NC State’s sweep of fifth-ranked North Carolina this past weekend was the Wolfpack’s first sweep of the Tar Heels since 1997, which was Elliott Avent’s first season as head coach. Avent now holds a 25-23 record vs. North Carolina in his 15 seasons at the helm.
Avent is 16-8 vs. the Tar Heels at Doak Field at Dail Park, and 5-13 in Chapel Hill. Avent’s Wolfpack teams are 1-1 vs. North Carolina at the USA Baseball Training Complex in Cary, won a 1998 neutral-site game at Durham Bulls Athletic Park, and 2-1 in the ACC Tournament.
As a team, NC State batted .330 for the weekend. Cameron Conner and John Gianis were the Wolfpack’s leading hitters. Tarran Senay led the Pack for the weekend with four RBIs, and Brett Williams hit the team’s only home run. Williams also made the incredible catch-and-throw play in the fourth inning of Sunday’s game, turning a possible two-run triple for the Tar Heels into an inning-ending double play.
Conner batted .556 (5-for-9) with three doubles and three RBIs for the series. Gianis matched his career high for hits in a game with a 4-for-5 performance on Sunday and was 5-for-8 with a double and two RBIs for the series. Pratt Maynard was 5-for-12 (.417) with four doubles and two RBIs. Chris Diaz was 4-for-11 (.364) and scored three runs. Senay went 2-for-5 with a double and four RBIs.
The Wolfpack pitching staff posted a 4.00 ERA for the series, and starters Cory Mazzoni and Rob Chamra, and reliever Chris Overman stood out in particular.
Mazzoni allowed four runs, all in the second inning, on four hits in seven innings of work on Friday. Aside from the second inning, Mazzoni was his usual untouchable self, allowing no runs or hits in innings one, three, four and five, and one hit but not runs in inning six.
Chamra got the start on Sunday and ran into trouble just once — in the fourth — in 5 1/3 innings. Chamra retired nine of the 11 men he faced in the first three innings.
UNC put runners on first and second with one down in the fourth for Chaz Frank, whose drive into the gap in right-center looked for all the world like extra bases and two runs. Instead, Brett Williams made a lunging catch in full stride just as he reached the warning track, ran into the wall, and then turned and fired a bullet to shortstop Chris Diaz to double the lead runner off second base.
Chamra then cruised through the fifth and into the sixth before turning the ball over to the bullpen.
Overman pitched only 2 2/3 innings in the series, but got credit for a save in each of the first two games, both of which were one-run nail-biters. He walked two and struck out three.
Overman came into Friday’s game with runners on first and second and one out in the eighth inning, and set down five in a row for his third save of the year, preserving a one-run lead.
On Saturday, Overman got to the mound with runners on first and second and the Pack up three. UNC got the potential tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position before Overman recorded the final out for his fourth save and second in as many nights.
Attendance News
The series between NC State and North Carolina drew near-record crowds to Doak Field at Dail Park. Friday’s crowd of 2775 was, at the time, the fourth-largest crowd at the Doak since the ballpark was renovated in 2003-04.
Two days later, 2828 fans squeezed their way into the ballpark, making that the fourth-largest crowd in stadium history and bumping Friday’s crowd to No. 5. Had it not been for the severe weather and tornadoes that roared through the Raleigh area Saturday afternoon, the series could well have drawn more than 8000 fans, which would have made it one of the two most-attended three-game series in stadium history.
Despite the severe weather that afternoon, a crowd of 1727 came out for Saturday evening’s game. The final tally for the three games was 7330, which ranks as the third-largest attendance for a series since the stadium was renovated.
The big crowds for the series with the Tar Heels pushed attendance for the season to 29,449 through 23 dates, an average of 1280 per game.
At that pace, with 11 games remaining, NC State would draw 43,529 fans for the year, which would rank second in stadium history. The stadium record is 48,263 set in 2008. Second on the list currently is 41,846 set in 1995, the first year the ballpark had lights.
This season’s average attendance of 1280 per game, should that continue, would rank third in stadium history.
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