Ahead of new season, Elliott Avent says NC State baseball isn’t discussing 2021 finish
N.C. State’s 2021 baseball season ended with a message in the middle of the night.
Not by a strike or a pop out to center field. But by an unseen foe that sent the Wolfpack packing, just as it was on the verge of something historic.
The 2022 team will start the season next Friday, at home against Evansville. Before the new campaign kicks off, many Wolfpack fans are still hurt by the events that unfolded last summer.
N.C. State was hitting its stride and was on the brink of the College World Series best-of-three championship. At 2:10 a.m. on June 26, the NCAA announced then that the Wolfpack’s game against Vanderbilt had been declared “a no-contest because of COVID-19 protocols.”
Over the next few days, there were more questions than answers for N.C. State. The previous night, the Wolfpack dropped a 3-1 contest to Vanderbilt while missing several players who were in COVID protocol.
The NCAA pulled the plug completely a day later. Suddenly, all the Pack worked for was gone. The NCAA was the villain. N.C. State’s baseball team became darlings. There was a huge crowd waiting for the team at Doak Field once it returned to Raleigh. A banner honoring the team as College World Series “semifinalists” hangs at the baseball stadium.
Head coach Elliott Avent and his team received a standing ovation when they were honored at a football game last season. Last year’s team suddenly became the best that never was in N.C. State history. But that’s the past, and Avent hopes to keep it that way.
“Never talked about it,” Avent said on Wednesday when asked about the ending to the 2021 season. “It’s never discussed by our players, never discussed by me. We never carry over one year to the other.”
Avent did confess that while the way things ended in Omaha isn’t discussed, he does think about it constantly.
“It’ll never get too far away from me, and I’ll never forget it,” he admitted.
Leading up to the first pitch of the 2022 season, it has been hard to avoid. Avent was asked about it multiple times on Wednesday during media availability.
It’s still a sore spot to N.C. State fans on social media. The only way to right the wrong, in the eyes of Pack fans, is to get back to the CWS. This team has a chance. The Wolfpack was picked to finish second in the Atlantic Division and is in the top 20 in three different preseason polls.
N.C. State ended last season ranked No. 3 in the USA Today and National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) polls. That was the highest finish in school history.
Avent did have to reload, with 21 new faces on the roster, including eight transfers.
Veteran players like senior outfielder Devonte Brown know it falls on the returning players to keep everyone level-headed with such high expectations.
“I think it’s just a matter of us kind of leading the way, showing guys what needs to be done and how it needs to get done,” Brown said. “And just let them know to have fun; we are still playing baseball like when we were little kids.”
And keep things hush in the clubhouse when it comes to last year. Avent said he doesn’t believe in having a chip on his shoulder or getting any kind of revenge.
“Last year is in the rearview mirror,” Avent said. “I don’t take any motivation from anything that’s wronged me in the past. The more you talk about it, the more you drag this team down.”
This story was originally published February 10, 2022 at 6:10 AM.
