stony Brook in the opening game and then defeated Texas Christian University, a national seed and the No. 1 seed in the regional. Just one win away from the super regional, the Pack fell 8-2 in the first game to set up a rematch with the Horned Frogs.
In the decisive game of the 2015 regional final, NC State led TCU 8-1 in the eighth inning. The Horned Frogs would take advantage of a Wolfpack meltdown in the bottom of the eighth, which included three errors, a balk and a passed ball to pull within one run of the Pack. TCU would end up forcing extras and winning 8-9 to advance to the super regionals and eventually the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament.
While 2015’s meltdown left the team with a bitter taste in its mouth, Avent’s squad returned several key players in 2016, and everything seemed to click. After a 35-20 regular season, the Pack was rewarded by being selected to host a regional. After splitting its first two contests, NC State topped Coastal Carolina 8-1 to force a winner-take-all game to see who would advance to a super regional.
The Wolfpack led 5-3 heading into the top of the ninth with a chance to advance to the super regional with just three more outs. As the NC State faithful know, things took a turn for the worst as Coastal managed four runs that inning with an untimely rain delay sprinkled in. The Chanticleers were even down to their last strike against the Pack, but junior former reliever Evan Brabrand hit Coastal pinch hitter Tyler Chadwick with a pitch, keeping the game going and allowing Coastal to rally for the win. The Chanticleers would go on to win the NCAA Championship.
Again returning several key players from the 2016 squad, the 2017 Wolfpack baseball team seemed primed to avenge the previous two letdowns in the regional finals. The team returned multiple key starters and was ranked sixth by D1 Baseball heading into the season.
Due to injuries and inconsistency, the team struggled to start off the season, bottoming out after a sweep at the hands of the last-place Boston College Eagles that left its overall record at 20-20. The Wolfpack then went on a tear, winning 14 of its next 17 contests going into the NCAA Tournament. In similar fashion to 2015, the third-seeded Pack won its first two games, defeating Indiana and then one-seed Kentucky, needing just one more win to advance to the elusive super regional.
NC State would go on to lose both matchups against Kentucky, leading to a similarly heartbreaking elimination. With the Wolfpack entering the 7th up 5-4 in the final game Monday night, the Wildcats plated six unanswered runs to win 10-5, aided by several unforced errors from the Pack.
Three straight years of being just one win away is hard to swallow for any program. 2017’s team seemed to be getting hot at just the right time, only to be stopped by a resurgent Kentucky program. 2016’s squad may have been the most talented, and in 2015, an unprecedented meltdown led to NC State’s defeat.
This is not to say Avent’s team hasn’t been without postseason success. In 2013, NC State made the College World Series and even managed to defeat UNC-Chapel Hill in the opening game.
If the metric of success is getting into the super regional, the bar has been set high.
But after the taste of finally prevailing in 2013, the past three results have been tough for the program.
This program has the talent and the coaching to make it. The team has experienced a lot of success in recent years, and maybe, just maybe, it can finally get over the hump next year.
