NC State Is Off To Columbia

by Akula Wolf on May 30, 2011 1:47 PM EDT

Here's the 2011 NCAA tournament bracket.

NC State earned a three-seed in the Columbia regional:

The field has been set for the 2011 NCAA Baseball Regional in Columbia, S.C. at Carolina Stadium. South Carolina (45-14) is the No. 1 seed and No. 4 national seed and will face the No. 4 seed Georgia Southern (36-24). The No. 2 seed Stetson (41-18) will face No. 3 seed NC State (34-25). The NCAA Regional will run from Friday, June 3 to Monday, June 6. Times and dates for the regional are to be announced.

So State gets a chance to knock off the defending national champions, though they'll have to get by Stetson first. The Hatters (I wonder if their batting helmets are shaped like top hats) don't hit for much power--four 40+ game starters are slugging under .335--but unlike State they have a lot of speed and run quite a bit. As a team they've been successful on over 80% of their stolen base attempts, which is an outstanding success rate. More later in the week.

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Stetson is in the same conference as ETSU finishing first during the regular season, but

going 1 and 2 in the tournament losing to Belmont and Jacksonville and beating ETSU. Stetson’s rpi from WarrenNolans is currently 21. Stetson went 4-6 in their last 10 games. Belmont, Jacksonville and ETSU currently have rpi’s of 67, 43 and 37 respectively.
State on the other hand went 6-4 over their last 10 games. State likewise went 1 and 2 in the conference tournament; however, FSU, GaTech and Clemson currently have rpi’s of 5, 8 and 7 respectively.
so my question is how does Stetson have an rpi of 21?
well, they swept Georgia, currenlty having an rpi of 16, at the beginning of the year and they split games with FSU losing the second game at home 13-1.
so, Stetson is not going to be easy. normally i take the position of pitching one’s best pitcher in the first game to get a win; however, i can see starting Charma and saving Mazzoni for South Carolina if State wins. Charma has been a Friday night starter in the last part of the season. Charma did reasonably well in his last outing against GaTech; however, State’s defense had a lot to say about that.

by sbas2 on May 30, 2011 3:44 PM EDT reply actions

Looking forward to Friday

Thanks for the extra stats sbas. Still don’t really see how they are RPI 21, but none of that matters, now.

I would prefer we stay with Mazz as the Friday starter, and hopefully get one win under our belts and push our Saturday and Sunday starter to do something good for us. This plays out a lot like the ACC tourney except the competition isn’t as good in this first pool play.

Pitching hasn’t been our problem as of late and we’ve all touched on it, but the bats have to be better and, more specifically, getting hits with runners in position.

I love the College World Series, this is the best tourney I think.

You play to win the game! – Herm Edwards

by chip24spb on May 30, 2011 5:03 PM EDT reply actions