RALEIGH - As N.C. State's players prepared for this weekend's NCAA baseball regional at Doak Field, they wore practice jerseys with "Omaha" stitched on the back.

Getting to that Nebraska city, home of the College World Series, has been a longtime Pack dream but a difficult destination to reach.

Only one State team -- coach Sam Esposito's 1968 club composed chiefly of North Carolina talent -- made it to the CWS, where it finished third.

That was 40 years ago, when gas was 34 cents per gallon and current State coach Elliott Avent was a 12-year-old kid "trying to figure out how to get my next bat in a cow pasture."

Now Avent is trying to figure out how to get the 38-20 Pack past a regional field that includes South Carolina, Charlotte and James Madison, the first step toward Omaha.

What are State's chances of reaching the CWS?

"I like their team,'' Esposito said. "They've got pitching. A few bounces here and there, and it could happen."

And being in Doak should help.

"We played [the regional] in Gastonia, which was almost like a home field,'' Esposito added, reeling back to 1968.

Alex Cheek, a pitching stalwart on the '68 team along with ace Mike Caldwell and Joe Frye, said this State squad bears some resemblance to his CWS team.

"We had to scrap [like they do] for everything we got,'' Cheek said. "We enjoyed playing. We had great camaraderie, and they do. I think they have a chance to do something."

Francis Combs, a catcher in '68, says the present Pack has more pitching depth, led by Clayton Shunick (2.12 ERA), and also plays solid defense. The hitting -- paced by Ryan Pond (.337) and Marcus Jones (.329) -- has vacillated between hot and cool.

Four decades ago, the Pack wasn't ranked among the pre-season ACC favorites. It had just five scholarship players, and two of the three starting pitchers were rookies.

But Cheek, a senior and one of 23 North Carolinians on the 25-man roster, compiled an 8-2 record. So did the freshmen, Frye and Caldwell, who went on to enjoy a career in the big leagues.

Offensively, All-America outfielder Steve Martin led in six statistical categories, including average (.370). Center fielder Dave Boyer (.352), freshman third baseman Chris Cammack (.351) and reserve catcher Gary Yount (.306) added more punch -- all with wooden bats.

"We had three good starting pitchers who pretty much finished [games],'' said Cammack, who later set a State season batting-average record at .429. "We had to work hard to manufacture a run or two. We were good at hit-and-run, taking an extra base, stealing a base, moving runners over."

The lineup also included first baseman Dennis Punch, second baseman Clem Huffman, shortstop Darrell Moody, center fielder and football All-America Fred Combs and his brother, Francis. The team stunned top-seeded Florida State to win the District title.

Then it was on to Omaha, where State created a bigger stir by upsetting No. 2 seed Texas and No. 3 Southern Illinois. It lost to St. John's on what Francis Combs still calls a "bad call" and to eventual champion Southern California, 2-0.

Unlike the other seven teams, the Wolfpack had just one set of well-worn, flannel uniforms, which created a laundry challenge as well.

"One of our highlights was after the third day we got to wash our uniforms,'' Cammack recalled.

While State fell short of winning it all, Esposito -- a former major leaguer -- called the College World Series "the best sporting event I've ever been to."