RALEIGH - N.C. State came out swinging in its baseball season-opener on Friday afternoon at Doak Field. And didn't stop until it had scored a school-record 32 runs in a 32-3 victory over La Salle.
The Pack scored 10 runs in the first inning and led 20-1 after three innings. The single-game record for runs of 29 set on March 24, 1984, against Wake Forest was broken when State scored six runs in the sixth inning to take a 31-2 lead.
"The wind was blowing and we came out swinging," N.C. State coach Elliott Avent said. "We were swinging the bats very well."
State hit four homers, but it wasn't a home-run kind of day that the Doak sometimes produced when the wind was blowing out before the new stadium was built. That wind-tunnel effect was largely taken away with the stadium makeover in 2003-04 that included a press box directly behind home plate that serves as a break for the wind on most days.
"That was the probably the best thing about today," Avent said. "The guys didn't try to get out of the strike zone very much. When you get that many runs early, especially early in the season, the guys are excited and trying to swing out of their shoes all day [and hit home runs]. I thought we were very disciplined at the plate and stayed in the zone.
"We put up 25 hits and I only remember one hit that was soft. There were a lot of hard-hit balls out there today."
Pratt Maynard had three hits, including a homer, and drove in six runs for State. Dallas Poulk went 2-for-4 with a homer and five RBIs and Tarran Senay went 4-for-6 with a homer and two RBIs. Danny Canela had three hits and three RBIs and Andrew Ciencin had also had three hits and three RBIs.
"It was a a good a day swinging the bats as we've had," said Avent, in his 13th season as Wolfpack head coach.
But for Avent, it wasn't all offense. Four Wolfpack pitched held the Explorers to eight hits and three runs, striking out nine. And the Pack did not make an error.
"There were lots of good things today," Avent said. "Defensively, we were out there for three hours and 45 minutes and did not make an error. That was a plus."
A plus day all the way around for the Wolfpack, which never stopped swinging the bat and scored the most runs in the long history of the program.
