NC State Begins Seven-Game Road Trip at ECU

RALEIGH, N.C.- NC State baseball will begin a seven-game road trip in Greenville, N.C., to take on East Carolina in the first of two matchups this season on Tuesday, April 14th at 6 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+, and Andrew Sanders will have the radio call on 88.1 WKNC and the Varsity Network app.

The Wolfpack won the only meeting between the two programs last season, 4-1 in Greenville, as the matchup in Raleigh was canceled due to weather. NC State is 5-4 in the last nine matchups and 15-13 on the road since 1990. NC State leads the all-time series 72-44.

With the next seven games on the road, NC State will look to improve its road record, which stands at just 2-5 this season compared to a 20-7 home record.

Probable Starting Pitchers
Tuesday: LHP Luke Hemric (NCSU) vs. LHP Ryan Towers (ECU)

Luke Hemric will be making his seventh start of the season. The freshman is 1-1 on the year with a 3.60 ERA in 25 innings pitched. He is holding opponents to a .138 batting average. The Wolfpack is 4-2 in Hemric's previous six starts.

Hemric has set career highs in previous midweek starts after going 5.1 innings against Liberty and had eight strikeouts against Campbell.

Last season, NC State went 9-4 against in-state opponents. Since taking over the NC State baseball program in 1997, head coach Elliott Avent has led the Pack to a 374-123 (.659) record against in-state foes.

This season, the Wolfpack will face 10 in-state opponents. They are 5-3 after beating Queens and UNCW twice, taking a series from Duke this past weekend, and falling to Elon and Campbell.
Freshman Rett Johnson is among the best hitters in the league this season. He ranks third in batting average and fifth in on-base percentage. His .421 batting average would rank third all-time for a single season in Pack program history if the season ended today.

Johnson enters Tuesday's game against the Pirates on a 10-game hitting streak.

Also, climbing the program records is Ty Head, who has 22 stolen bases this season, moving him past Marc Maynor and Sonny Santoli for ninth all-time. Trea Turner holds the record with 57 in the 2012 season, but Head is only eight stolen bases away from matching Turner and tying for second all-time, with 30, which Turner accomplished in 2013.

Head also leads the Wolfpack with 10 home runs this season and 35 walks, a year after having 48 walks, which is sixth most in program history.

Chris McHugh has 17 multi-hit games this season and has hit safely in seven straight. At one point during the season, McHugh had a 16-game hitting streak, which remains the most by a Wolfpack hitter this season. He has reached base in 18 straight games, and his 50 hits rank seventh in the ACC. He is the only Wolfpack player with double-digit games with multiple RBIs.

The Wolfpack pitching staff has also been strong this season, leading the conference and ranking fifth in the country in hits allowed per nine innings (7.00). Pack pitching is averaging 11.1 strikeouts per nine innings, which is third in the ACC and 12th in the country.

When scoring first, the Wolfpack is 12-2; when scoring in the first inning, NC State is 9-1. Half of the Wolfpack's wins have come with the Pack trailing first, with a 12-10 record to this point.

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Players Mentioned

Ty Head

Luke Hemric

Rett Johnson

Chris McHugh

North Carolina State University Athletics