This weekend, the NC State baseball team will face its second ACC test at home against No. 6 Miami after being swept by Georgia Tech, another ranked team, in its first conference series.
Fresh off a 14-6 midweek victory over Campbell, the Wolfpack (3-4, 0-3 ACC) will be looking to transfer the momentum from that game into this upcoming series against one of the top teams in the country.
Miami (3-3, 1-2 ACC) has already had two big tests to start 2021, with an opening weekend matchup against Florida and three games last weekend against Virginia Tech.
Despite going 3-3 to start the season, the Hurricanes have had little trouble scoring, reaching home plate 23 times throughout the opening weekend, including 10 times in a 10-9, 13-inning thrilling victory in just its second game.
With eight RBIs, the Hurricanes are led offensively by redshirt junior outfielder Christian Del Castillo, who also marks a .333 batting average and a .375 slugging percentage with eight hits and two runs. Other leaders include freshman infielder Yohandy Morales and sophomore catcher Adrian Del Castillo. Morales leads the team in batting average and slugging percentage, slashing .370/.414/.593 in just six games, while Adrian Del Castillo also has eight hits to his name with five RBIs in 25 at-bats.
One thing to note is that the Hurricanes tend to keep the ball within the park, hitting only two home runs as a team in its first six games.
Likely to be Friday’s starter for Miami is junior pitcher Daniel Federman, who has a 7.84 ERA in just 10.1 innings of action. Federman already has 14 strikeouts and just one walk to his name to begin the season, but he’s struggled giving up hits early.
Freshman pitcher Alejandro Rosario could take the ball to start Saturday. He has been the most consistent piece for the Hurricanes pitching-wise with a 1.64 ERA in 11 innings pitched along with 11 strikeouts.
The Pack will need to take advantage of the possibility of scoring early, especially seeing as it has had trouble giving up runs in the later part of games.
In its last matchup against Campbell, NC State had a shutout until late in the eighth inning when the Camels were able to score five runs with two outs and another run in the ninth. This was also a problem against UNC-Greensboro, when the Wolfpack gave up six runs in the seventh inning and three runs in the ninth, handing the Spartans a 16-13 victory.
Offensively, NC State seemed more like its typical self in the matchup against Campbell, plating 14 runs on 11 hits. A notable leader of the Pack this season is sophomore catcher Luca Tresh, who is slashing .464/.516/1.143 with six home runs, which is tied for third in the entire NCAA.
The first pitch of the series is scheduled for Friday, March 5 at 3 p.m. with the following games on Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. Tickets are not currently available to the public, but all games will be broadcast on the ACC Network, and you can follow @TechSports on Twitter for updates throughout the weekend.
