Another Wolfpack comeback runs record to 16-0 in baseball

For a long time Tuesday night, it appeared N.C. State would be losing its first baseball game of the season.

The Charlotte 49ers were making the right pitches at the right times. They were getting two-out hits to drive in runs, taking a 4-1 lead into the eighth inning at BB&T Ballpark, the scenic park that has the backdrop of the Charlotte skyline.

The Pack did have one thing going for it: “Right now we just don’t believe we can lose,” catcher Patrick Bailey said.

And the Pack didn’t. Bailey’s towering three-run homer in the top of the eighth tied the score 4-4, the Pack scored another two runs in the ninth and ended with a 6-5 victory. Make the record 16-0.

What in the name of Elliott Avent is going on?

“I don’t know,” Avent, the Wolfpack coach, said after the game. “They’ve having fun, but when you win you’re having fun. They’re getting better. They’re resilient.”

Avent noted the Pack fell behind N.C. Central 8-1 recently in a game played at Durham Athletic Park, the old Durham Bulls park. N.C. State, hardly rattled, won it 11-10 in 10 innings.

“Thirty-five degrees, been there for five hours, freezing, long game, and they found a way,” Avent said.

The Pack did it again Tuesday against the 49ers (8-8). It took a village, so to speak, to get the job done -- 20 players in all, including seven pitchers -- but it has been that way much of the season as many have contributed for the Wolfpack, ranked second nationally in one collegiate baseball poll.

“They pull for one another,” Avent said. “They kind of like one another. This is a really tight group.”

Trailing 4-1, with so much going Charlotte’s way, Bailey said the Pack “felt good about it.”

“I know that sounds weird but right now we have that feeling that rarely a team has, just getting it done,” the sophomore said. “We stay the course. We know how to drive guys in, we know how to make plays. We don’t worry about it.”

Bailey appeared locked-in in his eight-inning at-bat against right-hander Ryan Czanstkowski. He said later he didn’t remember the count -- it was 3-1 -- but won’t soon forget the result.

His drive to right field was measured at 402 feet but seemed longer, disappearing into the darkness.

“I was looking for a fastball,” he said.

And?

“I got it.”

Told his third homer of the year went 400-plus feet, Bailey smiled and said, “Far enough.”

Bailey also was a part of a pivotal defensive play in the ninth. The 49ers scored a run on Carson Johnson’s one-out double to pull within 6-5. When Bailey then blocked a Dalton Feeney pitch in the dirt, Johnson made a dash for third, only to be thrown out by Bailey.

Harris Yett flied out and that was that. Ball game. The Pack had its eighth comeback victory of the season.

The Pack didn’t have long to savor it. It was back on the bus. N.C. State had a home game Wednesday against George Mason, a lead-up to its weekend ACC series against Florida State at Doak Field.

And Avent, even with the Pack undefeated and 3-0 in the ACC, didn’t hesitate when asked how his team could be better.

Bunt better, he said. Probably “stay in the strike zone” better, he added, saying the Pack chased some bad pitches early in the Charlotte game.

But 16-0 is 16-0. A school record.

“We obviously like winning,” Bailey said.

This story was originally published March 13, 2019 at 10:42 AM with the headline "Another Wolfpack comeback runs record to 16-0 in baseball."