Avent’s Army gives the baseball team the type of home-field advantage that players and coaches dream about. However, Avent’s Army once gave coach Elliott Avent nightmares.

“We’ve got that beautiful hill over there that mostly, I see little children — cause it’s a great place to slide down,” Avent said. “But my greatest fear here is for a foul ball to go over on that hill and actually hurt a child.”

But this season Avent and Wolfpack Sports Marketing combined to form Avent’s Army.

Avent had always been a big fan of the grass hill. He has wanted to get students there. “Thinking what a great atmosphere it would have if we were able to have a group of students that could be there to cheer on the Wolfpack and create that home-field advantage for us, which is something that we’ve never had before,” Chris Alston, director of sports marketing for baseball, said.

“He’d seen some other schools that had similar situations. We were able to find a sponsor with Sammy’s. We tossed around a bunch of names and Avent’s Army seemed to be the one that everyone thought went pretty good and would stick.”

Avent said he did not expect Sammy’s to name the grass hill after him.

“I told Sammy he could name it and I thought he’d name it after his restaurant,” Avent said.

“Sammy’s something. He never would tell me what he named it and then they surprised me one day when they put that up and it said Avent’s Army. I appreciate that but the main thing was to get the student body to come out here.”

Sophomore pitcher Ryan Pond described the environment of the East Carolina game, which took place on March 29.

“It was awesome man, when they start banging on those walls,” Pond said. “The place was shaking over there when the bases were loaded — I was loving it.”

Avent said it was so loud during the East Carolina game that he had trouble talking with his players.

“I could hardly talk to Caleb Mangum when he was on second base in the ninth,” Avent said. “We could hardly communicate. It gives you the atmosphere of what it’s like in big time baseball. It’s really funny, as much as the players enjoyed winning the game last night, what they were talking about in the locker room was the crowd.”

Avent said the crowd and the new atmosphere is aiding State in its home wins.

“I can’t ever remember being at a place where I think a crowd has more of an effect than they do here at N.C. State,” Avent said.

Pond believes that Avent’s Army can unnerve visiting teams.

“I know I’d be rattled if the whole place was shaking and the crowd’s going crazy. It makes them try to do a little too much,” Pond said.

Junior shortstop Jonathan Diaz added, “It’s definitely to our advantage to have them out there.”

Not only is the crowd noise a disadvantage to opposing teams, but it is fuel for State.

“We’ve got a lot of rowdy kids,” Diaz said. “That pumps us up.”

At first, some fans were concerned about the comments and the noise that Avent’s Army made.

“It’s really funny when Avent’s Army first started up. I heard some people say they are kind of loud and some of their comments are kind of rude,” Avent said. “And I thought, you know what if the whole crowd would get loud and vocal, those guys would blend in instead of being the show.”

Alston said the group brings the level of excitement up a notch during the games.

“They definitely held their own [against ECU]. ECU brought in couple bus loads of fans. There was a lot of purple and gold there,” Alston said.

“But I would definitely say our fans and especially the members of Avent’s Army did a great job of getting on the pitcher and really helping cheer the team in the comeback. They were over there banging on the mats and making a lot of positive noise.”

Pond said the State fans, especially those in Avent’s Army, live up to that standard, but in a better way.

“Clemson had a group in centerfield that was kind of negative, just trash-talking the whole time,” Pond said.

“For the most part, the Army was just making a lot of noise [against ECU], from what I could hear. I personally think making a lot of noise and cheering for us is just as good as heckling the other team,” Pond said.

The Monday nights before a weekend series, members of Avent’s Army have meetings at Sammy’s. The first official meeting was held before the Georgia Tech series.

During meetings, the members get discounts on food, talk about the upcoming series and try to come up with ideas for cheer sheets for the series. Avent also joins the group to talk Pack baseball.

“On Mondays I go to Sammy’s and meet with them. We talk about the other team coming in and talk about how they were playing and they ask me a few questions,” Avent said. “Last week I think they asked 10, 12, 15 questions and they were the best questions you’ve ever heard. So, you know we’re starting to get knowledgeable fans that not only love N.C. State, but they love baseball.”

Also, any member that attends 14 of the 19 meetings or games will be able to take part in a free cookout before the Longwood game.

Alston said there has been a good turnout at the Monday meetings.

“For the meetings, we’ve been averaging close to 100 people I would say, looking at the numbers so far,” Alston said.

Alston said as of the East Carolina game, 60%-70% of the members had been to three of the five meetings or games.

Avent’s Army member sophomore Chris Hathcock said the members of Avent’s Army have set goals to always have fun.

“Our goal is just to make an environment to where no matter what’s happening that we’re still having fun and that our baseball team knows that we’re behind them,” Hathcock said.

“Like with all these comebacks that we have, especially like when we were down 9-4 to Virginia on Saturday night, we tried to be behind the team the whole way.”

Hathcock said his favorite part of being in Avent’s Army is feeling close to the team.

“You get to meet with coach Avent every Monday before a weekend series at home,” Hathcock said. “It feels like you’re able to get closer to the team and be a part of the team and help them succeed. Whenever they’re up, you’re up; when they’re down, you’re down.”

Avent can sense that connection.

“I think it’s the neatest thing for the students,” Avent said. “They know they played a part [against ECU]. When you know you play part, you’ll come play a part again.”

Avent’s Army continued to show its support this weekend in the series sweep against Virginia.

“They’ve been coming out in droves. And I think they were proud of their school and proud of their baseball team. And I was proud of them,” Avent said.

“It’s just neat for our players to experience that. It’s the way it should be here. It’s big time college athletics; N.C. State is a big time school. They’ve got a great student body that’s really proud of where they go to school.”