First-Pitch Weekend: Pack Baseball Season Opener Set For Friday

 RALEIGH, N.C. — Ready or not, the college baseball season is here. NC State will open the 2007 campaign Friday at Doak Field at Dail Park with the first game of a three-game set against William & Mary. Game times are 2 p.m. on Friday, 2 p.m. on Saturday and 1:30 p.m. on Sunday.

With only three starting position players back from last year’s 40-23 NCAA Regional squad, a rash of injuries, and a flu bug working its way through the locker room, the Wolfpack may not be as ready for the season opener as head coach Elliott Avent would like. But ready or not, the season kicks off on Friday.

“We’re really banged up right now,” Avent said earlier this week. “I don't recall any preseason since I’ve been here when we’ve had so many key players hurt.”

The news is not all bad for Avent and the Wolfpack. The pitching staff, which suffered from key injuries a year ago to starters Andrew Brackman and Jeff Stallings, welcomes both starters back fully healthy.

Brackman was 4-0 with a 2.09 ERA as a freshman in 2005, and NC State won all 10 games in which he appeared. He wobbled through a frustrating 1-3, 6.35 season a year thanks to a stress fracture in his left hip. Stallings was 5-3 with a 3.48 ERA as a sophomore in 2005, but missed all of last season after elbow surgery in June 2005.

“We certainly missed Andrew Brackman and Jeff Stallings last year, and it’s great to have them both back and pitching well,” Avent said. “Andrew came back in the fall after pitching on Cape Cod and with Team USA and pretty much hit the ground running. He proved he was over the stress fracture and had a strong fall for us. With Jeff, because of the surgery, we brought him along a little slower to build up his stamina and get his legs under him a little bit. He’s ready to go.”

The pitching staff will certainly be more than Brackman and Stallings. Much more. Sophomore lefthander Eric Surkamp (2-3, 5.10) and junior righthander Eric McConnell (7-6, 4.50) return from last year’s rotation, and the bullpen returns three tested set-up men in righthanders Kyle Rutter (2-0, 2.18), Joey Cutler (1-2, 1.93) and Joel Brookens (1-1, 3.41). Rutter and Cutler as redshirt-sophomores, while Brookens is a junior.

McConnell moves to the bullpen this season as the closer, and four talented newcomers are ready to assume key roles. Freshman lefthander Jimmy Gillheeney was a high school All-American last year at Bishop Hendricken High School in Providence, R.I., and is one of the Wolfpack’s most polished pitchers, throwing four pitches for strikes. He figures to start the season as the team’s midweek starter.

Another freshman, righthander Sam Brown from Raleigh’s Millbrook High School, was a seventh-round draft pick by the Nationals last June. He will begin the year in middle relief, but could challenge for the midweek starting job before the year is done.

A third freshman, righthander Nate Karns, was the Houston Astros’ 10th-round draft pick in 2006, but might have gone as high as the first round had he not made a strong commitment to college, first at Texas and then at NC State when Texas released him from his grant-in-aid. Karns will pitch at the back end of the bullpen and will be groomed to take over the closer’s role in the future.

Sophomore righthander Clayton Shunick led Georgia State’s pitching staff last year with 94 2/3 innings, 14 starts and 69 strikeouts. He went on to have a standout summer in the Cape Cod League, earning a berth on the league all-star team after posting a 4-5 record with a 2.21 ERA. Shunick will see time in middle and late relief, but also could contend for a starting job in time.

One other returning pitcher from last year, sophomore lefthander Andrew Taylor, had as strong a fall as anyone on the staff this side of Brackman. Taylor struggled through just 9 1/3 innings a year ago, but has the talent to be a major contributor.

“This has a chance to be the best pitching staff we’ve had at NC State, at least in the 11 years I’ve been here,” Avent said. “We have quality and depth, lefthanders and righthanders, veterans and rookies. We can give a team several different looks. Our pitching should take a lot of pressure off of our offense.”

Three times a year ago, NC State scored 10 runs or more in a game and lost. The Wolfpack lost six games in all in which it scored at least six runs. This year’s pitching staff gives the offense a much greater margin of error. NC State scored in double figures 25 times in 2006 and won 22 of them, accounting for 55 percent of the team’s 40 victories.

“We’ve had to go out and just outscore people so many times in the past because we haven’t always had the depth on our pitching staff to keep other teams from scoring,” Avent said. “This year, our hitters know that most games they won’t have to score in double digits.”

Only four NC State teams ever scored more runs than the 538 runs the Wolfpack put on the scoreboard a year ago, and no NC State team collected more hits than last year’s total of 767. With only three starters back from last year’s lineup, this year’s club is not likely to approach those numbers, which ranked among the national leaders.

Despite having reduced firepower, though, Avent looks for his team to score plenty of runs in 2007. In particular, he will be very disappointed if this team doesn’t play the little game better than last year’s.

“We’ll be a different kind of offense,” Avent said. “I think we’ll do some things better than we did a year ago. We have some guys who can handle the bat pretty well. I expect we’ll bunt better, execute better on hit-and-run plays, and hit better with runners in scoring position, especially with two outs. I thought we should have done a much better job of that last year. We left a lot of runners in scoring position last year.”

Junior second baseman Ramon Corona earned third-team All-America honors as a sophomore a year ago, when he batted .353 with 19 doubles, five triples, six home runs, 57 RBIs and nine steals in 11 attempts. He returns at second base, but the rest of the opening-day lineup will have fans scrambling for game programs.

The lineup and defense took a significant blow a few weeks ago when senior catcher Caleb Mangum went down with a shin injury that will sideline him for several weeks. Mangum batted .354 with four home runs and 34 RBIs a year ago, while playing superlative defense. He figures as one of the top defensive catchers in the nation. In his absence, freshman catchers David Lindsay and Nate Cockman will get the bulk of the playing time behind the plate.

“Caleb means so much to our team and we’ll miss him while he sits out, but we need to get him healthy and ready to play,” Avent said. “You don’t like to play freshmen at catcher, but we’ve done it at times in the past. David Lindsay and Nate Cockman have worked hard and will have to continue to work hard and show improvement.”

The other returning starter in the lineup is junior outfielder Ryan Pond, who moves from left field to right this year. Pond, who batted .340 in 38 games as a freshman in 2005, hit a solid .288 with nine doubles, three homers and 36 RBIs in full-time duty a year ago.

The rest of the lineup will be new. Sophomore Jeremy Synan got 52 at-bats last season and hit .288 with a homer and 15 RBIs. He has been one of the team’s top hitters in the preseason and should get the nod in left field. Sophomore Marcus Jones hit .289 in 45 at-bats a year ago and will be the starter in center field.

The infielders flanking Corona will all be newcomers. Tommy Foschi earned a reputation as a top juco defender at Arizona Western last year and will be the starter at shortstop. Sophomore Drew Martin, who got extensive playing time at third base late last season, has pushed Foschi hard for playing time, but a recurring shoulder injury has set Martin back and may relegate him to a utility role to begin the season.

Senior Ryan Howard hit .358 with 12 homers and 37 RBIs at Tarleton State in Carrollton, Texas, a year ago, and has battled junior Joe Florio for the starting job at third base. Florio, who played as a freshman two years ago at Virginia, transferred to NC State from Indian River (Fla.) Community College in January.

At first base, Redshirt-sophomore Pat Ferguson batted .405 with 12 doubles, five homers and 26 RBIs in 39 games at Saddleback (Calif.) Community College last season. Mike Roskopf helped lead Yavapai (Ariz.) College to the NJCAA Junior College World Series in 2006 by hitting .347 with 27 doubles, one triple, seven home runs and 57 RBIs in a league that exclusively used wood bats. Ferguson and Roskopf have battled for the nod at first base, with Howard also seeing time there.

Senior Vince Gutierrez and freshman Dallas Poulk give the Wolfpack depth up the middle. Gutierrez was an all-conference player at Canada (Calif.) Junior College and transferred to NC State after spending the 2006 season at Siena College. Poulk was an all-conference infielder at Pine Forest High School in Fayetteville. Poulk also has seen time in center field.

Junior Matt Payne and freshman Wade Moore give the Wolfpack depth in the outfield. Payne, who has given the Wolfpack 50 2/3 innings in 31 appearances on the mound over the last two seasons, has proven to be a capable outfielder and hitter. Moore earned all-state honors at West Rowan High School three years in a row.