Home Crowd Propels Pack in NCAA Baseball Tourney

By Chad Austin, News Services

NC State's baseball program waited a long time to be the host for an NCAA baseball regional on campus. Now the Wolfpack are on the brink of putting an end to another long wait.

By winning three games to sweep through the Raleigh regional at Doak Field last weekend, NC State is two victories away from qualifying for the College World Series for the first time since 1968.

NC State celebrates its regional title following a 2-1 win over South Carolina.

The Wolfpack will now play the Georgia Bulldogs in a best two-out-three series in the Athens, Ga., Super Regional beginning at noon on Friday. The game will be broadcast on ESPN. The two teams will meet again at noon on Saturday in a game that will be televised on ESPN2. Sunday's game, if needed, will be at 4 p.m., and will be broadcast on ESPN.

The winner of the Super Regional will join seven other teams in Omaha, Neb., for the College World Series.

Despite being a regular qualifier for postseason baseball play, the Wolfpack had never hosted an NCAA regional on campus until this season. This season marked NC State's 22nd NCAA tournament appearance overall, the program's sixth in a row and 18th in the last 23 years.

In 2003, NC State was selected as a regional site, but the games had to be played in nearby Wilson while Doak Field underwent major renovations. And those facility upgrades helped give the Wolfpack an edge when the NCAA selected this year's 16 regional sites.

"We couldn't have hosted a regional with the way the stadium was previously," says Bruce Winkworth, the baseball team's longtime media relations director. "Compared with what we had, this is like Dodger Stadium."

The new ballpark features a new grandstand with approximately 2,200 seats, with overflow seating for more fans along the left-field line. The concourse area includes a 1,2000-square foot press box, concession stands and restroom facilities. For players, the stadium includes a 1,300-square-foot locker room, a players' lounge, training room and indoor batting cages.

To accommodate the three other participating teams and media, NC State officials utilized the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center, adjacent to Doak Field, for additional interview space, training areas and media work space.

Sellout crowds at Doak Field gave the Wolfpack a home-field advantage in the first baseball regional held on campus.

Schools interested in hosting regionals were required to submit bids to the NCAA by May 16, 10 days before regional sites were announced on May 26. Dick Christy, associate athletic director for external operations, helped compile and submit NC State's tournament bid, which requires detailed information about facility logistics, financial guarantees and area lodging.

"The NCAA has tried to take a lot of the guesswork out of it," Christy says. "They want to make sure the site is up to par, and that it's substantial enough for the student-athletes. They don't have time to do site visits to every venue, so they try to get as much detailed information as possible, especially for sites they haven't been to before."

The NCAA requires a minimum bid of $50,000 to host a regional, but is more accustomed to bids of $70,000 to $80,000. The payout is based on 75 percent of net receipts that the NCAA collects from all hosting schools.

According to Christy, NC State's bid included a guarantee of approximately $87,000, based on a projection of $116,000 in net profits. The university could also receive a 15 percent honorarium back from the NCAA, totaling approximately $13,000, based on positive ratings from officials on operating procedures at the regional, bringing NC State's financial guarantee to approximately $74,000.

The Wolfpack's late-season schedule, which included a road series at Florida State, followed by the ACC Tournament in Jacksonville, Fla., gave the NC State grounds crew nearly two full weeks to groom the Doak Field diamond in anticipation of receiving a regional bid.

"Typically this is the time of year when the field is in really good shape because we have two weeks to work on it at the conclusion of the regular season," says Ray Brincefield, assistant athletics director for outdoor facilities. "So when we received the announcement that we were hosting the regional, we didn't have to scramble."

With two more wins, NC State will qualify for the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.

"[Athletics director Lee] Fowler provided a tremendous amount of support in preparing the operations and financial pieces to the bid so we can tie this thing together," Christy said. "The entire university pulled together and worked hard to make this event happen. We wanted to do everything we could do to give our team the best opportunity to advance, and hosting the regional here on campus certainly gave us a competitive advantage."

The Wolfpack  seized upon the home field advantage, beating James Madison on Friday and South Carolina on Saturday and Sunday to advance to the Super Regional round.

"The crowd was unbelievable all weekend," said Wolfpack outfielder Matt Payne, who drove in what proved to be the game-winning run in Sunday's deciding game against the Gamecocks and was named to the all-regional team. "You can't even describe what it feels like to win this."

"Hosting a regional means a lot to our baseball program," Fowler says. "Whenever you do something for the first time, it's also special. Chancellor (James) Oblinger talks about NC State being a great university that's becoming greater. We've been a great baseball program for a long time, and hosting a regional is part of becoming greater."

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