Patrick Bailey to build on historic freshman campaign

Sports

TECHNICIAN

PAGE 12 • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2019

Pack baseball starts back against Bucknell

SARAH COCHRAN/TECHNICIAN Junior infielder Evan Edwards puts out Army catcher Trey Martin on Sunday, June 3, 2018 at Doak Field. Edwards hit two home runs versus Army as the Wolfpack beat the Black Knights 11-1.

Camden Speight

Assistant Sports Editor

The NC State baseball team will get things going against the Bucknell Bison on Friday to kick off the Pack’s first weekend series of the 2019 season. They last met in March of 2016 when NC State won 5-2.

The preseason-ranked No. 21 Pack was 42-18 overall and 19-11 in the ACC last season and looks to build similar success this year despite losing a number of key pieces in the outfield. However, the infield remains strongly intact and will be the strength of the team on both sides of the ball.

Bucknell was 17-27-1 and 13-11-1 in the Patriot League in the 2018 season. The Bison lost their top two players by batting average from last season so there are some large shoes to fill at the top of the lineup.

NC State will face four players who were picked for Preseason All-Patriot League Team led by Jeff Gottesman. Gottesman went 5-4 last season with a 2.85 ERA and will likely get a start this weekend. If Gottesman gets the start on Friday afternoon, he would face Pack junior starter Jason Parker.

NC State pitchers will have to be careful while pitching to a couple of position players who also made the preseason conference team. First baseman Tyler Wincig hit .277 last season and tallied 15 RBIs. Outfielder JohnPaul Bell hit .250 and led the team with five home runs, while catcher Evan Klugerman hit .235 and led the team with 26 RBIs.

NC State knows the production it will get from junior shortstop Will Wilson, sophomore catcher Patrick Bailey and senior first baseman Evan Edwards, but it will be important for this team to get the rest of the lineup producing offensively.

Sophomore outfielder Terrell Tatum and redshirt junior third baseman Dillon Cooper are two guys that the Pack need to step up after losing all three outfielders to the MLB last year. Cooper started at third base for the first half of the season but his defensive play slipped and caused a switch at that position.

NC State will look to get off the ground against the Bison on Friday at 3 p.m. at Doak Field at Dail Park. Saturday’s first pitch is at 2 p.m. and Sunday’s is at 1 p.m.

NC State faces extremely tough nonconference slate

Ethan Barry

Staff Writer

One of the most important parts of building a quality resume for the NCAA Tournament, regardless of the sport, is the nonconference schedule. The difference between a strong nonconference slate and bad nonconference slate can be as big as missing the tournament versus making the tournament.

Last year, the NC State baseball team was in danger of not hosting a regional because the nonconference schedule was so bad. It was the biggest knock against a team that had one of the best regular seasons in NC State history. Fortunately, or unfortunately based on how it played out, the Pack was able to snag the last national seed and host a regional, despite its nonconference schedule.

This year, the Wolfpack won’t be in trouble because of the strength of schedule. Let’s take a look at that schedule.

The biggest nonconference series of the season will be one of the toughest tests all year when Minnesota comes to town from March 1-3. The Gophers went 44-15 last season, won the Big Ten and won their regional before losing to eventual national champion Oregon State in Super Regionals. Minnesota lost their best hitter, Terrin Vavra, but returns the majority of its pitching staff. This series figures to be one of the premier nonconference matchups in the country.

From there, the nonconference schedule shifts to midweek matchups when conference series take over the weekends. The Pack has road games against in-state teams Elon, Campbell, UNC-Wilmington and Charlotte, who each finished in the top 110 of the RPI. Of those teams, the Seahawks will likely take a step back from finishing one game away from Super Regionals, but otherwise each will be a potential NCAA Tournament team.

NC State has a home and road series with Coastal Carolina, who is one of the best mid-major teams in the country year in and year out. This year, D1 Baseball ranked them No. 21 in their preseason poll.

The most underrated nonconference games is when Tennessee Tech comes to Raleigh on April 23, a year after finishing 15th in RPI, winning the regional against No. 4 overall seed Ole Miss and coming within one game of advancing to Omaha and the College World Series. This Golden Eagles team won’t be that good, but they’ll still be a good challenge for the Wolfpack.

Another big nonconference game comes in Charlotte on April 2 against South Carolina, another team who advanced to Super Regionals last year and was one game away from Omaha. The

SARAH COCHRAN/ARCHIVE Sophomore infielder Will Wilson runs to third base against Georgia Tech on Friday, March 23 at Doak Field. Although losing 13-4 to the Yellow Jackets in the first game of that day’s doubleheader, the Wolfpack came back to win the second matchup 5-2.

Sports

TECHNICIAN

PAGE 13 • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2019

Johnston ready to build on breakout first season

Alec Sawyer

Assistant Sports Editor

It’s never easy for a freshman pitcher to come into an ACC baseball program and find success. It’s even harder for a freshman pitcher to come in and find success as a weekend starter, but that’s exactly what Reid Johnston did for NC State last year.

Johnston, now a sophomore, put together an incredible freshman campaign in 2018, earning multiple Freshman AllAmerican honors after compiling a 7-1 record with a 3.06 ERA in 64.2 innings pitched. Johnston commanded games throughout the season, moving from the bullpen to the starting rotation in the second half of the year.

The success came early and somewhat unexpectedly for the right-handed pitcher from Enfield, North Carolina, who came to the Wolfpack as both an infielder and pitcher. After quickly shifting to a pitcher only in his first fall, Johnston broke out in a big way on the bump in a season even he didn’t see coming. Now, he enters his sophomore year set up to be the Pack’s ace.

“I didn’t really know what I was going to go up against,” Johnston said. “I got a lot of experience last year that’s going to help me out this year, which is really what I didn’t have last year, was experience. I think I’m ready for this year.”

Johnston started out in the bullpen for the Wolfpack as a freshman, and was one of the Pack’s most reliable arms in relief. He made 11 relief appearances on the season, allowing runs in just five of those outings and never giving up more than three earned runs in a game.

He was also as reliable as anyone on the team when it came to his command out of the pen, walking just four batters in 22 innings of relief work compared to 17 strikeouts. His strongest relief outing came in the Pack’s best series, a sweep on the road at No. 2 Clemson.

In game two of the series, Johnston

DAVID TRACEY/TECHNICIAN Freshman pitcher Reid Johnston pitches the ball against Virginia at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park on Thursday, May 24. Johnston pitched 2.2 innings, giving up three hits and two earned runs as the Wolfpack lost 4-2.

earned a save after tossing three scoreless innings to close out the game, walking no one and striking out three batters. Johnston really found his own with the Wolfpack as the season moved along, and also found a groove with battery mate Patrick Bailey, another player looking to build on a great 2018 freshman year.

“He brings a guy that is going to get on the mound and throw strikes,” Bailey said. “He’s going to attack with his fastball, and he’s always going to let the defense work and get some quick innings and get back into the dugout.”

That relationship and comfort level between Johnston and Bailey helped Johnston immensely last season, and is something that will help the righty continue to grow and develop moving forward.

“It’s a comfort thing. I threw to him last year basically every time I threw,” Johnston said. “He knows how to work with me, and we know how to work together. He knows how to work with everybody else. It’s just a comfort thing, mostly.”

That comfort and success for Johnston last season out of the bullpen turned the heads of the NC State coaching staff and earned him the opportunity to move into the weekend rotation later in the season. Johnston’s last eight appearances of the season came as a starter, with five of those coming in ACC play and two coming in postseason play.

The move to the rotation was something that made a lot of sense for Johnston, who showed the coaching staff he clearly knew how to get guys out at a college level. And while the move made sense and bolstered the starting rotation, it was something that didn’t come easy for head coach Elliott Avent, who didn’t want to lose one of his most reliable relievers.

“Reid actually was a guy that keyed our season last year,” Avent said. “We were going along, and he was a guy out of the bullpen that I was utilizing a lot. He was very successful, and the coaching staff said ‘Hey, I think we need to put him in the rotation.’ I hesitated to put him in the rotation because he was so valuable out of the bullpen, but not only did we put

JOHNSTON continued page 14

SCHEDULE

continued from page 12

Gamecocks are historically a very strong program, and this year will be no different.

The emphasis placed on neutral-site road games is clear. Last year, there were only three nonconference games away from Doak Field, and that included a game against UNC-Chapel Hill in Durham. This year, there are 10.

Last year, the Pack didn’t face a single nonconference team who made the tournament in 2017. This year, the Wolfpack has twelve nonconference games against 2018 tournament teams, including three who won regionals.

As for the conference schedule, it’s as tough as ever. D1 Baseball ranks Louisville at No. 4, Florida State at No. 13 and Clemson at No. 24 in its preseason poll. Each of those teams make trips to Raleigh this season. Louisville was also voted as the ACC preseason favorite to win the Atlantic Division and the ACC as a whole.

The Wolfpack will travel to UNC-Chapel Hill and Wake Forest, who check in at No. 7 and No. 20, respectively, in the D1 Baseball poll. The Tar Heels were voted the preseason favorite in the Coastal Division, receiving 13 out of 14 votes. The team who received the other vote is Virginia, who will also play at Doak Field this year.

The schedule is as tough as it’s ever been for the Wolfpack, and there will be bumps in the road because of it. The good news is that when push comes to shove in May, the Pack will be battle-tested, and the schedule will help instead of hurt the Wolfpack when it comes to seeding.

Sports

TECHNICIAN

PAGE 14 • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2019

Russ brings a mix of power and speed to the Wolfpack

Jake Caccavaro

Staff Writer

After leading the Wolfpack in on-base percentage (.394) and stolen bases (17 for 17) in 2018, Sam Russ is ready to add an even flashier weapon to her game.

The sophomore outfielder has fully bought into new head coach Jennifer Patrick-Swift’s “home-run mindset” and has embraced the power that her sweet lefthanded swing can generate.

“It’s a good feeling, having outfielders back up when you come to the plate,” Russ said, “knowing at any point you can hit it out.”

A speedy, slap-hitting leadoff hitter the majority of her life, Russ’ swing caught the eye of Patrick-Swift early on.

“Day one, when I saw her natural lefty swing,” Patrick-Swift said. “I knew that we could get power, we could get pop.”

A right-handed hitter for the first six or seven years of her softball career, Russ cites a midsummer switch to hitting left-handed when she was 13 as the beginning of her love for softball.

“Swinging left-handed just came more naturally to me,” Russ said. “As soon as I turned around and hit left-handed… that’s when I really fell in love with softball and knew that was the game for me.”

Transitioning from a slap hitter to a power hitter isn’t an easy task, and Russ didn’t make that switch overnight. All throughout practices and scrimmages during the fall, Russ fine-tuned her swing to generate the type of power she is capable of.

“She was one of the first ones that seemed to understand it,” Patrick-Swift said. “She made the body adjustments and had the body awareness.”

Although a catchy phrase, the homerun mindset of Patrick-Swift isn’t strictly to swing for the fences every at-bat and go all or nothing. In addition to the physical aspects necessary to adopt the home-run mindset, such as fine-tuning her swing, Russ has had to adopt a mental approach that is a lot different than that of a slap hitter.

“I like to think that when I step into the box, I’m in scoring position,” Russ said. “I can score a run for my team as soon as I step into the box.”

Russ’ longtime bread and butter, however, is her speed. As one of the fastest players in the ACC, Russ led the Wolfpack in stolen bases in 2018 and wasn’t thrown out a single time. Every time she gets on base, she is a threat to steal a base, a skill that just comes naturally to her.

“My mindset is… I need to get myself into scoring position,” Russ said. “I’m confident I can do that off of most catchers.”

An excellent baserunner her whole life, Russ’ key to success is getting good jumps, something she is good at partially as a result of paying attention pregame.

“It’s all about the jump,” Russ said. “I look at the pitcher while she’s warming up to understand her windup and when I’ll need to go. Then it’s just all about getting that good jump.”

As fast and adept a baserunner as Russ is, she wasn’t given the green light very often last year, roughly only once every three games. However, Patrick-Swift knows a weapon like Russ shouldn’t be left unused.

“If we can get her to the next base, we’re going to,” Patrick-Swift said. “When she gets a good jump, she can beat out any catcher in the country.”

Through five games, the Wolfpack is 3-2 with a win over No. 7 Arizona under its belt already. Hitting out of the leadoff spot, Russ has been a catalyst for the offense, and her coach expects her to keep it up.

“The kid’s just a great ballplayer,” PatrickSwift said. “The sky’s the limit.”

BRANDON LANG/ARCHIVE Freshman outfielder Sam Russ looks to throw to the infield against East Carolina on Oct. 6, 2017 in Dail Softball Stadium. The Wolfpack won the first game of that day’s doubleheader 8-1.

JOHNSTON

continued from page 13

him into the rotation, we put him into the Friday night role.”

Johnston got thrown into that Friday role and the success didn’t stop. In his first weekend start of the season and just fourth start overall, Johnston shut down an incredibly talented Duke offense on the road.

Johnston tossed 6.2 innings against the Blue Devils, holding a Duke offense that had four players who would later see the MLB draft to just two earned runs and four hits. He struck out three in the game, and his command was on display as always as he didn’t register a walk.

He ended up starting five ACC games down the stretch of the season and into the ACC Tournament. Johnston went 2-0 in those five games, striking out 18 batters compared to walking just eight.

“That’s actually what turned our season around a little bit,” Avent said. “He pitched so well on Friday nights as a freshman in the ACC. It shows how he believes in himself, how competitive he is and how much he wants to be successful.”

That competitive drive is pushing Johnston forward as he enters his second season in a pitching staff that is arguably more talented than last year. Johnston will take over the ace role from the graduated Brian Brown, and he knows what to expect in the ACC. However, Johnston won’t let that familiarity keep him from competing.

“It’s easier because the comfort level is there, you kind of know what to expect,” Johnston said. “You’ve still got to go out there and work hard every day, and do what you did last year and keep getting better. We have a good pitching staff this year, and everybody is looking to take somebody else’s spot. We have seven or eight guys that could easily be pitching on any night of the weekend. Everybody wants that spot. We just keep working hard.”

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