NC State baseball in ‘playoff mode’ ahead of UNC series, final month of regular season
There are no more tune ups for the N.C. State baseball team.
The Wolfpack (29-13), fresh off a weekend sweep of Radford, is in what coach Elliott Avent calls “playoff mode” the rest of the way.
N.C. State has three weekend series remaining, starting this Friday with a visit from rival North Carolina. The Pack will play a weekend series at Duke starting May 13 and close out the regular season at home with a series against Wake Forest that begins on May 19.
N.C. State will sprinkle in single games at UNC-Wilmington (May 10) and against UNC-Greensboro (May 17).
The three ACC series, though, loom large as far as the Pack’s postseason hopes.
“We work very hard to get our RPI (Rating Percentage Index) at 30 or below 30,” N.C. State baseball coach Elliott Avent said. “That’s a really good job and you don’t want to let that slip away.”
The Wolfpack is currently at No. 26 in the most recent RPI rankings. The RPI rankings for the postseason are determined by the highest conference win percentage, most conference wins and highest overall win percentage.
N.C. State is currently No. 3 in the ACC Atlantic Division with an 11-9 league record. UNC is sixth in the Coastal (8-13). The Tar Heels are No. 37 in the RPI.
The Wolfpack had a five-game win streak in the rivalry series before UNC knocked off N.C. State in the ACC tournament in Charlotte a year ago. The Tar Heels were swept by Virginia in their last ACC series, but knocked off Liberty, 8-1, last week in Chapel Hill.
N.C. State outscored Radford 27-6 over the weekend. That series sweep came a few days after the Pack beat ECU 12-3 at home.
N.C. State isn’t peaking, but trending in the right direction down the stretch.
“I want to say we’re just figuring out who we are,” junior shortstop Josh Hood said. “Just getting that feeling; we’ve seen a lot of pitches and we know when we’re off, what we’re doing wrong, what we’re doing right. Just having that feeling after playing so many games, that’s just good to have going into this stretch.”
Hood is one of several transfers in the lineup this season. Getting those new faces accumulated was an adjustment, but it appears N.C. State has gelled during the most important part of the season.
“It’s been a huge process,” Hood said. “Looking back from the fall to now and seeing how this teams grown together; getting comfortable, knowing who we are, it’s good to get those things out of the way, especially with this big stretch coming up.”
The Wolfpack looks to position itself to make a return to the ACC title game, and hopefully follow that up with a return trip to the College World Series.
It helps that they’ll get UNC and Wake Forest at Doak Field, where N.C. State has gone 20-5 this season.
Avent, though, won’t let his team overlook UNCW and UNCG.
“I saw where Stetson pounded Miami (12-4) and Wake Forest got walked off by High Point,” Avent said. “You don’t want to have slip ups like that. Every game does become important and you approach them the same way.”
This time of the year, senior Devonte Brown explained, you can sense things changing as teams gear up for a postseason run.
“It’s starting to build up a little bit,” Brown said. “You can feel it coming. You’re just trying to do whatever you can to prepare and make sure you’re ready. Just keep everything rolling at the right time and just try to keep that momentum and that fire going.”
This story was originally published May 4, 2022 at 5:10 AM.
