In a matchup between two teams with drastically different offensive game plans and results, it took N.C. State just four hitters to show the Terrapin baseball team exactly what’s absent from its scuffling offense.
With runners on first and second and no one out in the top of the first inning of Friday’s series opener, Terps’ third baseman Matt Murakami and first baseman Dan Gentzler, who had both been positioned deep behind their respective bases, crept forward on the infield expecting a bunt.
Instead, Wolfpack right fielder Drew Poulk swung away, crushing a 3-1 offering from Terps’ starting pitcher Eric Potter over the left field fence. Just one pitch later, Wolfpack left fielder Harold Riggins hit his own home run down the right field line to give the Wolfpack a 4-0 lead.
For the next eight innings, Potter settled down and combined with reliever Ian Schwalenberg to hold N.C. State scoreless. Only it didn’t matter, because their weak-hitting counterparts were only able to scratch together two runs in a 4-2 loss.
The rest of the weekend unfolded in a similar manner.
The Wolfpack offense belted another home run in Saturday’s 7-2 win and four more in a 22-6 win Sunday that sealed the sweep and effectively ended the Terps’ chances at a postseason berth.
“Every team we have played this season has had more physical players than us,” coach Erik Bakich said. “They put up big numbers because of their extra base hits like doubles and home runs. We try to manufacture runs, it’s why we are dead last in the power numbers but first in steals and sacrifices. This weekend we just didn’t do it well enough.”
Perhaps the weekend’s lowest point came in Sunday’s drubbing. After collecting just 11 hits in their first two losses, the whole team showed up early to take extra swings before the game.
Early on, the strategy worked. The Terps banged out 13 hits overall against five Wolfpack pitchers and jumped out to a 2-1 lead by the bottom of the second.
But they also stranded five runners in those first two innings and nine for the entire game, giving the Wolfpack an opening to come back.
N.C. State turned the small deficit into a giant lead. They scored 18 runs from the third inning to the sixth against a litany of helpless Terp pitchers.
“We just haven’t hit well all year to be honest with you,” outfielder Mike Rozak said. “We had a bunch of different chances to break the game open with runners on base and we only scored one run or two runs. It’s been a problem all year, we never get those big innings or clutch hits when we need them. And it’s bad because, aside from today, our pitching has been good.”
The disappointing results this weekend almost assured that the Terps, for the fifth straight year, will miss their goal of reaching the ACC Tournament. The sweep leaves the Terps five games behind Boston College for the eighth and final spot in the ACC Tournament.
Although they are still mathematically alive, this weekend’s performance doesn’t offer much help — or hope.
“We just got outplayed in every facet of the game. It was the worst we have played all season,” Rozak said. “We made five errors on Saturday, and you are never gonna win when you play like that. [Bakich] said we can still make the tournament, but we have dug ourselves a pretty big hole to climb out of, and he doesn’t know if we can come back. He said the only way we can is if we start playing like he knows we are capable of, so that’s what we are gonna try to do.”
lemaire@umdbk.com
