How having fun allowed No. 25 NC State to surge to top of ACC after sweep vs. No. 2 Clemson

With the transfer portal creating a new-look NC State baseball team every year, adding 20 new players to the roster over the past two seasons, it can take time for the team to gel together. And that served to be the truth for the Pack this year. 

NC State skipper Elliott Avent, who is in his 29th season at the helm of his beloved program, noticed it rather quickly. He was worried about how this season would go in the weeks leading up to the opener with the number of new faces and young players in key roles. 

Would it work? Possibly. But only time would tell.

The early stages of the season weren’t very encouraging as NC State dropped five straight, littered with inconsistent hitting and defensive errors, after it opened the year with a sweep over Fordham. Within those consecutive defeats was a rather forgetful trip to the Jax Baseball Classic, where the Pack lost on three straight days and was outscored 22-6. 

It wasn’t what anyone around the program expected, but it soon became a reality. That losing streak dropped the Wolfpack’s RPI to 234th in the nation, which seemed to foreshadow an uphill battle to even make the NCAA Tournament. 

But just as some believed this wasn’t the Wolfpack’s year after its second trip to the College World Series in the last four years, Avent knew how to push the right buttons. NC State snapped its skid with nine straight wins to prepare for the heart of ACC play.

And now, the Pack is the hottest team in the league as it has won 11 of its last 12, including seven straight with a series win over then-No. 14 Louisville and a sweep at Cal in the past two weeks. Its latest series victory? Oh, just a sweep over No. 2 Clemson, outscoring the Tigers 26-8 in the process, at Doak Field this weekend. 

NC State, which seemed to play as a group of individuals in the early parts of the year, is clicking on all cylinders as it is truly operating as a collective now. 

“You tend to think this game is about you,” Avent said. “Early in the year, they were just playing for themselves, which you tend to do in this game. Now, they’re playing for one another and it’s the biggest difference in the world. You can have more fun that way when you’re not trying to think about yourself.”

Having fun is exactly how the Wolfpack’s players would describe its latest surge that has NC State at the top of the ACC standings with three league series to play. 

Smiles have been contagious throughout the winning streak, and being able to earn a marquee sweep over the Tigers was no different. Sophomore catcher Alex Sosa, who went 6-for-12 with two home runs, three doubles, five RBI and six runs scored over the three games, might have worn one of the biggest grins all weekend. 

“Anytime we come out here and play, it’s always fun,” said Sosa, who was beaming with joy as his eye black streaked on his cheeks. “To win, it makes it more special. It makes it easier to play when you win, that’s one thing that we went through from the beginning of the season. We weren’t winning and we had to find the fun in the game again. And now we’re rolling.”

The confidence that NC State may have been lacking at the beginning of the year has arrived at the right time. The Wolfpack now appears to be a team that could contend for yet another trip to Omaha, while it seemed like it was going to have to battle to even make the tournament field two months ago. Having fun with each game has seemed to make all of the difference. 

But even though NC State’s players had joy in celebrating its offensive output throughout the three-game series against Clemson, its pitching staff put together one of the most-complete weekends of the year. The Wolfpack used just six arms to silence the Tigers’ offense. 

It was efficiency that told the story on the mound. The Pack’s starters combined to go 18 innings with just seven runs allowed and 19 strikeouts, paced by sophomore lefty Ryan Marohn’s eight-inning effort in the finale, in which he allowed just one run with five strikeouts. 

And when it was time to turn the game over to the bullpen, the Wolfpack’s top three relievers did their thing to an extraordinary level. Freshman Anderson Nance, sophomore Jacob Dudan and junior Andrew Shaffner combined to toss eight innings of one-run baseball with 13 strikeouts. Dudan, the flame-throwing right-hander, didn’t need to use any of his upper 90s heat to strike out the side on Sunday. Instead, it was 12 straight sliders that sent Clemson packing in the final game. 

It all goes back to the team playing for one another. The pitchers have been able to focus on pounding the strike zone, knowing that their defense is going to back them up if they do get into trouble. It has led to consistency on the mound, an area that struggled earlier this season, and the wins have followed.

“We’re having fun together as a team,” Dudan said. “Earlier in the year after Jacksonville, we lost our confidence. But dating back to last weekend against Cal and this weekend, it looks like we’re having a lot more fun playing together.”

Finding joy in the sport has paid off for the Wolfpack. Now, it hopes that it can carry the team through the final month of the regular season before another quest to the College World Series begins.

NC State confidence is flowing at an all-time high. While the team is riding its hottest stretch of the season to reach No. 23 in the RPI rankings, the Pack is well aware they still have three more league weekends before the ACC Tournament in Durham. NC State has balanced having fun with its business-like approach. 

Avent expects that to continue. But, for now, the Wolfpack will bask in its dominant weekend — at least on Sunday before turning the page to UNCW on Tuesday.

“This is the best we’ve played all year for three games in a row,” Avent said. “It’s hard to play three games in a row. It’s not the physical thing, it’s the mental thing. … There’s not a lot of room for mistakes, and for three days in a row, we played as complete of games that we’ve played all year.”