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Who’s the Pack playing?
Opponent: Campbell
Mascot: Desert Ships | School Location: Mosquito Capital, NC | Conference: Big South
2022 Record: 2-5 (0-0, T-1st) | 2022 RPI Rank: 227
2021 Record*: 37-18 (28-9, 1st) | 2021 RPI Rank: 37
2020 Record: 7-9 (0-0, T-1st) | 2019 RPI Rank: 191
When? Where? How do I watch?
Location: Jim Perry Stadium (Buies Creek, NC)
Game Time(s): Wed, Mar 2 @ 5:00pm
TV: ESPN+ (Wednesday)
Radio: GoPack.com (Wednesday)
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Tell me about this team
We’re far enough into the season now where the preseason stuff doesn’t matter much, but here’s the link to it in case you want to see what we wrote in Part IV of our season preview series.
Campbell was expected to show out this year, even getting some “Omaha Dark Horse Candidate” love from publications like D1 Baseball. So far, that hasn’t been the case as the Camels have struggled to a 2-5 start. The team features two Top 50 prospects for the 2022 MLB Draft in SS Zach Neto and RHP Thomas Harrington. Thankfully for NC State, they won’t see Harrington in this one, although we’ll still feature him in the Key Players section because he deserves it.
The talent is still on hand to have this season turn around, but the bats have to come around if it’s going to happen. The pitching staff has been exceptional thus far, pitching to a 3.75 ERA while holding opposing hitters to just a .197 batting average. The problem there is that Camels hitters are only hitting .172 themselves. Campbell’s offense is basically just a two-man show at this point.
That said, the competition has been strong. Appalachian State is a better program than you probably think, although not good enough that they should have taken two-of-three at Campbell, while East Carolina has been to two straight Super Regionals and Maryland features one of the better pitching staffs in the Big Ten. Once Campbell gets into Big South play, aside from USC-Upstate, they should cruise through that competition with plenty of opportunities to get the bats right.
This is a team that should make a fourth straight Regional appearance this year, but if the non-conference results don’t start shaping up - and there are plenty of opportunities remaining (NC State, ECU, UNC, Duke, WVU), so strength of schedule will be on their side - the margin for error in Big South play will shrink considerably.
Who’s on the mound for these guys?
Wednesday: LHP Ryan Chasse (rJR)
Key Players:
Offense
SS Zach Neto (rSO) - .320/.472/.440, 1 2B, 1 3B, 0 HR, 2 R, 5 RBI, 8 BB, 3 K, 1 HBP, 2-2 SB. A top 50 MLB Draft prospect for 2022. Miami native who was the 2021 Big South Player of the Year after hitting .405/.488/.746 with 17 2B and 12 HR.
LF Lawson Harrill (rSO) - .313/.421/.563, 1 2B, 0 3B, 1 HR, 2 R, 1 RBI, 2 BB, 6 K, 1 HBP, 1-1 SB. With an offense struggling so much, it’s kinda weird to see Harrill hitting at the bottom of it.
Pitching
LHP Ryan Chasse (rJR) - 0-0, 1 SV, 4.50 ERA, 6.0 IP, 3 H, 3 BB, 10 K. Middle Creek HS product started their midweek home loss against East Carolina last week, although to no fault of his own (2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K). Chasse was a weekend rotation member in 2019 and 2021, starting 30 games over that span and going 13-4 with a 3.79 ERA, so it’s interesting to see him bumped out of that role in his fourth year on campus. Big, stocky build with a bit of a funky delivery. He has a high-80’s fastball and a big loopy curve.
RHP Thomas Harrington (SO) - 1-1, 0.69 ERA, 13.0 IP, 3 H, 1 BB, 22 K. As mentioned, a top 50 MLB Draft prospect this year. It’s a testament to how bad the offense has been that Harrington has a loss with the numbers he’s put up so far.
RHP Ty Cummings (SO) - 0-0, 3.24 ERA, 8.1 IP, 4 H, 3 BB, 3 K. The coaching staff apparently wants to see how long it takes to have a guy’s disconnect from his shoulder as they’ve brought Cummings in for five of their seven games thus far.
LHP Jake Murray (rSO) - 0-0, 3.00 ERA, 3.0 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 6 K. JUCO transfer from Wake Tech. His two outings have been mixed reviews, but he was dominant in the last one against Maryland (2.2 IP, 0 H, 0 BB, 5 K).
Quick! Fun Facts!
I’ll jinx it, but human bean-ball machine Waldy Arias has yet to be hit by a pitch this season. Coming into this year, he was getting hit by a pitch in 13.9% of his plate appearances... 42 times in 303 PAs!!!
Campbell has won three straight Big South regular season championships and two of the last three Big South tournament championships.
Campbell’s baseball stadium is named after former MLB pitching great Jim Perry, a Campbell alum. Perry and his brother, Gaylord, are the only brothers in MLB history to each win a Cy Young Award, and they trail only Phil and Joe Niekro for most career victories by brothers.
The Camels had two alums at the MLB level in 2021: CF Cedric Mullins (Baltimore) and RHP Ryan Thompson (Tampa Bay).
Prediction
Well, if you go to the stats page for Campbell baseball on their website, it lists the team with a 2-6 record, so maybe that says something about the program’s confidence going into this one. Probably just at typo, though.
NC State will be sending Logan Adams to the mound. If Adams can keep the Camels bats quiet enough for one more game, State should be able to claw across enough runs to take this one.
Outcome: A Wolfpack win