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A Podcast Dedicated Entirely to NC State Baseball #Pack9
Cal Parker (00:07)
Good evening and welcome to episode seven of the pack Homer podcast brought to you by Waters and Mathis CPAs. If you want to run rule the IRS, visit wmcpas .com. And speaking of run rules, we got run rule today. All right. So before we talk about this week's action, we do got some exciting news.
Adam Lytch (00:27)
whisper.
Cal Parker (00:35)
How about the Pac basketball team? And this is a baseball podcast, but me and Adam actually made the trek to Washington DC this weekend last minute. I saw the Wolf Pack win a ACC title in basketball for the first time since 1987. I had my children there. Man, it was awesome.
Adam Lytch (00:59)
We were talking about it. We were talking about it last last week, I guess about favorite NC State baseball moment. And so my favorite NC State baseball moment was going to watch the pack beat the heels in Omaha at the College World Series. But that was also my I would say my favorite NC State moment, like just NC State sports moment. But that last night. So I've got a new number one that that eclipsed it. So.
Cal Parker (00:59)
Ha, whoop.
Adam Lytch (01:28)
But yeah, just awesome, man. Like, like Cal said, we had a great last minute trip. I took my oldest daughter and man, just, just so special. Somebody in the stands, uh, as we were kind of shuffling down near the, near the court to be closer to the, uh, the, after the game presentation was helping her over the seats and said, uh, said something like young lady says, uh, you'll remember this moment for the rest of your life. And I was like, dang, that's awesome, man.
Cal Parker (01:52)
you
Adam Lytch (01:58)
So, but yeah, that was, that was the exciting part of weekend. And I feel like I should probably go ahead and disclose the fact that, that last week, uh, I'll go ahead and make the, uh, make the plea that I did say that I would, I would take a couple of baseball series sweeps if it meant we won the NCAA tournament basketball. So.
I'll go ahead and put the blame squarely on me because that, that part of it, I guess that's part of the paid the piper a little bit this weekend.
Cal Parker (02:32)
And Wesley, you said you watched the game at a sports bar in Wilmington and amongst Carolina fans, turkutery boards and fine wine, was that right?
Wesley Wilson (02:42)
Yeah, just like you would imagine, I'm a poor fan. I didn't make the trip. I should have made the trip, but I did not make the trip. We went to a local sports bar, slice of life here in Wilmington. And at the end of the game, noticeably during the game, which wouldn't surprise most of Pac Nation on here, the majority of the Carolina fans, they were ordering Caymus wine. They had...
They had their bottle of Caymus out and, you know, as a state fan until the clock says zero, zero, zero, you know, don't want to have too much confidence, but I requested the bartender to pay for them to have a whole bottle of wine sent to them from me, you know, at the discouragement of my wife, but they walked out before I could get that to them. So it was a...
I didn't get to have the experience like you guys in person, but did enjoy the celebration for the first ACC title of my lifetime, which is 36 years, sad to say.
Cal Parker (03:55)
So yeah, I took my wife and my two kids up and Man, my wife said that's the quietest I've ever seen you for the whole second half and I had people texted me Congratulations with like a minute 11 to go in the game 47 seconds to go in the game. I'm like guys it ain't no and I don't know if you guys watch the last minute man We do that thing all over the place. I was like I've seen the end of this movie too many times. I
Wesley Wilson (04:15)
You
Yeah, and we're the baseball podcast, but the against Duke when Middlebrooks received the technical foul for missing the Duncan hanging on the rim in my mind, I said this, I have to find a new hobby. I cannot continue to do this. Like this is unhealthy. But thank God we pulled that out.
Adam Lytch (04:25)
Yeah.
Cal Parker (04:25)
Uh -uh.
Me and my daughter actually got invited to go on the court before the game. I don't know if any of you follow us on at pack home or pod on Instagram. I think we posted it, but they called us down there. Someone said, how did you get picked to go on the court? And I really don't know. The ACC network people came up to us and just said, Hey, look, we want you to jump my daughter. We want you to jump up and down and scream when, when your dad hollers wolf pack. So we just went down there and, uh,
lit it real up, she'll definitely remember that the rest of her life. She said she was nervous until she got off the court. But it was really cool. So gosh, congratulations to the basketball team. All the fans out there are basketball fans that stuck it out, you know, through thick and thin. They deserve it. And definitely congratulations to Coach Keats, who's taken a lot of fire. You know, whether you...
believe rightfully so or not, he's definitely been under the microscope the last three or four months or so. And man, got the monkey off the back for the entire men's athletic department. That was just, that was really cool. All right, let's switch it over to baseball. I will say that on my trip to DC and back, I actually got to watch all 18 innings. My wife had it on the...
I had to pull it up on the ESPN app in the truck and was playing it through the speakers. And so I did get to watch, well, not watch, listen slash watch yesterday and today's game. And then of course we watched the game Friday afternoon. But before we talk about this weekend's debacle, I was going to let Wesley give us a rundown of the other ACC scores because we are firmly into ACC baseball season now.
Wesley Wilson (06:44)
Yeah, so Link Jared and Tallahassee, they swept Notre Dame. Those guys are 18 and 0, so quite a remarkable turnaround from what they had last year. And I don't think any of us three are any surprised that once he took that job that it would be a pretty quick turnaround. Wake Forest lost their second series in a row in Charlottesville, which I would say is a surprise. Clemson won their series in Durham.
So Duke dropped the series after they beat Wake last weekend. Virginia Tech took two or three at Louisville. Boston College took two or three at Pittsburgh. And surprisingly, and I'm not sure if the guy who pitched the first game in that series, the Pits Against Us, he played, he pitched really well. So I'm not sure, Pitt actually won the first game in that series, but BC took it. Miami won two out of three against Carolina. So kind of a rough weekend for...
the crowd out in Chapel Hill. NC State, of course, we took three on the chin, not even close, rough. We'll talk more. And that was the ACC series of the weekend.
Cal Parker (07:57)
Yeah, just to give you an overview where we're at. So we're in the Atlantic, obviously in Florida State, South Florida three and a star Clinton two and one. We're actually third in the league on our side at three and three. And then you got Boston college at two and four Wake Forest, the preseason number one at two and four Louisville at one and two Notre Dame is oh and six. I think that was a series Adam said he looked forward to after last week. And then on the other side, Georgia Tech's three and out after sweeping us and then.
Virginia Tech sitting at five on one, UNC at four and two, Miami at four and two, Virginia and Duke each at three and three, and Pitt at one and five. So in the ACC, if you get to the other side of the thing, after all 30 games, if you're 500, you're almost guaranteed to be a tournament team as tough as our league is. But it's not gonna get any easier for us.
coming up this weekend, but first let's just talk about the whole week and I know that we just lost three to Georgia Tech, we're gonna talk about that some more, but my gosh, Greensboro this week just absolutely, what was that? What was that? It's not that we lost a midweek game, you lose midweek games. What was the final in that Adam, are you looking at that or?
Adam Lytch (09:19)
Hey, Hey, 18 to three. I was watching it.
They scored 19 runs. Greensboro did this weekend. They played at USF, the Bulls. One, two of three down there, but they scored 19 runs this weekend. Scored 18. We scored 18 against us Tuesday night. Nine of them being in the top of the ninth, which was just an absolutely debacle. I think Cozart hit two. He hit two on runs.
Cal Parker (09:54)
Yeah, brother Kozart, yeah, left the R twice.
Adam Lytch (09:56)
Yeah. Yeah. One of them, I think it was him. I can't remember now. There were so many balls flying out of the dope. Uh,
of them, there was like bases loaded and there was a pass ball and then he hit a three run home run the next pitch or something or two pitches later. But, uh, guy kind of got cheated out of what would have been a grand slam, but yeah, it was, uh, it was brutal. Tuesday night was brutal. I think we threw, um, Cooper consiglio started for us. Um, but had a lot of guys come in. Um, I was feeling a little bit better. Uh,
I think my role was it? Yeah. My role came in and looked really good. Uh, struck out two in a row. And then I think another guy at the top of the following inning. Um, but you know, I get it mid sea, uh, you know, mid week games or you're obviously running the guys, a lot of guys out there getting a lot of guys, you know, an inning worth of work.
Um, we ended up with, uh, only five walks, um, against, uh, UNC Greensboro, which didn't seem so bad considering that, that they just absolutely lit us up and hit us up for 17 earned runs. So.
Cal Parker (11:16)
Yep, 17 runs on, 17 runs on 16 hits. Um, consignor actually came out cruising earlier in that game too. And then, and then I don't know if you guys remember Noah solos dropped the fly ball. It was windy. The sun was in kind of a factor. Uh, Kozark struggled terribly to just to catch the ball early in the game. Guy we're talking about the first round draft. Okay. And you know, obviously one of the best defensive catches in the country. He struggled catching the ball. Uh, Adam mentioned that ball.
Adam Lytch (11:17)
Oh man.
He did.
Yeah.
It was a.
Cal Parker (11:46)
to the backstop.
Adam Lytch (11:47)
Yeah, there's like four, I think there's like four balls that got by him. Now, obviously one of them was, you know, over his head and a wild pitch, but it kind of, you know, it was a ball he probably could have called, you know, but it was a little high, but the, the other three were, yeah, it looked kind of bad. There was the shadows real goofy, um, with the time change and that sort of thing, you know, but yeah, it was, it was, it was, it tough. It was tough to watch.
Cal Parker (12:10)
And I kind of felt like when Consiglio came out looking so good, I felt like the winner came out of his sails as soon as Solos dropped the ball in right field. I think that when that happens and you're young and you get a little adversity, you react to it one or two ways. And obviously, normally juniors and seniors tend to react to a little better than freshmen. And the wheels kind of came off, they scored 18 runs against 10 pitchers.
They only scored in three innings of the ballgame. They scored six in the second, three in the third, and then that nine run night. But 18 to three, let's not talk about it anymore. 18 to three at Greensboro is unacceptable, no excuses. There's just no way around it. You can't lose 18 to three to UNC Greensboro. We talk about recruiting advantages that some of our neighbors have against us. UNC Greensboro is not one of those.
Adam Lytch (12:46)
you
Cal Parker (13:09)
They can't out recruit us. Our facility should be better. We play in the ACC. All right, let's move on. All right.
Wesley Wilson (13:15)
Well, I think one thing is, Clemson lost a similar type midweek game to Kennesaw State this year. But I think the disappointing situation for us is we didn't respond this weekend. We went out and got cursed on by UNCG, and then we didn't show up this weekend in Atlanta. So that's where we're at. It happens. Midweek games, they happen.
Cal Parker (13:33)
You
Wesley Wilson (13:43)
It gives you a chance to respond and we didn't respond this weekend. So.
Cal Parker (13:48)
Yeah, Clemson sitting at 17 and two now. So yeah, like you said, yeah, maybe the score is not as bad as just the fact we didn't respond with. All right, let's get to Friday's game. Friday, Sam Highfield comes out. I mean, I thought he gave us a pretty good effort through five innings. We go into the sixth inning with a four, two lead. Things are looking okay. Pennington hit a home run early in the game.
It's a game where they only had eight hits we had eight hits but just hit you know Highfield hits the wall gives up home run. They busted open with four in the they get three in the fifth and they get four more in the six and it goes from a I'm sorry, we were up two to one and they go up four to two and then they turn it into a
Eight to three in a hurry and we get two in the night. But anyway, eight five game. Any thoughts on that one fellas? Game that we brought Hollis fanning in the pitch after highfield, highfield through 90 pitches in five minutes.
Wesley Wilson (14:58)
Amen.
Yeah, I mean, I think that high field pitch well enough to win. That's all you could ask for. He pitched well enough to win and, and you know, we didn't. Uh, they're right fielder, which I didn't, I don't have his name. The right fielder made three or four incredible plays and you know, the Burris freshmen, he might be one of the, the, the best, uh, not just freshmen. I mean, baseball players, kids, unbelievable. Um, you know, I sent Burt.
Cal Parker (15:13)
Okay.
Adam Lytch (15:19)
you
Cal Parker (15:29)
He's the center, Burris is the center fielder. Right fielder is Parker Brogess is the name.
Adam Lytch (15:29)
Who's the right filter, isn't he?
Wesley Wilson (15:35)
Yeah, I mean, they just, I mean, Georgia Tech made every play and, but I mean, they took away some runs and, you know, I feel like we didn't really get any breaks this weekend, but I mean, if we're going to talk about the baseball game, then the Burris kid, my God, I mean, is there any play that he couldn't make, you know, and I guess we just start intensely walking him and.
Adam Lytch (15:35)
Okay.
Oh yeah.
Wesley Wilson (16:02)
You know, we had we had the guy a couple years ago that was hitting all the home runs, which that's what Burris is doing. But but this guy, he can run, he can feel he can hit home runs. He's he's he's better than anybody else on the field.
Cal Parker (16:17)
I'm angry. We talked about it last week. The guy had 30 some home runs in the year in high school. He's unbelievable. And he was the best player on the field. And then unfortunately we'll talk about it some more game two and three. Peyton green hits home run in that game. And for whatever reason, Peyton green can fill the ball now play three games this weekend. Didn't make an error. Uh, and, and, and honestly, he just works out at the plate. Uh, I think game one, he, he goes two for four with a home run, uh, game two, um,
looks like in game two, he was two for four again. So yeah, on to game two, we started Whitaker. Whitaker threw the ball good. I mean, he threw the ball really good. I thought he gets us into the sixth. Going into the sixth inning of that game, or going into the bottom of the fifth of that game, we're up six to two. They make it six to three in the fifth.
but then they scored two in the seventh three in the eight and Beat us eight to seven big moment of that game was the eighth inning where they got two on down seven to five and Hit a three run home run and That game we saw Logan Whitaker Shane Van Dam and Jacob Duden and
Dude in there is the tough luck loser after giving up the three run home run. And honestly, the first time that, well, I mean, he really struggled with those strikes. He came in and he, through one and two thirds, gave up four hits, but also had three walks. So thoughts on that one, Wesley, one that we really should have won. I was sitting there waiting for the basketball team to come out of the hotel.
Watching the very end of that one on the phone and you feel like got a seven five lead if we can win this one here today. We get the rubber match tomorrow and maybe somehow sneak out of Atlanta with a series win. Instead we give up a three run home run and all that was down the drain.
Wesley Wilson (18:29)
Yeah. I mean, in my mind, nothing's really changed since some of the comments I made after the Hawaii series. And the listeners who know me know that I'm more of a football guy. I play football in college. And I'm just a little confused at, from a strength and training, strength development standpoint, like where are some of these, you know,
sophomores and juniors, I don't know that it's fair to, you know, we can't expect Duden, the 18 years old to come in every game and close these games out. So where, where are the guys? Is, is there no juniors, no seniors? Like what, at what point, where is the development at on some of the upperclassmen? I don't know the answer to that, but I can't imagine that for us as we're, as we're, you know, strategizing in the off season.
that we say, yeah, at Georgia Tech in a crucial game, an 18 year old is going to come in and close the game out. Something hasn't gone right there with the development of some of the upperclassmen. And I guess the silver lining is that is we have some sensational freshmen, you know, that maybe six weeks from now are just unbelievable. But something happened with the development of the upperclassmen. That's where I'm at now. I don't know that's...
Adam Lytch (19:56)
you
Wesley Wilson (19:57)
Again, it's not fair to think that Jacob Duden is gonna come in and close everybody out like Evan Justice did in 2021. That's not fair to put that on him. So, right, exactly.
Cal Parker (20:12)
It's not a fair ask for a freshman. This is not.
And then, uh, so then you go to today's game. I mean, they just hit it all over the place. 12 hits, 15 runs today. We give up, uh, not, we walk nine today. Uh, dumb Fritten doesn't make it out of the third. Um, really it was never a ball game today. If you were following, uh, 15 five ball game, we only played. Go ahead.
Wesley Wilson (20:38)
I think Dom was at 80 plus pitches in the third inning.
Adam Lytch (20:42)
Hello.
Cal Parker (20:48)
He threw 83 pitches in two and two thirds.
Good luck!
Adam Lytch (20:54)
I was just gonna say, um...
Wesley Wilson (20:59)
you
Adam Lytch (21:01)
in the top of the seventh, you know, um, that, you know, there was a couple of times there we could have got, felt like we could have got a few more. Um, it felt like we were at least opening up the possibility for a little magic happening, but then we just, Oh man, just they, uh, they got five there in the bottom of the seventh and ended up run rolling a switch at that point. I was kind of glad to, for the troops to be headed home.
Wesley Wilson (21:05)
you
Adam Lytch (21:27)
be honest, it was just the way it was going all weekend. I'd watch it.
walks that he ended up with this today.
Cal Parker (21:39)
ended up with five walks and two and two thirds.
Adam Lytch (21:42)
Okay. Yeah, I know. And it just, man, it, you know, it, it's, it's easy to kind of be fooled by, you know, his stat line, because you're just watching pitch and, you know, he's working a lot of guys deep in the couch. Like Wes mentioned really, you know, through a lot of pitches through a couple of innings there, but man, he really does. It just, he's got such good stuff and it's just really kind of frustrating that, that he's not able to put it all together.
Um, I think he's up to three, five starts now a little over eight ERA. Um, you know, still struck a lot of guys out, but obviously really struggled with his command today. And you know what? Like he was all over the place. He just, he just wasn't able to connect in the zone and just, you know, there were some guys we were pitching around to seemed a little obvious, but, um, burgers in particular, but man, it was just, uh,
Wesley Wilson (22:29)
No.
Adam Lytch (22:41)
It's just tough to watch a guy who's, you know, got that kind of stuff and then struggling to make out.
Wesley Wilson (22:48)
Is there any pitcher you think is better this year than last year?
Cal Parker (22:57)
I think that begs a question.
Adam Lytch (23:00)
Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe say him.
Wesley Wilson (23:04)
Well, yeah, but Sam was hurt last year. I mean, he was good. He was good 21. I mean, again, it will be nice to see some development. You know, some guy that put on 20 pounds, 25 pounds, and as a stud, I don't see that. You know, not sure where that's at. Georgia take through several guys today that I would feel better about than what we throw out there, but that's where we're at. So.
Adam Lytch (23:07)
Yeah, I know. Yeah.
Thank you.
No.
That one big kid that that one big that one big kid brought in today. Oh man, they didn't have the radar gun showing. I don't know what he was throwing, but man, he was throwing it hard.
Cal Parker (23:34)
So let's talk about that. Go ahead, Anna.
So let's go to a couple of questions that I have here. Appreciate you guys for hitting us up. You can DM us, you can hit us up on Twitter, Instagram, this at Pack Home or by, you can email them. However you want to reach out to us and we'd be glad to talk about it on the show. But one of them we actually got in a comment yesterday. We'll answer that one second because I think, you know, the pitching staff question is one that we're going to need to talk about some more. But.
Let's answer this one, this first one. Is it panic time? Is one of the questions that we got. Is it panic time? Who wants to go first?
Adam Lytch (24:33)
I don't know that it's panic time. I would say, you know, Cal, you mentioned it, you know, I think on the, we didn't, we didn't talk about it, but you, you, you, you visited a pod this week. Um, and, and you were talking about, I think it was on there. You were talking about, you know, kind of how important it was to get that, that series sweep the first weekend. Um, I think for all those reasons, like you mentioned, you know, where we still kind of are in the standings. I do think Georgia tech.
Cal Parker (24:46)
Yes.
Adam Lytch (25:03)
is a pretty good team.
So I'm not going to say it's panic time to the point of the young arms that we got. I do think we still got some guys. We've got some guys that got some electric stuff. I mean, quite honestly, you know, our pitching aside, you know, our, our, our, our bats have kind of dried up on us a little bit. I mean, we, we got a lot of runners on base today. Um, didn't score a lot. You know, I mean, we had four hits against UNCG. Uh, Noah souls had to a Mac had to.
You know, everybody else was over 20 something. Um, I mean, you know, pitching aside three, four or five runs aren't going to win you games at this level anyway. So, uh, I do think the hitting and the scoring will obviously come around. Um, and I'd like to think that some of these young guys, you know, kind of start putting it together. I mean, Jackson Lucas may and the kid comes in and throws hard. Um,
got really good stuff. You know, it's easy to be excited about Marrone. You know, he come in and look really, really good this weekend. Um, a glimpse there, obviously we've seen that, you know, in a couple of starts he made this year, um, as well, but I'm not going to say it's panic time. Um, I am a little bit worried, concerned, obviously, but, um, we can go to Wesley. I mean, he was kind of our voice of reason about the series this weekend. We all.
We all were a little more optimistic than he was already. Yeah.
Cal Parker (26:36)
We were sunshine pumpers.
Wesley Wilson (26:39)
I didn't think we'd get swept, but I don't know that it's panic time, but we're definitely going to have to score runs. I still really like our lineup a lot. I mean, I still think that we're, you know, other than Pennington, you know, Pennington seems to be locked in. There's still a lot of, you know, these guys are going to, they're going to start seeing the ball better. And I mean, Sosa and Baby Nixon, you know, that's what I call Luke Nixon, Baby Nixon. They both hit one, you know, just.
Cal Parker (26:42)
you
Wesley Wilson (27:09)
just bombs. So I think from one to nine, our lineup, I really like it. And I really think Butterworth's going to, you know, he's going to find his own and play better. So I definitely do not think that his panic time, you know, I think one of the advantages and disadvantages to our schedule is we're going to play Duke, we're going to play Wake Forest, we're going to play Clintons, we're going to play Florida State, we're going to play Carolina. So we're going to have a lot of opportunities in the lineup.
You know, we have a lot of young guys, so you just hope that we find our groove and we win some series. And I think this was a series that, you know, all three of us think that we could have won. So you really hate to see that drop is, you know, next weekend we're playing, you know, Duke and we better score some runs against Duke. And that's not going to be an easy task. So I don't think it's panic time, but again, from a pitching standpoint,
Cal Parker (27:43)
Thanks.
Wesley Wilson (28:05)
All I heard in the off season was how great from top to bottom the pitching staff looked. And I think we're going to have to have some hot bats here through ACC play if we're going to be in the regional conversation.
Cal Parker (28:17)
you
Yeah, in house.
Adam Lytch (28:22)
And hey Mac, hey.
I'm sorry. I was going to say, you know, a back, a max of guy that's been really hot for us, you know, a lot of RBI is coming in. Obviously the nation's leader, I guess, coming into the game, the midweek game this week, but he was one for 10 this weekend. And, um, you know, that that's, you know, we, we'd said it before, you know, hitting is contagious and the guys have been hot force weren't necessarily this weekend either. So I, you know, pitching the side, we'll go have to score runs, you know,
Three, four, five runs ain't gonna do it anyway.
Cal Parker (28:58)
Yeah, because we've been so hard on our staff and we had another question about that. Yeah, I think this weekend is one of those times where, you know, playing with aluminum bats, we do got to swing it a little better. I mean, we did manage to score seven in one game, but we scored five, seven and five, which is hard to win in the ACC doing that. But is it panic time? I don't think it's panic time yet. And I think.
You know, you look back at 2021, we started one and eight in ACC play. I was actually looking at it that way while we were talking, but we got swept by Georgia Tech. Then we went one, one out of three at Miami and, um, I actually went in three out of three, uh, uh, versus, uh, Miami at home. And then my, uh, Louisville come to the ballpark and we got swept by Louisville. And, uh, so we went one and eight to start ACC play and, uh,
2021 on our way to the college roll series. So I don't think it's panic time from that standpoint. I do think that it is, we do need to find a little momentum because we're in a tough stretch guys. We got Coastal this week who's a ranked team in the midweek. I don't know if they're still ranked, but I'm not sure exactly what they did this weekend, but they, you know, a preseason top 25 team, a quality program. And then we got three versus Duke who, you know, obviously has.
as a really good ball club. So we, yeah, then we go to UNCG and who, you know, just Molly walked us. So we're in a tough stretch here. We really needed to get one this weekend. It felt like two would have been great, but we needed to get something. But sitting at three and three in the ACC on a 30 game schedule, I think it's probably too early to call it panic time. But we, I'm definitely concerned.
Adam Lytch (30:27)
And then we go to you and CG.
Cal Parker (30:54)
So the next question was well before I go to the next question, let's talk about our lineup a little bit more. Garrett Pennington sitting 408, Josh Hoag sitting 362, Amac sitting 351, Kozart 350, Lanfear 341, Luke Nixon 324, Eli Serrano 319. And then you got Butterworth and Soles who are next, then it bats and they're at 255, 254.
And then Alex Sosa is hitting 385 and Chase Nixon's hitting 304. So there's your core guys. Uh, if you ask me and I'm gonna ask you guys the same question, uh, but I'll answer it first. The one thing that stands out to me about that is I do not see Noah Soles hitting 255 at the end of the season. Um, and if he does that, that's going to be a little bit problematic for us, but I don't think that Noah Soles ends the season hitting, hitting in the two fifties. Um,
We, you know, he actually, you know, God, I think he'd say it. He's been around the program a long time. He come up in a couple of big situations this weekend and he just didn't see the ball very well right now. And then when he does hit it hard, he seems to be hitting it right at somebody. Um, but, and hitting timely hitting is more important than hitting. Um, but I think, you know, just talking about our lineup, what, what stands out to you guys about, about that rundown I just gave you? I mean, we, I just think I named out.
Seven, nine guys sitting over 300. Nice to see Sosa back this weekend. Like Wesley said, he had a mammoth home run today. Didn't do us any good, but hit a big home run today. Anything stand out to you there? I think to me Noah Soles is the obvious one we need to get his back on.
Adam Lytch (32:41)
feel like Kozart though is the average doesn't really reflect it. I just feel like he's been, you know, absent those, those timely hits. Like you mentioned, I mean, he's obviously hitting for a good average, but it just feel like the timeliness of some of them have, have, um,
at least feels that way. Right? Like it just hadn't been that clutch as of late, but today in the seventh, he did have a, I was glad to see him get, he had a, a two RBI double, um, before they pinch ran for him and took him out and you know, Sosa stayed in. Um, so I was glad to see that from him, um, from, from, from that rundown that you gave. And I would, I I would echo what you said on Sosa. Just glad to have him back. You know, another kid that's.
easy to be real excited about.
Cal Parker (33:33)
Wesley.
Wesley Wilson (33:35)
Yeah, I mean, I just mentioned it from one to nine. I like the lineup. And when it comes to souls, I mean, souls is my guy. I picked the beginning of the year that, you know, he would be the breakout candidate. So I think he's just in a little slump and, you know, hopefully we get a lot of guys to break out quickly at the same time. It seems like from a Pennington standpoint, and you would think Pennington, you know, being the transfer, it would be a little harder for him, you know,
to get into the groove early in the season, but he's not. I mean, he's really stepped in and he's been our most consistent guy. And hopefully everybody can get on the same page, but from a lineup and from Sosa to Luke Nixon, and I think Lanfear too, all three of those guys have been sick or been hurt early in the season. So we've been dealing with that. And when I see the lineup sheet,
Cal Parker (34:23)
you
Wesley Wilson (34:32)
I have no concerns.
Pitching is where my concerns come from.
Cal Parker (34:39)
Yeah, even Butterworth, you know, he's going to, he, he's a defensive player, obviously, but you know, I think he brings some in, you know, dynamics in the game. He plays hard. He's a good runner. Um, you know, if we could even get him up to 270, 280, it's a bonus, but, uh, so now let's talk, answer the question. The next question, Wesley just mentioned pitching, the other pitching, the other question we got is how do we fix our pitching staff? And I'm going to give you this rundown. So, uh,
In terms of innings pitch, our four leading innings pitch guys so far, Ryan Marrone 424 ERA in 17, Logan Whittaker 450 ERA in 24 innings, Sam Highfield 494 ERA in 23 innings and Dom Fritton 824 ERA in 19 innings. And then you go down the line, Winscott, he's done a scoreless inning, Carson Kelly got a scoreless out.
And then you got Jacob Duden at a three OER in 12 innings. Camden Wimbush, 338 and 2 .2 Shane Van Dan, 476 and 11 .1. This is where it really starts to go downhill. Hollis Fadding, 519 and 8 .2. Jackson Lucas, 711 and 12 and two thirds. Heath Andrews, nine and one inning of work. Jacob Halford, 1157 and 2 .1 innings. Cooper Consiglio, 12 .15.
in 6 .2 innings PJ Labriola 12 .27 and 3 .2 in. Derek Smith 21 .6, Chance Mako 27, Andrew Schabner 27 and Garrett Payne. Just has the generic 99 in the box after giving up two earn runs today in his nine pitch outing. So 653 ERA.
We have 151 innings pitch so far, 98 free passes. We do have 161 strikeouts and 151 innings, but let's talk about the pitching staff. How do we fix it? Who wants to go first? Because as the elephant in the room, if this team's gonna get to where we want it to get to.
Adam Lytch (36:59)
I don't know how to fix it. I'm not going, I'm not going to tackle that. I'll let you guys work on that. I would just say, I was just going to point out on these, on these stats. You talking about the strikeouts and the, and the walks, um, Logan Whitaker, who is a guy that's come in, you know, started a couple of games now for us been super solid. It's got 24 strikeouts versus six walks.
Whereas high fields got 24 strikeouts and 16 walks and, and Dom's got 27 strikeouts and 16 walks also. So, um, Whitaker stat line is, was, you know, pretty impressive. I mean, he, he's, he's given up, given up more hits than everyone else, but, uh, he hadn't let him hurt him as bad because he hadn't been putting them on. So how we fix it, I don't know. I, you know, I.
For one thing, we got to throw more strikes, you know, 98 walks. It feels like we've drawn a lot of walks this year. I mean, I think, you know, even souls has drawn a lot of walks. You know, he's, he's got a pretty good on base percentage, even though he's been struggling a little bit at the plate, but it's hard to believe it.
Cal Parker (38:11)
And our opponents have woked us 111 times, but that 111 is a little misleading when you go into Townsend series where you feel like they walt like 15 in a game or something.
Adam Lytch (38:19)
Great.
Yeah. We said in that double header, they were on home pace for 68 or something at one time. So yeah, it does feel like it's, it does feel like it, you know, that we've drawn a lot of walks, um, at the plate. And so it makes it feel even more disturbing that we have the word that close on how many that we have walked.
Cal Parker (38:45)
Wesley.
Wesley Wilson (38:47)
Yeah, I mean, well, I mean, I wish I knew how to fix it, but I mean, I think as far as 2024 goes, you just hope that the experience these freshmen are getting early in the season really pays dividends for later in the season. I mean, that's, I feel like we've chosen our path, you know, we're not privy to necessarily those decisions, but if these freshmen, you know what mean, they're getting experience and ACC,
Adam Lytch (38:47)
So we'll Wesley tackle how to fix it.
Wesley Wilson (39:17)
baseball early and if they really develop then when we get to I mean, you know, everyone, you know, everyone says, you know, you don't want to be playing your best baseball in March. Agree. Well, we don't have a whole lot more to go up. You know, we're hopefully not playing our best baseball in March. So, you know, hopefully these, these, these early innings are really going to, you know, benefit us. And I think that's what, in my opinion, the season is really going to depend on is how much these freshmen.
develop here in the next 45, 60 days, because that's where we're at. I mean, I think, I think we know what we get with Highfield and Whitaker and both Highfield and Whitaker pitch well enough to win the series this weekend. No doubt about that. And then on Sunday, call it what it is, Dom, we need better from him. We expect better from Dom. We need better from Dom. But as far as our starting pitching goes, we got enough to win this weekend. So again, not panic time, but.
based on how these freshmen are going to develop. And Van Dam now in the NIH, he might as well to us, he's a freshman, so how he's going to develop to ACC play, the guys coming from playing division three to this weekend, he was playing in Atlanta with a backdrop of the whole Atlantic city line. I'm sure last year he was pitching in front of 10 people. That's a huge change for Shane Van Dam. So again, how they're going to develop.
I don't know how to fix it. But we just hope they develop and you hope to get better from series to series. And unfortunately for us, we're going from Georgia Tech, which I mean, do I think Georgia Tech's one of the top 25 teams from what I saw this weekend? Possibly. I mean, they have some really incredible offensive players. I think their pitching was good enough. But Duke's a damn good team. So.
Cal Parker (40:48)
Hahaha!
Wesley Wilson (41:13)
It's not like next weekend we're like, well, let's see what we got now. You better have your, your, your chin strap, you know, tight when you, even though we don't have a chin strap, you better have it tight when you step on the field against Duke. That's, you know, there's, there's not much more time to figure it out. So I think it's just based on the development of those younger pitchers.
Cal Parker (41:33)
Yeah. You know, I would say, you know, I've already given this sort of box speech a little bit before, but, um, you know, we got to throw the damn ball over the plate. My gosh guys. I mean, it, you look at these same guys, Logan Whitaker, they're hitting two 58 against him. Sam Highfield, they're hitting one 82 against Sam. You know how hard it is to have a four 94 ERA when people are hitting one 82 off of you. Uh,
Dom Fritton has a 824 ERA and they're hitting 234 off of him. But you know what doesn't help your batting average is a walk. It doesn't count either way. So if you're, if guys are hitting 234 against you and you're giving up eight runs every nine innings, you got to throw the ball over the plate and it ain't, and I don't, I'm not blaming it on the pitchers either. You know, they wear whatever they wear on their, it looks like a daggone.
Ankle bracelet for their for their ankle. Yeah, they got your Apple watch up there, you know seeing what the throw I don't know if it's pitched by how we're calling the pitches. I don't know if it's You know just we're not locating pitches I know following behind and counts is a problem you follow behind and count you usually gonna get punished, but we've got to Challenge guys. I mean if you throw 98 you got a challenge guys The problem is when you throw 98 like dude is who?
Adam Lytch (42:33)
to watch.
Cal Parker (43:02)
If you throw 98 everybody's always you know, you can those 98 is they you see you and everybody can hit 98. Well, you know, that's true. They can all hit 98 if they're in the ACC. But.
You gotta throw, if you throw strikes and you get ahead in the count, it's a lot harder to hit 98 when you don't know what's coming than when you do. But when it's 2 -0 and you're sitting there, you know, putting your foot, front foot down and saying, I'm about to just come unbuttoned when he lays this over the plate, well, it's a lot easier to hit 98 when, you know, when you're trying to hit it in a 2 -0 count, 3 -1 count, you know, you're getting behind the batters. It's not even just the waltz guys. Do you get behind hitters? Do you?
Get you know getting pitchers counts instead of hitters counts. I mean you look at I Think it was dude another day through 30 pitches 30 out of 59 pitches for a strike So that's half his pitches in the zone. So, you know, that's part of it, too I mean, I just think it all comes back to to Don't strikes and I think that a lot of that is Is on the pitchers themselves obviously, but then some of it too is you know, are we calling them? I don't know if we're calling the best games
If we're putting them in the best position to succeed, you know, those guys, Coach Chrysler and his and the rest of the staff there that work with our pitchers, they've been doing it a lot longer than me and get paid a lot more money. But they, I think throwing strikes has just been a major problem for us across the board. You just, it's just, it's hard to watch ballgames where every count is two, one, three, one. You just know nothing good is gonna happen.
when you fall behind to hitters. So yeah, 268 pat and average against. But none of those top guys I read, it's not like they're getting lit up. And then the other thing I wanted to, you my opinion, I think we need to move Dom to the bullpen. Might not be a popular opinion. I know it's not what Dom Fritton wants. It's probably not what any competitor wants. They want to.
Wesley Wilson (45:03)
I agree. I agree.
Cal Parker (45:10)
tow it in a zero -zero game and go out there and maybe hand it off in the seventh. But we talk about an inexperienced bullpen. Dom would at least bring some experience to the bullpen. And then also I think he's a different pitcher in my opinion when he goes out there knowing he's got to get you two or three innings and not get you seven. So I personally would like to see Dom move to a...
a middle innings gap roll or even a two in enclosure type roll where we maybe roll someone else out to start. Again, that's not me being down on Dom. I think we're all down on his performance early so far, but I think he's way more down on it than we are. But I really believe in his stuff.
I think he's got incredible stuff. The 27 strikeouts and 19 innings, that don't lie. He's got good stuff, but I think he would help bring some experience to the bullpen. And I also think we would get a better version of him when there's not the pressure to go out there and get us through six and then hand it off to a freshman.
Adam Lytch (46:11)
Absolutely.
He's also hit four guys, uh, you know, talking about the 16 walks, but he's, he's hit four too. So that's four more to the tally.
Cal Parker (46:46)
That's 20 free passes and 19 and two thirds. That's going out here and that's the catch 22 about putting a guy in the bullpen to the, you bring a guy in and he's got traffic every inning and you know, however situation the game changes late in the game with traffic. You know, you walk the lead off guy and then in a one run game and then they bunt him over or steal second and all of a sudden you get a guy in a scoring position and you might only throw him five or six pitches. So.
Adam Lytch (46:55)
Yeah.
Cal Parker (47:15)
Maybe that's some of the concern there is if you do put him in the bullpen, the traffic that he's put on the bases via the free pass. So yeah, I mean, think it just comes back to thumb strikes. I think that's the long short of it.
Anything else you guys want to add before we talk about Duke real quick and get out of here?
Wesley Wilson (47:40)
You got, you covered it.
Cal Parker (47:43)
All right, so Duke coming to the dope next weekend. Duke is hitting three 36 as a team. Their pitchers are their opponents are hitting one 95 against them. Uh, Duke has hit 46 home runs, uh, you know, our lineup, which I think is really good is hit 30. Um, but they've hit 46 home runs and they're pitching staff.
right now is sporting a 359 ERA with 229 strikeouts and 178 inns. If you want me to give you the names to look for, I think the big one is Jonathan Santucci. He's done 24 inns and has 46 strikeouts right now, the 219 ERA is 4 in it. So Friday night, I think is when they roll them out there.
That's gonna be a heck of a challenge for our ball club. And then behind him, if you look, they haven't thrown anyone else 20 in it yet. And if you remember Duke last year, Duke staffed a lot of ball games. It seems like they still do a lot of that. I think the thing that probably stands out on paper early is that they're even better offensively. Ben Miller's hitting 420 with a home run.
One thing I will say about Duke is that they strike out a lot. We've struck out 106, just for some perspective, we've struck out 106 times in 18 games. They've struck out 179 times in 20 games. So they don't get cheated. When you hit 46 home runs, they're probably trying to elevate and celebrate quite a bit and looks like they have so far. But,
Gonna be a heck of a matchup. What do you guys think we need to see this weekend to feel a little bit better going into next week when we're sitting here again doing this podcast?
Wesley Wilson (49:53)
I think that for me, I could see Kozart's body language all weekend. You could tell that he was very frustrated all weekend. And I really think, you know, that Kozart's going to bring the team together. You know, whether we beat Santucci on Friday night or not, I don't know. He's an incredible pitcher. But I think somehow, someway, we're going to claw to win this series.
Adam Lytch (50:10)
you
Wesley Wilson (50:23)
You know, everybody knows that I picked us to not win against Georgia Tech. You go on the road, a lot of freshmen to Atlanta. I didn't think that was going to happen, but I really think we're going to find a way to win this series. And, you know, based on Kozars body language, you know, I have to believe that he's letting everybody know in the NC State Clubhouse, it's not acceptable. It's not acceptable to lose a UNCG 18 to three, not acceptable to not be competitive, you know, three games in a row in Atlanta.
So I really think there's gonna be a response from NC State this weekend in Raleigh.
Cal Parker (51:00)
Ed?
Adam Lytch (51:01)
I like it, Wes. Um, I mean, I think before we get there, I would like to see us, uh, Tuesday night gets coastal. Um,
You know, hosting coastal, you know, put up a, put up a pretty good effort to, um, obviously probably be, you know, somewhat pitching by committee. Be good to see those guys not walk and give, you know, you're not going to give coastal free free passes and get very far either. So, um, well, you know, like for the guys to get back on track Tuesday night, I think that would be a good, a heck of a test, you know, coastal will be so.
As far as against Duke, um, I like Wesley's positivity there. Um, I hope that we can find a way, you know, I, I think if, if, if we do and, and we come through three series with a winning record, I think, um, I do think Georgia techs go end up being a pretty good team. I really do. I got the sense of that. You know, you talked about their.
their their offense, but their defense is incredible too. And at this level, that's going to win you some ball games. And so, um, think if we could find a way to win the series this weekend, have a, have a winning record in the conference through three series. Um, I would take that. Um, so I hope that's the case. Hope we could just get on track and score some runs, uh, to, you know, the, the guys, you know,
Again, hit for pretty good average, just, just not really in the right situations, you know, um, just leaving a lot of guys on base. So I'm going to be optimistic and, and, uh, I am a pack homer. So I'm, I'm, uh, I'm, I'm gonna say we find a way to win. Also win the series, you know, win two out of three.
Cal Parker (53:01)
So Coastal's a 17 and three ball club, your point Adam, I like what you said there. Like I'd like to see us get back on track. It'll be a big win. I think it'll do a lot for our confidence because you know we're going to run a lot of arms out there to see them have some success in the midweek. Coastal just beat Wake Forest last week in the midweek, by the way, 17 to 9. Put up 17 runs in a midweek game. Coastal's hit 44 home runs led by Blake Bartholw, he's hit 12 already.
So I mean, it is a very formidable opponent. I think it's gonna be really nice to be back at the Doke. But it is not a midweek, it's a midweek component that helps your RPI at the end of the year, right? If you win this game, it's good for your RPI, it's good for you when they're doing tournament seeding. It's a game that we need to win. It's one of those games, if we do get it turned around and going in the right direction.
Adam Lytch (53:30)
Wow.
you
Cal Parker (53:53)
I shouldn't say turned around. I mean, we act like the wheel has just completely fallen off for 12 and six and 500 ACC. But if we are in the conversation to host a rejoin in the year, very well could come down to us or Coastal. So that's a big one to try to get a dub against. And as far as the Duke series, yeah, I think to echo both your points, I think that Jacob Kozart, I think he's probably the young.
Adam Lytch (53:54)
you
Cal Parker (54:22)
questionable leader of this team in the locker room. And I think these guys know how important it is to have a good weekend next weekend and to get a little bit of momentum going as we get into the warmer weather. And I also am optimistic that we get to against Duke next weekend. I think we're going to find a way, I really do.
Um, and I think what I'll be looking for though is, is how some of these freshmen now that have really been stuck out there in the storms, um, what they've learned from it and how they, uh, grow and perform in some of these, however situations, cause that's going to be the key. If they could keep getting better, uh, learning from some of these mistakes they've made, um, and if they just keep going out there and getting beat up guys, it's going to, it's going to be a long year and a bunch of sad Sunday nights when we sit down and do this. But, um,
I think from what everybody's told us, there's just so much talent on this roster. I think we're gonna write the ship and I think we're gonna do it at home next weekend. Or this week we got a four game home stand with Coastal and three games we do, four big ball games. I like this week to get us going back in the right direction.
Anything else?
Adam Lytch (55:50)
I would just say one thing. Uh, uh, one, one last thing since, uh, we're, we're, we're the champions in something today. Um, just as a reminder, um, to everyone out there, Wesley, uh, famously made the comment a few episodes ago to ask everyone to please not give their money to basketball and donate to baseball and football. And I don't think everybody truly realized like he did.
Wesley Wilson (55:50)
I think we're good.
Adam Lytch (56:19)
It was just a matter of, you know, the basketball team not needing it. Um, and the baseball team and the football team clearly still do. So just a reminder to, uh, to support, to support our, uh, NIL efforts. Uh, Wesley was clearly on the forefront of that and, um, and, and what.
Wesley Wilson (56:37)
Yeah, and just a reminder to Wolfpack Nation for anyone who maybe had an issue with that comment is I graduated 15 years ago and I've had four season tickets for 15 years. So you times that by $3 ,400. I can say whatever the hell I want to say about the basketball team.
Cal Parker (56:42)
Hahaha!
You
Oh
Adam Lytch (57:04)
Oh my
Wesley Wilson (57:07)
Hey, hey, but congratulations. Congratulations, Akice. He's a great guy. That's all we ask for, competitive basketball. And March, love it. Absolutely love it.
Cal Parker (57:20)
Wesley, I think you gave them the encouragement they needed. You and Jim Bayheim, baby. All right, we'll catch up with y 'all next week. Gonna ride this emotional high from last night, a couple more days. Excited to see four good baseball games this week and a packed basketball team in the NCAA tournament. Go Pack.
Wesley Wilson (57:25)
Exactly. Happy to do it.
Adam Lytch (57:41)
Oh man.
Cal Parker (57:50)
Uh oh, music again boys. We're having technical difficulties while we're trying to get it to play. Pack over pod on Instagram. We are nowhere near our thousand followers. And Twitter.
Adam Lytch (58:02)
Right. We got to, we got to give the, we got to give the view and stats, so listening stats next time too.
Cal Parker (58:07)
Buh.