Clemson Baseball: On Deck – NC State Wolfpack

Coming off a good victory against the Winthrop Eagles on Tuesday night in Rock Hill, South Carolina, the Clemson baseball gets to stay in their own beds over the weekend as they face the red-hot North Carolina State Wolfpack, winners of their last five games.

NC State is led by their long-time skipper Elliott Avent.  He has been at the school for 25 years and has built quite the program in his quarter century.  Seemingly always at or near the top of the ACC perennially.  Avent brings another exciting, fun team into Doug Kingsmore for the three game set.

NC State is currently sitting at 16-8 on the season and as stated earlier, the winners of five straight including a sweep of Georgia Tech last weekend before beating East Carolina in their mid-week tilt.

Notable about this season’s Wolfpack team is the youth that are leading the way.  All three pitchers the Tigers will see are Sophomores.  The lineup has 4 Freshmen that are everyday players along with two Sophomores and only 2 Seniors.

NC State has wins against Evansville (x3), High Point, Longwood, Quinnipiac (x3), UNC Greensboro, Elon, Florida State, North Carolina A&T, Georgia Tech (x3) and East Carolina.

The losses are to Campbell, Northeastern (x3), Notre Dame (x2) and Florida State (x2)

The Pack 9 have been ranked as high as 14 in the polls over the course of the season.  Currently unranked according to D1Baseball.com and Baseball America, but with a good showing this weekend versus the Tigers, they will likely jump right back into the mix.

NC State has used the same starting pitchers in Game 1 and Game 2 of their weekend series’ so far this entire season.  That changes this weekend when Avent has apparently decided to match-up with the Clemson starters.  The starters are as follows:

Game 1 (Friday) Sophomore – Matt Willadsen (1-1)  3.94 ERA across 6 starts and 32 innings (34 Ks; 17 BBs)

Game 2 (Saturday) RS Sophomore – Logan Whitaker (1-1) 1.25 ERA across 4 starts and 21.2 innings (20Ks; 8 BBs)

Game 3 (Sunday) Sophomore – Sam Highfill (1-1) 6.20 ERA across 5 starts and 19 innings (27 Ks; 8 BBs)

Highfill had been the normal Friday night starter for the Wolfpack, but for a reason unknown to yours truly, has been moved to the Sunday spot.  Highfill was a Freshman All-American a season ago.

If you follow college baseball at all, you will know the name Tommy White aka “Tommy Tanks” who started his college career (yes, he’s a true Freshman) with 7 home runs in his first six games.  The freshman designated hitter has “cooled off” from that torrid pace but still leads the team with 12 homers and 38 runs batted in.  Currently tied for 3rd and 6th in those respective offensive categories in the nation.  And by the way, he’s also hitting .368 with an OPS of 1.191

The rest of the regulars and their stats are as follows with notable stats in parentheses:

Senior – Centerfield – Devonte Brown – .258 BA; .912 OPS – (5 HRs; 20 RBIs)

Sophomore – 1st Base – LuJames Groover III – .369/.926 (7 Doubles; 2 HRs)

RS Junior – Shortstop – Josh Hood – .323/1.011 (6 HRs; 20 RBIs)

Senior – 2nd Base – JT Jarrett – .366/.923 (5 Doubles; 12 RBIs)

Sophomore – Left Field – Dominic Pilolli – .276/.869 (4 HRs; 17 RBIs)

Freshman – Right Field – Will Marcy – .324/.828

Freshman – Third Base – Peyton Green – .258/.779 (4 HRs; 25 RBIs)

Freshman – Catcher – Jacob Cozart – .214/.574

This NC State team scores runs, averaging 8.2 runs a game while giving up an average of 5.2.  As compared to the Tigers who are averaging 8.0 runs a game while giving up 4.5.  So the Tigers may be able to hang with the Pack if they can get the pitching that they got early in the season.

Mack Anglin has struggled his last two times out and versus Pitt and Miami, was the victim of the big fly.  This NC State team can hit the home run ball, and it starts at the top of their lineup with Devonte Brown, who has a lot of pop in that leadoff spot.  The lineup has some holes in it, but it also has a ton of band-aids as well.  The Nicks: Hoffman and Clayton have been better as of late, but Tiger fans need to hope that Anglin can get back to his early season ways for Clemson to have a chance in this series.

Prediction : NC State wins the series 2 games to 1