{"id":88958,"date":"2025-04-27T08:23:42","date_gmt":"2025-04-27T13:23:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/how-having-fun-allowed-no-25-nc-state-to-surge-to-top-of-acc-after-sweep-vs-no-2-clemson\/"},"modified":"2025-04-27T08:23:42","modified_gmt":"2025-04-27T13:23:42","slug":"how-having-fun-allowed-no-25-nc-state-to-surge-to-top-of-acc-after-sweep-vs-no-2-clemson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/how-having-fun-allowed-no-25-nc-state-to-surge-to-top-of-acc-after-sweep-vs-no-2-clemson\/","title":{"rendered":"How having fun allowed No. 25 NC State to surge to top of ACC after sweep vs. No. 2 Clemson"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the transfer portal creating a new-look NC State<\/a> 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

NC State skipper Elliott Avent<\/a><\/strong>, 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Would it work? Possibly. But only time would tell.<\/p>\n

The early stages of the season weren\u2019t 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t what anyone around the program expected, but it soon became a reality. That losing streak dropped the Wolfpack\u2019s RPI to 234th in the nation, which seemed to foreshadow an uphill battle to even make the NCAA Tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But just as some believed this wasn\u2019t the Wolfpack\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

And now, the Pack is the hottest team in the league as it has won 11 of its last 12, including seven straight.\u00a0Its latest sweep? Oh, just over No. 2 Clemson, outscoring the Tigers 26-8 in the process.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou tend to think this game is about you,\u201d Avent said. \u201cEarly in the year, they were just playing for themselves, which you tend to do in this game. Now, they\u2019re playing for one another and it\u2019s the biggest difference in the world. You can have more fun that way when you\u2019re not trying to think about yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having fun is exactly how the Wolfpack\u2019s players would describe its latest surge that has NC State at the top of the ACC standings with three league series to play.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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,<\/strong> 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime we come out here and play, it\u2019s always fun,\u201d said Sosa, who was beaming with joy as his eye black streaked on his cheeks. \u201cTo win, it makes it more special. It makes it easier to play when you win, that\u2019s one thing that we went through from the beginning of the season. We weren\u2019t winning and we had to find the fun in the game again. And now we\u2019re rolling.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But even though NC State\u2019s 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\u2019 offense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was efficiency that told the story on the mound. The Pack\u2019s starters combined to go 18 innings with just seven runs allowed and 19 strikeouts, paced by sophomore lefty Ryan Marohn\u2019s eight-inning effort in the finale, in which he allowed just one run with five strikeouts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And when it was time to turn the game over to the bullpen, the Wolfpack\u2019s top three relievers did their thing to an extraordinary level. Freshman Anderson Nance<\/strong>, sophomore Jacob Dudan<\/strong> and _ Andrew Shaffner<\/strong> combined to toss eight innings of one-run baseball with 13 strikeouts. Dudan, the flame-throwing right-hander, didn\u2019t 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re having fun together as a team,\u201d Dudan said. \u201cEarlier in the year after Jacksonville, we lost our confidence. But dating back to last weekend against Cal and this weekend, it looks like we\u2019re having a lot more fun playing together.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Avent expects that to continue. But, for now, the Wolfpack will bask in its dominant weekend \u2014 at least on Sunday before turning the page to UNCW on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the best we\u2019ve played all year for three games in a row,\u201d Avent said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to play three games in a row. It\u2019s not the physical thing, it\u2019s the mental thing. \u2026 There\u2019s not a lot of room for mistakes, and for three days in a row, we played as complete of games that we\u2019ve played all year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post How having fun allowed No. 25 NC State to surge to top of ACC after sweep vs. No. 2 Clemson<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the transfer portal creating a new-look NC State baseball team every year, adding 20…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88958\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}