NC State baseball coach Elliott Avent earns win No. 1,000 with Pack in win over VCU
Elliott Avent has tried to downplay it, but he can’t anymore.
The N.C. State baseball coach, in his 28th season, now has won 1,000 games with the Wolfpack.
Avent picked up No. 999 on Friday as the Pack opened the 2024 season by beating Virginia Commonwealth 6-1. The Rams then rebounded Saturday to take the second game of the three-game series, 9-6.
With the Pack leaving for three games in Hawaii, Avent badly wanted to win his milestone game before the home fans at Doak Field. The Pack got it for him Sunday, winning 5-3.
After the game, after shaking hands with the VCU players and coaches, after a handshake line with his team that included a few hugs, Avent was able to watch a video tribute shown on the scoreboard. Many former players offered their congratulations and had words of praise for their old coach, including Russell Wilson.
“I teared up a little bit,” Avent said. “This win is special, but maybe not for what somebody may think about 1,000 wins. It’s about who made the 1,000 wins. The players made those 1,000 wins.”
Garrett Pennington had three of State’s nine hits and Josh Hogue knocked in two runs for the Pack, which got a quality start and five strong innings from lefthander Ryan Marohn.
Avent took a look at three freshman pitchers in the third game -- Marohn, Jaxon Lucas and Jacob Dudan.
Marohn had some pop in his pitches, giving up two hits and fanning eight. He then turned it over to righthander Hollis Fanning.
Fanning gave up a run in the sixth and was lifted after VCU’s Nic Ericsson led off the seventh with a homer. In came Lucas, a freshman righty from Garner and former Garner standout.
Lucas was lifted with two outs in the eighth for freshman Jacob Dudan, who hit a batter but retired the side with a strikeout and pitched the ninth.
Former Wolfpack coach Sam Esposito won 513 games, three ACC Tournament titles and took the Wolfpack to its first College World Series appearance in 1968.
Ray Tanner, who played for Esposito, then won 395 games and made seven NCAA appearances in his nine years as the Pack’s coach.
When Tanner left for South Carolina, where he twice won the College World Series, Avent was hired. Avent attended NCSU but did not play for the Pack, later graduating from VCU and serving as Tanner’s assistant coach with the Pack in 1988.
Avent’s teams have not won an ACC title but twice advanced to Omaha for the College World Series, in 2013 and 2021. The 2013 team was led by two future major leaguers, Trea Turner and Carlos Rodon.
Avent, 67, raised in a farming community in Nash County, spent eight seasons at New Mexico State before getting the Wolfpack job, winning 225 games.
“I’ve always loved N.C. State,” Avent said.
This story was originally published February 18, 2024 at 4:04 PM.
