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May 20, 1999
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — Elliott Avent has given up trying to get a read on his 1999 North Carolina State baseball team.
The Wolfpack (36-22), which blew a two-run, ninth-inning lead in a 7-6 loss to Clemson in the first round of the Atlantic Coast Conference baseball tournament, rebounded Thursday with a solid 9-6 victory over Virginia.
The loss eliminated the seventh-seeded Cavaliers (21-35), who haven’t won a game in the double-elimination portion of the event since winning the title here in ’96.
Avent just shrugged when asked if he thought his club might be down after the crushing defeat less than 24 hours earlier.
We’re not a very emotional team, we’re a team that goes about their business,” the Wolfpack coach said. It’s almost like a work day. We don’t talk a lot. I didn’t see anything different that I saw in the first 57 games. I figured we were ready to play but this is a team you don’t get a read on.”
Matt Postell matched his career high with five runs batted in as N.C. State broke open a 6-4 game with a three-run ninth inning. Postell was 3-for-5, including a two-run homer in the first inning that staked starter Rodney Ormond (7-5) to an early lead.
His two-run single in the ninth was also a key hit.
By the time we got to the vans it was pretty much over with,” Postell said of the Clemson loss. We are a real quiet type of team. There was no change, no difference in the way we came out and prepared.”
Avent credited Postell with sparking his team – as usual.
He has hit from day one and hasn’t stopped hitting,” Avent said of his first baseman. He has put together a senior year that has been absolutely unbelievable. So, it’s no surprise to us.”
Ormond scattered seven hits over 6 2-3 innings, striking out five before giving way to a shaky bullpen once again. Ace reliever Corey Mattison, who didn’t work Wednesday night in the Clemson loss, allowed two runs on three hits in the ninth to keep it interesting. He held on long enough to record his sixth save.
As a pitcher, that’s a dream coming out with a lead already,” Ormond said of Postell’s first-inning homer. It also gave momentum to our team – that we came out swinging the bats.”
The defensive play of the game was turned in by Wolfpack third baseman Jason Smith, whose diving stop in the eighth with N.C. State clinging to a two-run lead robbed Virginia catcher Mark Rueffert of extra bases and kept the Cavaliers off the scoreboard.
If he doesn’t make that play we could be here talking about something else,” said Avent.