Slow Starts And Fast Finishes

To those of you thinking of crawling out on the ledge following NC State’s series loss to Boston College this past weekend, hold that thought.

With all due respect to BC’s pitching, which was outstanding, there is little doubt that at 14-5 overall but 2-3 the past week, the Wolfpack is underperforming right now. Be honest with yourself, though. The lofty preseason ranking and expectations notwithstanding, did you really think this season would be free of slumps and hiccups? Really? Didn't we warn you after the opening weekend to buckle your seat belts? Besides, this is NC State we’re talking about, that school between Western Boulevard and Hillsborough Street, the one where nothing is ever easy, and where the path taken is almost always the most difficult one available.

The Wolfpack is definitely in a slump — a .251 team batting average the last five games, .226 with runners on base, .185 with runners in scoring position, one home run, and 18 runs scored (3.6 per game). The team went 1-for-27 with runners in scoring position in the Boston College series. Only two regulars are hitting better than .300 during the five-game skid. Three are hitting .200 or worse. Poor, uncompetitive at-bats are all too frequently resulting in weak grounders, lazy fly balls and strikeouts. And uncompetitive ABs have been the order of the day ever since that 2-1 victory over Alabama back on March 5.

The pitching numbers the last five games look a little better but don’t really hold up to scrutiny either. A 3.80 staff ERA is decent enough, but that includes 21 walks, nine hit batters and six wild pitches in 45 innings. That, combined with 46 hits allowed, computes to 1.7 baserunners allowed per inning, way too many. Relievers, in particular, despite a 2.89 ERA during the five games, have allowed 36 baserunners (22 hits, 10 walks, 4 HBP) in 18 2/3 innings. Chris Williams, Will Gilbert, Tommy DeJuneas, Sean Adler and Travis Orwig combined to inherit 12 baserunners and strand them all. The rest of the pen allowed six of 11 inherited runners to score. That can’t continue.

Not to give a complete pass to the starters, although they appear to be well ahead of where they were a year ago at this time. NC State’s starting pitchers are 2-3 with a 4.44 ERA the past five games, with 24 hits allowed, 11 walks and five HBPs in 26 1/3 innings. That comes to 1.52 baserunners per inning, still too many. Hitters counts — 2-0, 2-1, 3-1 — are far too commonplace. So at the risk of embellishing a reputation as something of a scold on the subject of pitchers throwing strikes, let’s just say that it wouldn’t hurt the Wolfpack to throw a few more strikes, to pitch ahead in the count a little more often, and to consider the notion that maybe strike one at 88 mph is a better pitch than ball four at 98. ‘Nuff said.

Despite the recent slump, there is no reason whatsoever to believe that this team won’t turn things around. Now in his 20th season as head coach, Elliott Avent has an established track record of following slow starts, both overall and in conference play, with strong finishes. And that’s the way it should be.

• In 1997, Avent’s first team lost its first three games and was 18-11 overall, 2-5 in the ACC, before catching fire in April and May with a 14-game winning streak and a 13-game ACC winning streak. That club finished 43-20, 15-7 in the conference, before finishing third in the six-team NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional.

• Avent’s 1999 team lost five of its first six ACC games but rallied to finish 11-13 in the conference, 37-25 overall, earning a spot in the NCAA Auburn Regional.

• In 2003, with Doak Field under renovation and the team playing 53 of 63 games away from its home field, the Wolfpack opened 5-4 but went into overdrive soon after a trip to UCLA, winning 16 in a row in late February and March, and 28 of 32 heading into May. That club finished 45-18 and advanced all the way to the NCAA Coral Gables Super Regional.

• Avent had arguably his best everyday lineup in 2005 and ’06, loaded from top to bottom with speed, power hitters, hitters for average, and spectacular defenders. Despite the standout lineup, the ’05 squad tripped and fell over itself at the start of the conference season, losing two of three at Miami, winning two of three against Maryland at the Doak, and then getting swept at Georgia Tech. After starting 3-6 in ACC play, the 2005 Pack won the rest of its conference series to finish at 17-13 in league play. That team also went 11-0 in midweek games and finished with a 41-19 record after a trip to the NCAA Lincoln Regional.

• Three years later, in 2008, NC State limped to a 14-9 start and was 4-6 in ACC play after losing two of its first three conference series. A 19-5 spurt pushed the Wolfpack to a 42-22 overall mark, 18-11 in the ACC, and a berth in the NCAA Athens Super Regional, one win shy of the College World Series.

• In 2010, one of the most power-laden NC State teams ever opened the conference season getting swept at Clemson — a longtime Wolfpack death march in those days and still a difficult place to win — then split its next two conference series to stand at 3-6 less than a month into league play. That club fought its way back to the break-even mark in the ACC at 15-15 and finished the year 38-24 after a trip to the NCAA Myrtle Beach Regional.

• The 2011 team nearly buried itself in the early going of ACC play, losing two of three at Duke and getting swept at Georgia Tech (another traditional and longtime House of Horrors for NC State) to begin the year 1-5. The Pack rebounded by defeating both Clemson and Wake Forest two of three here at home, but then got swept at Miami and stood at 5-10 in ACC play midway through the conference season. That team also battled its way back to .500 in league play (15-15) and finished 35-27 after a trip to the NCAA Columbia Regional.

• The most famous slow start in school history, and maybe the one that best applies to the current group, occurred three years ago. The 2013 Wolfpack began the year 10-1 overall but then slumped to an 18-10 mark, 4-5 in the ACC. This was not expected. Baseball America’s 2013 college preview issue featured NC State’s Carlos Rodon and Trea Turner on its cover along with North Carolina’s Kent Emanuel and Colin Moran. Both schools were preseason top 10 picks and consensus choices to make the College World Series. While the Pack lost nine of 17 following that 10-1 beginning, UNC got off to a historically blistering start, winning 39 of its first 41 games and 18 of its first 20 in the ACC. The Tar Heels stumbled for a stretch coming out of the final exam break, just as NC State caught fire and hit its stride. Beginning March 31, the Wolfpack won 15 in a row through April 23, 21 of 22 through May 11, and 26 of 29 through the first two rounds of the ACC Championships. A sweep of the NCAA Raleigh Regional and Super Regional made it 31 victories in 35 games heading into NC State’s first College World Series appearance in 45 years. An 8-1 victory over the resurgent Tar Heels in the CWS opener made if 32 of 36 and a school-record 50 wins overall before the Pack lost twice and bowed out of Omaha at the end of a truly magical ride.

• Then there is last year’s team, which stood at 18-9 after a 10-6 victory at Charlotte on March 31, only to lose nine of its next 12 games, several of them in agonizingly creative fashion. That dropped the Pack to 27-21 the last weekend of April. A doubleheader sweep of eventual national champion Virginia ignited the Wolfpack, which won nine in a row and 13 of 15 heading into the ACC championship game vs. Florida State. The Pack went on to the NCAA Fort Worth Regional. The less said about the way that ended the better. Suffice it to say that NC State, which picked itself off the canvas after an ugly April swoon to finish at 36-23, had every reason to believe it should have advanced to the Super Regionals instead of regional champion TCU.

Okay, the current Wolfpack team has a lot of work to do and a long way to go before it can even think about getting from here to there. The point of all this, however, is not to predict this team’s final destiny but to point out that it still holds its destiny in its own hands. Only the truly greatest teams ever go through an entire season without some kind of slump. Think Cal State Fullerton in 1995 (57-9). Everyone else is merely mortal, including the 2016 Wolfpack. Slumps are inevitable. So would you rather see NC State struggle in mid-March or in mid-May?

Exactly.

• The Mendoza Line: Sophomore infielder Evan Mendoza is doing his part to redefine the traditional “Mendoza Line,” which historically has been a .200 batting average. Mendoza broke into the lineup Feb. 27 and made a huge early splash with 12 hits in 20 at-bats in his first five starts. A cooling off period was inevitable, and Mendoza was 2-for-20 in his next six starts, but rebounded with four hits in 10-at-bats vs. Indiana State to lift his average to .353 with a double, a homer, four RBIs and seven runs scored while anchoring the bottom third of the lineup. Though Mendoza has had to make adjustments at the plate as pitchers have adjusted to him, his defense has been rock steady, surehanded at both second and third base with a strong and accurate throwing arm. Even in his one inning of work at shortstop March 15 vs. Indiana State, he made an impact, backhanding a sharply hit grounder in the hole and starting a nifty 6-4-3 double play to snuff out a Sycamores rally. For what it’s worth, and it’s a small sample, Mendoza is hitting .545 (6-for-11) when playing second base.

• Top To Bottom: Josh McLain has had a solid sophomore campaign for the Wolfpack, hitting safely in 17 of the Wolfpack’s 19 games and running down everything in sight in center field. It was once remarked that Shoeless Joe Jackson’s glove was where triples went to die. The same might be said of McLain. Offensively, he began the year hitting atop the NC State lineup, but dropped to the nine spot March 11 for the first game of the Boston College series. Hitting ninth seems to agree with McLain, who is hitting .429 (6-for-14) with a double and four walks from the bottom of the order. For the year, McLain is hitting .299 with seven doubles, two homers, 15 RBIs and 14 runs scored. He has a .373 on-base percentage and a .468 slugging percentage. He ranks among the team leaders in just about every offensive category, and enters the Notre Dame series on a team-best seven-game hitting streak. He is batting .409 (9-for-22) during the streak.

• From A Trot To A Walk: Chance Shepard made school history with home runs in six consecutive games and in seven consecutive home games at Doak Field. Shepard hasn’t gone deep since March 6 vs. Bucknell, but he has remained productive offensively, driving in two of the Pack’s three runs in the Boston College series, and remaining a presence from the cleanup spot in the order. Heading into the Notre Dame series, Shepard has added the walk to his arsenal, walking six times in his last three games, including a career-high four bases on balls March 16 vs. Indiana State.

• Work Fast, Throw Strikes, Babe Ruth Is Dead: Chris Williams is never going to be mistaken for Clayton Kershaw. He sometimes gets overlooked among all the power arms the Wolfpack has on its staff — Williams’ fastball is clocked with an egg-timer — and everyone in the bullpen gets overshadowed by the incomparable Will Gilbert. Still, NC State’s sixth-year senior righthander has been a bellwether in relief for head coach Elliott Avent. In particular, Williams came out of the pen and stopped some serious bleeding in four consecutive midweek games — March 2 vs. UNC Wilmington, March 8 vs. Fairfield, and March 15 and 16 vs. Indiana State. In those four games, Williams worked 10 1/3 scoreless innings and faced 39 batters, allowing 10 hits but walking just one with five strikeouts. Williams came into each game with traffic on the bases, inheriting 10 baserunners and stranding them all. Opponents may be hitting .280 against Williams for the season, but they’re only hitting .238 with runners on base, .100 with runners on base and two out, and just .111 with runners in scoring position.

• Stranded: NC State relievers have stranded 45 of 59 inherited runners, but that is mostly the work of the trio of Sean Adler (7 of 8), Will Gilbert (6 of 7), and Chris Williams (a perfect 11 of 11). Between them, Adler, Gilbert and Williams have inherited 26 baserunners and stranded 24 of them.

This Marathon Is Only A 10K, And We're Already At The 2.5 Mark

If the 162-game Major League Baseball season is a marathon, then the 56-game regular season that college baseball plays is more like a 10K cross country race.

NC State has played just 14 games, yet we’re already at the season’s quarter mark. So it definitely gets late early, as Yogi once said. The good news is the Wolfpack is 12-2. The bad news is we don’t know much about what that 12-2 means. The Pack is fifth in the latest unofficial RPI rankings thanks to a tough early schedule, but Central Connecticut is No. 2 in the RPI and St. Bonaventure is No. 10, so what does that mean? The national polls have the Pack everywhere from eighth to 20th. It’s still early.

We’ll find out much more, and quickly, beginning this weekend as the Pack opens Atlantic Coast Conference play against a surprising 12-2 Boston College. The Eagles haven’t played murderer’s row in amassing that 12-2 mark, but they have beaten the teams they’re supposed to (2-1 vs. teams with a winning record, 10-1 vs. losers). That’s a big step forward for a program that suffers from severe handicaps in terms of weather, facilities and financial resources.

BC has not enjoyed much recent success, but overlook them at your peril. While NC State is 10-4 against the Eagles since Mike Gambino took over as BC head coach in 2011, the Wolfpack is just 3-3 against Boston College at Doak Field in that time, and has lost three of its last four meetings overall against Gambino’s clubs.

All of which makes this a most interesting ACC opener for NC State, which has proven itself to be a formidable opponent when the mood strikes. It was just last Saturday that we saw the Pack play Alabama in what felt like an NCAA regional elimination game. Both teams pitched, defended and ran the bases well. Hits were at a premium, meaning every pitch seemed to carry the weight of the world, especially in the late innings. The coaches pulled out all the stops and emptied their bullpens. The crowd at the USA Baseball complex was loud and raucous. It was a great early-season taste of what college baseball is like in June, and NC State came away a 2-1 winner.

This past week, a seemingly uninspired Wolfpack played a two-game series at home against what should have been an overmatched Fairfield team, only to play down to the level of the competition and win a pair of clunkers, 4-2 and 4-0. In the two games, NC State went 8-for-28 with runners on base, 4-for-15 with runners in scoring position, and 6-for-19 with two out. The energy level from the Alabama game was palpable by its absence. If there’s a lesson to be gleaned from this, the Wolfpack should hope it doesn’t have to be learned the hard way.

There are teams in college baseball that often win games just because of the name on the front of the jersey. Florida State is one. The Seminoles just seem to intimidate some teams. Ditto Texas. Miami has been one of those teams over the years. Southern Cal won six College World Series championships in seven years from 1968-74, including five in a row from 1970-74. You can bet the Trojans spooked many an opponent just by showing up at the ballpark. LSU won five CWS championships from 1991-2000, steamrolling starry-eyed non-conference cannon fodder in the process.

Suffice it to say, the Wolfpack is not, has never been and likely never will be one of those teams. NC State’s best teams — Elliott Avent’s best teams in particular — have played with an edge about them, a noticeable chip on their shoulder. They wear the underdog role well. They play hard. They come to the ballpark resolved to shove the bat up the other team’s collective ass. When the Pack shows up thinking it can win just by flipping its gloves on the field, bad things tend to happen.

Based purely on the talent on the field and the home-field advantage, NC State should win this weekend’s series against Boston College, but that’s not to say it will be easy. It won’t be. First of all, the Eagles are pretty good. They can pitch. Weekend starters Mike King, Jesse Adams and Jacob Stevens are a combined 6-0 with a 1.88 ERA in 52 2/3 innings. As a staff, BC hasn’t allowed a home run in 14 games.

Offensively, Boston College boasts a veteran lineup and a team on-base percentage of .386. Senior first baseman Joe Cronin is hitting .372 with four doubles, a triple, a homer, 14 RBIs, a .581 slugging percentage and a .472 OBP, all team highs. BC is hitting .302 as a team and scoring more than seven runs per game. Also, the Eagles have experienced recent success against the Wolfpack and have no reason to come into the series expecting failure. In other words, Boston College is better than you might think and quite capable of winning.

The Wolfpack that defeated Alabama is a dangerous baseball team. The team that spent two days sleepwalking against Fairfield looked like a danger only to itself.

• Sheparding The Way: Most of college baseball heard about Chance Shepard’s school-record streak of six consecutive games with at least one home run. Readers of this largely unread blog know that when Chance and little brother Shane Shepard both homered Feb. 26 vs. Wright State it marked the first time since 1990 that a pair of brothers homered in the same game for NC State. There is one other Shepard stat worth noting. Between them, Chance and Shane have nine home runs. One or the other, or both, has homered in eight of NC State’s 14 games overall, and eight of 10 games at Doak Field.

• Comebacks: NC State continues its weird pattern of falling behind in nearly every game. The Wolfpack fell behind four times in its last five games, meaning it now has trailed at one point or another in 12 of its first 14 games of 2016. That’s truly rare, at least for a good team, but don’t expect anyone to look up just how rare. Just suffice it to say that it doesn’t happen often.

• Taking Advantage: Because the college season is shorter than you might think and because winning absolutely matters, coaches often have a short leash on players. Start the season in a five-game slump and you might find yourself on the bench. And when the coach gives you an opportunity, you’d be well-advised to take advantage of it quickly. This isn’t the minor leagues where you might get a few hundred at-bats to prove yourself and no one cares if those few hundred at-bats cost the team a playoff berth.

Evan Mendoza now has experienced both ends of this maxim. Mendoza came to NC State in the fall of 2014 as a heralded two-way player from a high-profile high school program in Sarasota, Fla. He impressed quickly on the mound in fall practices and entered the 2015 season as a weekend starter. A couple of poor outings later, Mendoza found himself at the far end of the bullpen. He finished the year with nine appearances and just 18 2/3 innings pitched.

Fast forward to 2016. The season is six games old and head coach Elliott Avent is looking for an offensive spark at third base. He plays a hunch and writes Mendoza’s name on the lineup card. Mendoza responds with three hits in four at-bats. Two of the hits were rollers that found holes in the infield, but bloodstained hits are still hits. Mendoza has been in the lineup ever since, and the hits are seldom cheap. In his first four starts he went 10-for-15. He hit safely in his first six starts and was hitting .542.

Mendoza has cooled since then, 1-for-11 in his last three games, but don’t look for Avent to yank him from the lineup anytime soon. His at-bats remain competitive and his glovework at second and third base has been exemplary. The game has yet to speed up on him, and probably won’t. This time around he was a textbook example of a player who was given an opportunity and didn’t wait to take advantage.

• Pitching In: We all know NC State’s pitching will be something of a work in progress this season, much as it was a year ago. The staff features some big arms and some equally big command issues. The Wolfpack and pitching coach Scott Foxhall will have to work around those problems as they are being (hopefully) ironed out. The first order of business should be setting a three-man weekend rotation, and then getting innings from those three starters.

Junior righthander Joe O’Donnell and sophomore lefty Brian Brown should be 1-2 in this weekend’s rotation vs. BC. Fourth-year-junior righthander Johnny Piedmonte should be the third starter, health permitting. Piedmonte worked just 2 2/3 innings in his only start, Feb. 19 vs. Old Dominion, and has been dealing with ongoing back issues since then. The Pack very much needs for those three to pull it together and pitch regularly into the late innings. Brown, who routinely pitched into the seventh and occasionally the eighth inning a year ago, should be fine. O’Donnell, a reliever a year ago, leads the staff with 15 2/3 innings, about 5 1/3 per start. Those two don’t figure to be a problem.

That’s not to say there is no problem, though. NC State starters are 5-1 with a 3.51 ERA but have worked just 56 1/3 innings. The bullpen is 7-1 with a 3.10 ERA and six saves in 69 2/3 innings. The starters are averaging slightly more than four innings per start, which means the bullpen is logging more than 55 percent of the innings pitched. That trend needs to reverse itself. Brown and O’Donnell must continue to lengthen their starts and Piedmonte or some other third starter candidate needs to emerge and do the same.

The good news is that things have improved noticeably as the season has progressed. The staff returned from its season-opening series at wind-blown Myrtle Beach with an unsightly 5.67 ERA. In 11 games since then, it’s a much more palatable 2.91. The bad news is that the bullpen still is shouldering far too much of the load.

NC State relievers are 7-0 with six saves and a 2.54 ERA since returning from the beach, holding opponents to a .205 average in 56 2/3 innings. That’s 14 more innings than the starters in 11 games. Will Gilbert (1.35 ERA, 13.1 IP), Evan Brabrand (2.89, 9.1 IP) and Chris Williams (7.0 shutout innings) have been outstanding since coming back from the beach. Tommy DeJuneas (6.00, 6.0 IP), Sean Adler (4.76, 5.2 IP) and Cody Beckman (4.91, 3.2 IP) have had their moments and figure to be stalwarts.

That’s potentially a very good bullpen, assuming the starters are regularly handing the ball off in the sixth or seventh inning and not the fourth or fifth. Or the third, as has happened three times already. Or the first, which happened Tuesday vs. Fairfield.

Stay tuned, and don’t forget those seat belts.

The Wild Ride Threatens To Jump The Rails

A wild ride. That was the prediction here a week ago, wasn’t it? NC State baseball in 2016 was gonna be a wild ride. Buckle your seat belts.

Well, six games later, that seems a bit understated, doesn’t it? Before you bother with the seat belt, maybe you should make sure those insurance premiums are all paid up as well.

While NC State is far from a perfect team, it’s safe to say that thus far the 2016 Wolfpack — thanks to a deep, balanced and volatile offense — is never out of a game. Leave early and there’s no telling what you might miss. Only in the season-opening 6-0 loss to Old Dominion did the Pack sleepwalk through an entire game and never so much as threaten. Since then, comebacks have been the order of the day. Including the ODU loss, NC State fell behind in each of its first eight games of the season, only to come from behind to win six of them. And that’s against a schedule that’s much tougher than you might think.

Some of the comebacks, admittedly, were trivial. Trailing 1-0 after a half-inning and then winning handily is no great feat. Three times, however, the Wolfpack dug itself out of deep holes in the late innings to pull out victories over highly regarded opponents — Coastal Carolina on Feb. 20, Kent State on Feb. 21, and UNC Greensboro on March 1. The Pack, in fact, came from behind twice in the fifth inning or later against both the Chanticleers and Golden Flashes at Myrtle Beach the opening weekend of the season, then erupted for six eighth-inning runs against a stout UNCG bullpen to overcome a 4-2 deficit at the Doak.

The early offensive star has been Chance Shepard, who enters play this weekend with home runs in each of his last five games and a team-best 13 RBIs for the season. Shepard has been reason enough not to leave the ballpark early. He has as many or more home runs than any three teammates combined. In fact, Shepard has more home runs in nine games than all but three players from the 2014 team and all but two players from the 2013 College World Series team had those entire seasons.

The pitching is another story, still a work in progress, but Joe O’Donnell and Brian Brown look set as weekend starters, and Cody Beckman’s outing Feb. 27 vs. a very tough Wright State (3 1/3 shutout innings) put him squarely in the bullpen mix with Tommy DeJuneas and Will Gilbert.

The 4.56 staff ERA is partly a product of a demanding schedule, but no excuses. The pitching needs to get better and ACC play begins next weekend. At the same time, Shepard is due up any inning now, so keep that seat belt buckled and check on those insurance premiums.

• Home Run Streaks: Easily accessible computerized records only go back to 2003, so until someone in the media relations office at NC State goes through the scorebooks and box scores from 2002 and before, there’s no telling whether Chance Shepard’s current streak of at least one home run in five consecutive games is a school record. This program has produced numerous power hitters over the years, so it’s not safe to assume anything.

We can, however, tell you that Shepard’s streak is the longest by a State hitter in the BBCOR bat era (since 2011), an era whose standards have been softened a bit by the flat-seamed baseball introduced last year, but whatever. From 2011-15, the longest home run streak by a Wolfpack player was by Trea Turner, who homered in each game of a three-game series March 21-22-23, 2014, at Maryland.

In the eight years prior to the BBCOR era, NC State had four homer streaks of at least three games, the longest being a four-game streak by Justin Riley in 2003. Riley homered April 2 vs. UNC Greensboro, and then homered in each game of a series sweep at Duke the weekend of April 4-5-6. He homered twice in the first game of the Duke series, giving him five home runs in the four games and at least one home run in all four games. So Shepard’s streak is the longest since at least 2002.

One bit of research has been concluded on this subject. NC State hit a school-record 123 home runs in 1988, a record that may prove unassailable. The longest home runs streak by anyone on that team was three games, once each by Turtle Zaun and Dell Ahalt, and twice by Brian Bark.

Aside from that, well, the subject is awaiting the crack research team at the media relations office.

• The Shepards Catch The Barks: Chance Shepard and his younger brother Shane made a bit of Wolfpack history on Feb. 26 when they both homered in a 10-8 loss to Wright State. Shane, a sophomore playing left field, gave the Wolfpack a 2-1 lead with a two-run bomb in the bottom of the second inning. Chance, the Pack’s senior DH and backup catcher, got a three-run ninth inning started with a solo shot. Chance’s bomb made the Shepards the first brothers to homer in the same game for NC State since Brian and Robbie Bark both went deep March 27, 1990, in a 15-6 blowout victory at Davidson. Interestingly, Chance and Shane’s father, Steve Shepard, was a teammate of Brian Bark’s in 1988 and ’89, and earned first-team All-ACC honors in 1989. Steve was a dangerous power-hitting first baseman (18 home runs in 1989) and also a pretty fair lefthanded pitcher.

• Falling Behind: Here’s one more topic for the research staff at the media relations office. This year marks the first time since at least 2002 that the Wolfpack fell behind in each of its first eight games of the season. Six come-from-behind victories, three of them in the late innings, in the first eight games of the year is pretty remarkable. This isn’t basketball with its innumerable lead changes. Late-inning comebacks in the era of relief specialization are rare. Three in eight games is an achievement. Again, fasten those seat belts.

• Mendoza’s Hot Start: Evan Mendoza arrived at NC State in the fall of 2014 as a heralded two-way player from Florida, a righthanded pitcher with exceptional command and a good-hitting middle infielder. The season started, Mendoza struggled on the mound, and his playing time diminished and then disappeared.

Mendoza has reemerged this season. He came off the bench Feb. 21 vs. Kent State and got two plate appearances, going 0-for-1 with a walk. He got his first start two games later, Feb. 27 vs. Wright State, and delivered in a big way. Mendoza went 3-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI against the Raiders, and while two of the hits were bleeders that found holes in the infield, the fact is they found the holes and they count. Mendoza hasn’t stopped hitting since, and the hits aren’t all bleeders and bloopers, either. In four games since he cracked the starting lineup, Mendoza is 10-for-15 (10-for-16 overall) with three doubles and a home run. In the Wolfpack’s 5-2 victory over UNC Wilmington on March 2, he went 4-for-4 with a double, a long home run and two RBIs.

• RPI Notes: No one really knows how the NCAA’s Rating Percentage Index (RPI) works, but there is no question that on any given day a look at the RPI standings can leave you scratching your head. The NCAA doesn’t release official RPI rankings until around midseason, for good reason, but there are several websites that assimilate the formula and list updated RPI rankings daily.

On Feb. 28, following a series win over Wright State and sporting a 5-2 record, NC State was No.1 in the RPI — best in the nation! — according to the WarrenNolan.com website. Not sure if this is a first for the Wolfpack and there’s not really any way to research it, but a screen shot on the desktop preserves the moment in perpetuity.

Four days and two impressive victories later, the Wolfpack has tumbled in the RPI, falling all the way to fifth. The top five, through games of March 2, are Fresno State, Florida, Ole Miss, South Alabama and NC State, followed by Vanderbilt. Pretty good so far. Then, unfortunately, things get a little hinky. Maine, a college baseball powerhouse in the 1970s and ’80s, is seventh, despite a 3-4 record. Four spots later, Youngstown State is No. 11, and at this point the RPI loses any semblance of credibility. Why? Because Youngstown State is 1-6. Seven games, six losses, No. 11. Yeah, right. The RPI ranks the Penguins’ schedule at No. 1, toughest in the country, but how do three games against No. 56 Western Kentucky and four games against No. 1 Fresno State add up to the toughest schedule in the country? Doesn’t seem plausible. And how does anyone get ranked No. 11 with a 1-6 record? Doesn’t seem possible.

Coaches constantly complain that the RPI is flawed and that the NCAA relies on it far too heavily in selecting and seeding teams for the NCAA Tournament. No argument here. The good news is that the season is only two weeks old and small sample sizes will pollute any mathematical formula. These problems should, for the most part, sort themselves out over time. Still, Maine and Youngstown State in the top 11 despite a combined record of 4-10 … tough to explain that one.

NC State Baseball Is Back, Get Ready For A Wild Ride

Buckle your seat belts, boys and girls. The 2016 college baseball season is underway and judging by the first weekend, those of us following NC State could be in for a wild ride.

Forgetting both the entire weekend’s pitching performance and Friday’s season-opening coma vs. Old Dominion for a moment, what the Wolfpack did offensively Saturday and Sunday against quality opponents was an eye-opener.

In games at 23rd-ranked Coastal Carolina on Saturday and against a tough Kent State team on a neutral field on Sunday, NC State came from behind to take a lead four times, batting .321 (25-for-78) and belting five doubles and seven home runs in the process. The Wolfpack showed resilience combined with some scary offensive firepower in both games.

The Pack fell behind the Chanticleers 3-1, 4-2 and 5-3 right out of the chute Saturday, scored three runs in the fifth to take a 6-5 lead, fell behind 7-6 after six innings, then scored one in the seventh to tie it and four in the eighth to blow it open. When NC State scored two more in the top of the ninth to take a 13-7 lead, those runs looked to be entirely superfluous. They weren’t, but the Pack held on to win 13-10 after a harrowing bottom of the ninth.

On Sunday, NC State’s Joe O’Donnell and Kent State’s Andy Ravel traded zeroes into the fifth inning before the Golden Flashes got to O’Donnell for a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth. The Wolfpack answered suddenly with four in the top of the sixth on home runs by Brock Deatherage and Andrew Knizner. The pitching staff promptly gave the lead back in the bottom of the sixth on a three-run homer by Zarley Zalewski — yes, THE Zarley Zalewski, aka Z Squared — only to have the offense take the lead for good with three in the top of the seventh.

In the two games vs. Coastal and Kent State, NC State batted .321 overall (25-for-78), .343 (12-for-35) with runners on base, .458 (11-for-24) with runners in scoring position, and .571 (4-for-7) with a runner on third and less than two out. Preston Palmeiro, who had a monster weekend, was 6-for-10 with two doubles, a homer and five RBIs in the two games. Joe Dunand was 4-for-10 with a double, a homer and three RBIs. Andrew Knizner was 3-for-9 with two homers and four RBIs. Josh McLain was 4-for-10 with his first collegiate homer, five runs scored and three batted in. Brock Deatherage was 3-for-6 with a homer and four runs scored.

This was not a case of fluffing up the stat sheet at the expense of weak sisters like Quinnipiac or La Salle. Coastal Carolina, a legitimate Top 25 team, is heavily favored to win the Big South Conference. Kent State is similarly favored to win the Mid-American. The rallies against the Chanticleers came against Alex Cunningham and Bobby Holmes, two of the best pitchers in the Big South. The Pack roughed them up to the tune of 11 runs on 11 hits in seven innings. That’s impressive. The uprising against Kent State came at the expense of Ravel (no, not the composer, Bolero) and Zach Willeman. NC State pounded those two for seven runs on 10 hits in 7 2/3 combined innings. Ravel was Kent’s Sunday starter a year ago, with a 6-2 record and a 3.13 ERA. Willeman was their closer, saving seven games with a 2.81 ERA. Again, that’s some impressive bat work against good pitching.

All was not fun and games for the Wolfpack, however. First, there was the season-opening train wreck against Old Dominion on Friday. Forgetting for the moment that ODU is highly regarded in Conference USA and threw preseason All-CUSA starter Sam Sinnen on the mound, NC State’s performance was ghastly. The everyday lineup managed three hits and committed four errors. Seven Wolfpack pitchers combined to walk seven, hit two batters and throw three wild pitches. It’s a miracle ODU only won 5-0.

Exactly what caused this shutdown of the team’s collective frontal lobes? It would seem that more than a few Wolfpack players felt they could beat ODU just by tossing their gloves on the field. Whatever the problem was, it was gone by Saturday, at least among the position players, and did not reappear. The rest of the weekend, NC State looked like NC State, at least offensively — fighting and scratching and clawing like banshees for every pitch, every out, every run.

The offense may have returned to normal following Friday’s disaster, but the pitching was no better, at least not on Saturday. Five NC State pitchers combined to allow Coastal Carolina 10 runs on 14 hits, six walks and a hit batter. In those first two games of the weekend, the Wolfpack allowed 15 runs, 13 of them earned, on 21 hits, 13 walks, three hit batters and four wild pitches. Ouch! Only Will Gilbert looked as advertised, pitching 2 1/3 scoreless innings.

The pitching was better on Sunday — not great but better, although that’s a low bar to clear — with O’Donnell and Evan Brabrand combining to allow three runs on four hits in 8 1/3 innings.

For the weekend, the Wolfpack pitching staff was 2-1 but with a 5.67 ERA on 26 hits, 16 walks, four hit batters and five wild pitches in 27 innings. State pitchers surrendered five doubles and five home runs in the three games. ODU, Coastal Carolina and Kent State combined for a .371 on-base percentage and a .447 slugging percentage against the Pack.

These are the growing pains you go through when you invest so heavily in raw power arms — walks, hit batters, wild pitches, blown leads. The pitching will no doubt get better, but just how much better remains to be seen. Developing pitchers when the games count against the head coach’s won-lost record and the head coach works for a demanding AD who expects to win, well, that’s a tough sell.

Pitching coach Scott Foxhall is really good and managed to fashion a 2.93 ERA a year ago out of a staff afflicted with many of the same command issues. If he can work similar magic this year and give this offense a chance to do its thing without feeling the imperative to score in double figures every game, then this could be a wild, fun ride, with some tight hair-pin turns on two wheels, an occasional spinout on the far turn, and some wide-open, high-speed dashes down the straightaways.

But you’d better buckle that seat belt.

The Ties That Bind: Remarkable Or Just Recycled?

A week ago today, on Dec. 4, Bruce Springsteen released The Ties That Bind: The River Collection, an elaborate box set commemorating the 35th anniversary of the release of The River, Springsteen’s fifth album.

This is Springsteen’s sixth box set or multi-disc set dating back to 1998. He previously released box sets commemorating the anniversaries of Born To Run and Darkness On The Edge Of Town; plus Tracks, a collection of outtakes from the first quarter-century of his career; and The Album Collection Vol. 1, which included remastered versions of his first seven studio albums.

The Ties That Bind features four CDs, three DVDs, a replica notebook of song lyrics, and a glossy hard-cover coffee-table photo book. It retails for somewhere north of $100, depending on where you buy it, and is either an essential purchase or a dubious waste of money, depending on how serious a Springsteen collector you are.

At first blush, The Ties That Binds includes an eye-opening array of music from The River recording sessions and the ensuing tour in support of the album. On CD, we have: a.) the remastered album The River, b.) the one-disc album Springsteen turned in to Columbia Records in 1979 only to pull it back at the last moment, and c.) 22 outtakes from The River recording sessions. On DVD we have d.) a documentary about the making of The River, e.) a five-song video from the rehearsals for the tour, and f.) three-quarters of a professionally filmed concert from Nov. 5, 1980, in Tempe, Ariz. If you don’t have any of this, then your decision is simple. The Ties That Bind will blow your mind.

Unfortunately, there is little here that breaks new ground, at least not for the avid Springsteen collector. The remastered album was included in 2014’s The Album Collection. Ten of the 22 outtakes were released 17 years ago on Tracks and do not appear to have been remastered for The Ties That Bind. The one-disc album and most of the other 12 outtakes have been widely circulated as bootlegs, as has the audio from the Tempe concert. The documentary aired on HBO several times the week prior to the release of the box set. The coffee-table book and the replica notebook are nice but entirely superfluous. This collection is about the music, and most of it is recycled.

So what are we to make of all this? The four CDs offer very little by way of encouragement. The previously bootlegged material now has been professionally mixed and mastered and represents a significant sonic upgrade over the bootlegs. That’s a plus. Then there is the documentary, which is very good but hardly as good, as informative or as entertaining as the documentaries that came with the Born To Run and Darkness On The Edge Of Town box sets. The rehearsal video is fun but we only get a 20-minute snippet.

What sets The Ties That Bind apart, really the only thing that sets it apart, is the Tempe concert video, which is a revelation. Shot by a four-camera crew with excellent camera location and direction, this remarkable 24-song video document shows Springsteen and the E Street Band at work onstage like no other concert video. Visually and musically this video is nothing short of astonishing.

As previously stated, The River was Springsteen’s fifth album but was the first that came close to capturing his onstage sound. Listen to the album, though, and then watch the video and you realize that no studio album could ever properly capture the magic of Springsteen in concert.

The setlist from Tempe was 35 songs. This video captures 24 of them — with the audio professionally mixed and mastered for the first time — and lasts 2 hours and 38 minutes. It’s not quite the entire concert but it’s more than enough to convey the idea of what Springsteen was like onstage at his peak. And words can only understate just how electrifying his live shows were. You had to be there.

I saw Springsteen live for the first time on Feb. 28, 1981, at the Greensboro (N.C.) Coliseum, 115 days after Tempe. Like everyone in attendance, I was completely blown away. The Tempe concert is pretty much what the Greensboro show looked, sounded and felt like. The setlist was a little different. Springsteen opened Tempe with “Born To Run,” which was part of the second encore in Greensboro, and there were a few other differences but these are minor details. The meat and potatoes from both shows were the same. Oh yeah, our seats in Greensboro were in the right rear corner of the arena, nowhere near as close as producer Thom Zimny’s camera crew was in Tempe, which makes the video even more of a treat.

The gold standard of Springsteen tours was the Darkness On The Edge Of Town tour in 1978, perhaps the most palpably intense tour in rock history. The River tour may have been a close second. I saw both the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead four times in the 1970s. Mick Jagger had a well-earned reputation for his frenetic stage performances, and the Stones were smoking hot in concert. The Dead were renowned for playing until the wee small hours of the morning. When they got a groove on and moved past all the sloppy noodling, they were mesmerizing. Neither had anything on Springsteen.

The longest Stones concert I ever saw was about 90 minutes. When I saw them in 1972 on the infamous Exile On Main Street tour, the show lasted exactly 70 minutes, six minutes less than Springsteen’s first set on New Year’s Eve 1980 at Long Island’s Nassau Coliseum. At the other end of the spectrum, I twice saw the Dead play shows of more than five hours — including a 1973 concert and jam session with the Allman Brothers in Washington, D.C., that was pushing seven hours when I was forced to leave — but at times they were as immobile as cigar store indians onstage. They could have been sleepwalking.

Springsteen was the best of both worlds. His shows on The River tour lasted close to four hours, occasionally longer, and, as the Tempe video clearly shows, he was every bit as wild and unleashed onstage as Jagger ever was. Springsteen bounced around the stage as if his hair was on fire, climbing on the amplifier stacks and dancing on Roy Bittan’s piano, sliding on his knees across the stage to play a guitar solo at Clarence Clemons’ feet, wading out into the crowd in mid-song and even body-surfing the crowd through the arena. Four hours of this was exhausting just to watch. Mick Jagger likely would have been gasping for air midway though a Bruce Springsteen concert. The Grateful Dead never would have made it that far.

So, does the Tempe video by itself make The Ties That Bind worth buying at a hundred bucks a pop? Probably not but that’s entirely in the eyes and ears of the beholder. Of course, there was a brief window of time when you could have had the Tempe video for pennies on the dollar. You had to be on your toes, but on the morning of Dec. 4, the Tempe video was available for download on the iTunes store for $1.99. That is not a typo, boys and girls. $1.99. Whether that was just a limited offer or a mistake by Apple, that link was taken down within a few hours of going up. There’s no question that was value for the money. Not so sure the same applies to The Ties That Bind.

Another Name Scratched From The Concert Bucket List

The wife and I went to see Brian Wilson in Durham the other night, a thrilling and genuinely great concert, two exhilarating hours that flew by in what seemed like about 30 minutes.

Wilson doesn’t sing much these days — they say the legs are the first thing to go, and the voice is no doubt second — but he’s surrounded himself with a jaw-dropping collection of musical talent, a 12-piece backing band built around fellow Beach Boys founder Al Jardine and the spectacular LA group the Wondermints. When Wilson did take his turn at the microphone, especially on the half-dozen or so songs from his new album Pier Pressure, his voice may have sounded a bit worn in places, but was always warm and oh-so familiar and comforting. If Wilson doesn’t hit all the notes any longer, he doesn’t have to. He leaves that to his incredible band, spreading the wealth around much as he did back in the day with the Beach Boys.

Jardine’s son Matt handled Wilson’s falsetto vocal parts flawlessly (he absolutely crushed it on “Don’t Worry Baby”). Wondermints co-founder Darian Sahanaja sang the lead part on “Darlin’ ” and turned in a stunning cover that rivaled Carl Wilson’s original lead vocal from 1967’s Wild Honey album. The elder Jardine took the lead on most of the rest of the vintage Beach Boys material, of which there was an abundance. The backing ensemble was flawless instrumentally, and performed sheer magic on all those signature Beach Boys vocal harmony arrangements. It was, simply, a phenomenal concert.

And so I got to scratch one more legend from my bucket list of concerts to see before I hit life’s exit ramp. And with Brian Wilson’s name removed, the remaining list suddenly isn’t all that impressive. Six weeks from my 64th birthday, I’ve seen most of the great musical acts of my lifetime. Most of the rest are either dead or no longer playing. What remains is a rather skimpy list of performers, few of whom I’d characterize as must-see.

Van Morrison, Neil Young and Jeff Lynne’s Electric Light Orchestra are probably the top three names here, each of them a heavy hitter, and I’d especially like the chance to see Morrison and Lynne. John Fogerty, Patti Smith and David Bowie also reside in rock’s high-rent district. I hope to see them all, but it’s funny how that works. I’d love to see Crosby, Stills & Nash, too, but I’ve passed on multiple opportunities to see them in the past, so what does that say? I’ve also passed on Ringo Starr more than once, but probably will break down and go the next time he plays within driving distance. He is a Beatle, after all.

All in all, it’s a lightweight list compared to the names on the stubs in my ticket-stub box — Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan & the Band, Eric Clapton, the Who, the Kinks, the Rolling Stones, Miles Davis, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, the Grateful Dead, Fairport Convention, Joni Mitchell, the Allman Brothers Band, and now Brian Wilson.

If there’s a moral to this story, it escapes me. I started this to pay tribute to Brian Wilson’s greatness and genius, so let’s leave it at that. Bruce Springsteen is, for me anyway, the greatest musical artist this country has ever produced, but Brian Wilson’s is one of the few names also in that conversation. And Wilson’s all-time masterpiece, the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, is easily the greatest record ever made by an American act.

There is a rival band out there — fronted by Wilson's cousin and fellow original Beach Boy Mike Love — that goes by the name the Beach Boys, but don’t be fooled. Love may have won the legal claim to the name “Beach Boys” many years ago, but Wilson and his touring band are superior by a factor of about a thousand.

Brian Wilson may prove to be the last legend I'll get to scratch from my bucket list. If so, no complaints here. There’s something to be said for saving the best for last.

Upstaged By The Opening Act

Rock ’n’ roll concerts have evolved over the years. There was a time when rock shows were traveling revues of five or six or more bands, playing 20-30 minutes apiece before a headline act capped off the evening with maybe a 40-minute set of its own. This was especially true of soul and rhythm and blues revues on the Chitlin Circuit during the 1950s and ’60s, but it was true for early rock shows as well.

At some point, demand for an extended set by headliners led to fewer and shorter sets by opening bands. Nowadays fewer concerts than ever feature an an opening act, which is just as well. Most people only care about seeing the top name on the marque, and since most musicians tell time about as well as your average 3-year-old, the last thing we need to do is give them another reason to start their set two hours late.

While we’re on the subject of opening acts, we should note that there have been instances over the years when an opening act badly upstaged the headliner. Such a mismatch occurred on Oct. 16, 1971, at Cameron Indoor Stadium at Duke. Yes, boys and girls, there once was a time when Cameron hosted rock concerts. In fact, Cameron used to be one of the best concert venues in the Southeast, and a sound engineer’s dream acoustically. The Duke Union’s Major Attractions committee took advantage by booking some of the best shows ever during the 1970s.

This was before Duke hired Mike Krzyzewski as basketball coach. It didn’t take Coach K long to have all the acoustic tile removed from the ceiling at Cameron, turning a sonic dream into one of the worst echo chambers in the country. You can’t blame Krzyzewski. He’s a basketball coach, not a concert promoter. He wanted it loud in there and that’s exactly what he got. But it was ruined forever as a concert venue.

Pardon the digression.

Now, where were we? Oh yes. On Oct. 16, 1971, Traffic played at Cameron Indoor Stadium. This was a pretty big deal at the time. Touring in support of its most recent and arguably most successful album, Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys, Traffic was pretty much at its peak as a commercial enterprise. Dave Mason was long gone from the lineup, but Steve Winwood and Jim Capaldi still gave the band a star-studded nucleus, and they had a succession of critically acclaimed albums to their credit.

Unfortunately for Traffic, Duke Major Attractions booked the English folk band Fairport Convention as the opening act. Not as widely popular as Traffic but with a devoted fanbase, Fairport was coming off an extended period of upheaval in its ranks. In the previous two years, three of its most important players — vocalists Iain Matthews and Sandy Denny, and guitarist extraordinaire Richard Thompson — had departed, yet still the band soldiered on. With a stellar lineup that included Dave Mattacks, Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg, Philip Stirling Wall and Dave Swarbrick, Fairport Convention electrified the Cameron crowd with a mostly acoustic set that nonetheless had far more rocking energy than most rock shows of the day.

Traffic, not noted for its stemwinding live performances to begin with, never stood a chance. Maybe without the over-the-top opening act, Traffic might have been able to satisfy the audience that night, but Traffic’s more subtle and nuanced material was overmatched. Fairport Convention’s rave-up performance blew them away.

Two years and four days later — Oct. 20, 1973 — Duke Major Attractions again badly mismatched opening and headline acts, this time with Commander Cody & The Lost Planet Airmen opening for the New Riders of the Purple Sage.

The New Riders (aka NRPS) were riding a small wave of popularity generated in large part by the fact that the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia played pedal steel guitar on their debut album. Playing a laid-back brand of lightweight country-rock, NRPS was a solid unit but not a likely candidate to set the world on fire, far better suited for a 500-seat theater show than the 7,000 or so rowdy fans who showed up at Cameron that night.

Commander Cody, on the other hand, was a powerhouse outfit with a well-earned reputation for incendiary, scorched-earth live performances. Their most recent album — Live From Deep In The Heart Of Texas, recorded at Austin’s famed Armadillo World Headquarters — was a dynamo of a live record, one of the best and most underrated live records of the decade. Their show at Cameron that night was even more raucous and frenzied than the record, non-stop roadhouse intensity. By the time the boys from Texas finished their 40-minute opening set, NRPS was toast. Commander Cody wore the place out.

Whoever thought Commander Cody would be a good opening act for the New Riders definitely owes the New Riders an apology.

The moral of the story thus far is not to book high-energy acts as openers for low-energy headliners. That’s definitely a formula for disaster, but what happens when the headliner conspires to make conditions even worse?

On Feb. 15, 1974, Kris Kristofferson played at the heinous Dorton Arena on the North Carolina state fairgrounds. The opening act was an unknown country veteran by the name of Waylon Jennings. You can probably see where this is going already. Despite having more than 20 albums to his credit at the time, Waylon still was so unknown that he was listed on the ticket and concert poster as Maylon Jennings. That would soon change.

Waylon’s most recent album was Honky Tonk Heroes, his stirring tribute to the legendary Texas songwriter Billy Joe Shaver, and it proved to be his breakthrough album. As a live act, Jennings had long ago established his bona fides, thanks to more than a decade of playing the rowdy roadhouses of the South and Southwest. He and the Waylors were a formidable live act and they were sensational on Feb. 15, 1974.

Kristofferson was already an established star by 1974, a huge star, in fact, and for good reason. His first several albums were masterpieces of songcraft, yielding such classics as “Me And Bobby McGee,” “Help Me Make It Through The Night,” “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever do Again),” “The Taker,” “Why Me” and “From The Bottle To The Bottom.” That last number proved to be autobiographical, unfortunately, and by the time Kristofferson came to Dorton Arena, his out-of-control alcoholism was a poorly kept secret.

Adding to Kristofferson’s problems than night, he was more of a folkie, singer/songwriter type than anything else. He was not known for high-energy concerts. So when he hit the stage that evening at Dorton Arena, with the building still smoldering from Waylon’s incredible blowout show, the combination of Kristofferson’s obviously drunken state and his abysmal sleepwalk of a performance was embarrassing and painful to witness. He had to stop his band in mid-song several times because he couldn’t remember the lyrics, and even when he did manage to stumble through a song without interruption, his performance was wobbly and unfocused at best. It was an outright disaster.

Happily, Kristofferson kicked his drinking habit a few years later, and even expanded his creative outlets to include a successful acting career. Nowadays he commands the respect and admiration he so richly deserves as one of country music’s all-time great songwriters, but it wasn’t always the case, especially on that 1974 evening at Dorton Arena when he aided and abetted to help an opening act blow him right off the stage.