It’s been awhile since coach Elliott Avent can recall a starting pitcher being as consistent as sophomore lefty Eric Surkamp.
He has allowed three earned runs or more just twice this season, and both of those came in Wolfpack wins. Although Surkamp’s velocity won’t blow away batters, he’s struck out 60 batters in a little more than 65 innings of work, and his ERA of 2.88 is the best among the starting rotation.
Such dominance led Avent to compare Surkamp’s performance with that of Vern Sterry, a former two-time All-American for N.C. State in 2003 and 2004 — high praise for the Wolfpack’s lesser-known pitcher from Cincinnati, Ohio.
“Sterry had a couple of years where every time out you knew what you were going to get. Surkamp has got a lot of three-up and three-downs, and he’s pitched out of most of the jams he’s been in,” Avent said. “He’s poised and confident out there. There’s a guy who believes he can’t be hit right now.”
Surkamp graduated from Moeller High School — the same Moeller High School that future Hall-of-Famers Barry Larkin and Ken Griffey Jr., as well as current teammate Andrew Brackman, attended.
At the start of the year, the Moeller pitchers were the bookends of the rotation, with Brackman on Friday and Surkamp getting the Sunday start. Since then the order has flipped around, and it is Surkamp who pitches on Friday and Brackman who gets the Saturday start.
But even though these two have been pitching in back-to-back games since high school, they couldn’t be further apart in style.
“We’re two different types of pitchers, so it’s hard to see what the hitters do off him and relay it back to me. He’s a righty, and I’m a lefty,” Surkamp said. “He throws probably 10 miles harder than I do, and I have two different off-speed pitches than he does.”
While Brackman’s numbers have been good, no State pitcher has been as consistently good as Surkamp. Surkamp took over as the Friday starter in the Wake Forest series as part of a move that allowed the team to alternate between left-handed and right-handed starters.
“I was very happy to be moved up there,” Surkamp said. “Any pitcher would want that spot in the rotation — being in there Friday night, having to come out and set the tone for the weekend and show the other team your pitching is going to be there all weekend.”
But even with the quality pitching in his starts, Surkamp has just three wins in 11 starts to show for his efforts as the no decisions have piled up.
Three times this year when he has left the game with the lead, and two more times when he left the game tied, the games have wound up as no decisions for Surkamp, and two resulted in a loss.
“It’s frustrating; I can’t lie. Of course everybody wants to get wins, and everybody likes their stats to look good,” Surkamp said. “I feel like our hitting is going to start coming around later this season.”
So far, the Pack’s support of Surkamp has been minimal. Excluding a 24-run outburst against Boston College, the team is averaging just 3.5 runs over the last eight games in which Surkamp has started.
In his most recent start, Surkamp went the distance against Georgia Tech on Friday, only to lose in the bottom of the ninth, 2-1.
“I was definitely pumped for that start. The Georgia Tech starter was also from the Cincinnati area,” Surkamp said. “We both went out and pitched very good games, and [State] was just on the losing end of it.”
This off-season, Surkamp took it upon himself to improve his control, a problem that let him often fall behind hitters during his freshman year.
After time in the Cape Cod League and reading a couple of books about hitting, Surkamp’s control has allowed him to take charge on the mound. His walks-to-strikeout ratio is one-to-three.
“I feel good right now. My arm feels really good. I just feel a lot better this year than I did last year. I’m just trying to keep the team in the game as much as I can, as long as I can,” Surkamp said. “[I’m] going up there not trying to pick around the plate, just going up and throwing strikes.”
Even though he’s improved almost everything about his game from last year, there’s still one area left — pitch better against the Tar Heels. Surkamp’s next start will be against one of the most dominant pitchers in the country, as he goes toe-to-toe with North Carolina’s Robert Woodard.
“It’s a huge rivalry, and I got to pitch down there last year and didn’t do as well as I hoped. This year I’m going to try to improve on that,” Surkamp said. “We’re facing a good pitcher every weekend, so we’re going to have to get used to it.”
