The unusually hot weather brought the Wolfpack bats to life the past two nights as the team combined to score 29 runs, helping it to sweep the two-game weekday series against Coppin State.
The Pack picked up its first win Tuesday, 11-2. Junior pitcher Brandon Price was awarded the win, his first career win at State, while sophomore first baseman Harold Riggins led the Pack offensively with two towering home runs while driving in four runs.
The offense remained hot in the second game of the series yesterday as the Pack took down the Eagles, 18-1. With the win, the Pack moves to 20-10 (5-7 in ACC) on the season and won for the fifth time in the past six games. Sophomore Mike Russo (1-0) picked up his first win of the season while Andrew Kiessling (1-3) got the loss for Coppin State. Nineteen players saw action for State as 11 Pack batters managed to get at least a hit today. The team combined for 21 total base hits.
“We have a lot of guys on the field and even on the bench that can hit,” Riggins said. “But knowing we have guys that may not start the game but have the ability to come off the bench and get a hit is a nice feeling and nice security for us.”
Redshirt junior Chris Schaeffer had a career day at the plate as he hit three homeruns and drove in six. The catcher had been struggling coming into this game but seemed to break out of his slump with a bang.
“I have been working on my swing a lot and have been in a little bit of a funk,” Schaeffer said. “I was waiting for a pitch that was there and put a good swing on it. I wasn’t trying to do too much, just hit line drives, but it just happened to be the right pitches at the right time.”
State struck first in Wednesday’s game when sophomore designated hitter Pratt Maynard drove in senior second baseman Dallas Poulk to give the Pack an early 1-0.
But the floodgates opened in the second inning for the Wolfpack offense. The team brought 15 batters to the plate and was able to score 11 runs in the inning. Schaeffer led off the inning with a solo home run and sophomore Andrew Ciencin and senior right fielder Drew Poulk continued the rally. Each player drove in three runs in the inning.
The Pack tacked on two more runs in the third inning with a two out rally when Riggins singled, which was followed up with a Schaeffer home run, taking the score to 14-0.
Schaeffer hit his third home run in the bottom of the seventh inning, giving him six RBIs on the day. The home run was the catcher’s eighth of the year and gave the Pack a 16-1 lead. Overall, Schaeffer had four hits, moving his average for the season up to .356, a dramatic improvement from years past. The catcher credits the improvements at the plate to countless hours of work since the end of last season.
“This summer I got to play a lot in the Northwest League, and I got to work a lot on my at-bats and just seeing the right pitches,” Schaeffer said. “If it is there, it’s there. If it’s not, just let it go. A lot of hard work in the fall and earlier on in the spring, and the hard work has really paid off.”
Riggins also helped led the Pack offensively in the series. He had a combined seven hits and six RBIs in the two games.
“I just saw a lot of pitches in the zone,” Riggins said. “I squared up the ball really well [Tuesday]. And then today I was just trying not to do too much and just put a good swing on the ball.”
Even though the team had a huge offensive series, the thing coach Elliott Avent was the most thrilled about was the way the team played defense in the two games. The Pack had only one error in 18 innings of baseball.
“The thing I was most proud was that we made only one error in two days and made some very nice plays,” Avent said. “We made a lot of consistent good defensive plays and made one fluke error.”
