If you came to Doak Field at Dail Park this weekend and watched any one of three emotional games between N.C. State and Vanderbilt, hopefully you did not reach for your car keys after the seventh inning stretch.
On Saturday night, you would have watched State and its ace pitcher Carlos Rodon cruise out to a comfortable 6-1 lead as Scotty McCreery sang his rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” in the middle of the seventh. And despite Ryan Mathews bringing Trea Turner home with a towering blast over the left field wall in the top of the eighth, you would have missed a ferocious Commodore comeback which featured five runs in the bottom of the eighth and a walk-off single to send what was once a raucous crowd back home with their hands on their heads.
“[Our players] were tremendous tonight, just as our fans were,” State head coach Elliott Avent said. “That was one of the best crowds I can ever remember. They were outstanding. I thought we had this game put away, but I guess it just shows you that it is never really put away. Some crazy things happened there at the end.”
Like a movie scene where one team rallies from unthinkable odds, Vanderbilt’s last two innings were nothing short of nightmarish for the Wolfpack team and faithful. As the air fell out of the stadium, disbelief inundated the sold out crowd and time moved in slow motion until the last dagger-Commodore second baseman Tony Kemp lining a single into center field for the game’s winning run-had been thrown.
“That’s the way this game goes,” Avent said. “That’s why a lot of people watch it. It’s a great game, but it can be frustrating at times.”
While leaving at the seventh inning stretch would have left you with false assumptions of victory on Saturday night, fear settled in a little earlier on Sunday night. After building a 5-1 lead, State surrendered four runs in the top of the seventh to leave the game tied. With the outcome in doubt, junior second baseman Matt Bergquist-the same player who came into the game with under a .200 batting average and less than 20 RBIs on the year-hit a clutch single through the right side of the infield to give State a crucial 6-5 lead in the bottom of the eighth.
“All year [the coaches] have been trying to get me to go the other way and I guess I finally did it and was successful,” Bergquist, who raised his batting average 25 points on Sunday, said. “I’ve been batting .200 all year and I just had a really good day-it felt great.”
One day later, another unsuspecting member of the Pack would come up into a major spot and provide the biggest moments of his collegiate career. Tarran Senay, a junior outfielder who has struggled at times during the season, made every fan who left the game early pay mightily; what was initially a 7-3 deficit immediately became a 7-6 barnburner after Senay deposited a Philip Pfeifer fastball over the right field wall.
“I didn’t think he was going to throw another slider, so I guess I sat on the fastball, you could say that,” Senay said. “I took a swing and it went out, luckily. That was unbelievable, for us to come out and get this victory.”
With the Wolfpack season down to its last two outs one inning later, Senay had one final opportunity to send the jam-packed crowd of 3,018 into a frenzy. With the bases loaded, Senay connected on a single, just inches above the glove of a leaping Tony Kemp to score two runs. The lead, defended valiantly on both Sunday and Monday night by junior pitcher Ryan Wilkins, would hold up for the bottom of the ninth.
An emotional Avent summed up the roller coaster weekend with an emotional post game speech about perseverance.
“These players refuse to quit,” Avent said. “If you always refuse to quit, it’s one of the sayings that made us famous here. The one the great Coach Valvano said. And that was a different scenario, but it applies to everything in life.”
If playing another SEC opponent is any indication of the momentum swings we can see in baseball, make sure you don’t turn away too early.
