NC State baseball completed its first practice in TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb. Friday in preparation for its opening game of the 2021 College World Series Saturday.
The Wolfpack will face the No. 9 overall seed Stanford Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m., which will be broadcast on ESPN.
The trip to Omaha marks the second of head coach Elliott Avent's career, and the third in program history. The Pack will have the opportunity to win the first national championship in program history over the next 10 days as it competes against seven other finalists in Omaha.
"There are no words to put in perspective what this means to our players," Avent said. "The players that are on this team, the players that have been here before, the players that have come close to getting here and it just didn't work out, this represents so many former and current players here. Omaha is a place that when you say Omaha, everybody knows what you're talking about. This town does such an unbelievable job."
NC State has gotten hot in the latter half of the season and is playing its best baseball to date in the postseason.
After the first three series in conference play, the Wolfpack found its self with a 1-8 record against ACC opponents and had to battle its way to earn an at-large bid to the postseason.
The Pack won 12 of its last 14 games in the regular season to finish with the second-best conference record in the ACC. Because the top teams from each division earn the top two seeds in the ACC Baseball Championship, State earned the No. 3 seed in Charlotte for the conference tournament, where it advanced all the way to the championship game only to fall short 1-0 to Duke in a pitcher's duel. It was the first and only time this season that the Pack was shut out.
From there, NC State earned a No. 2 seed in the Ruston Regional, where it went 3-0, including two wins over top-seed and regional host Louisiana Tech to advance to the Super Regionals.
The Wolfpack then traveled to Fayetteville, Ark., for a three-game series against top-ranked Arkansas. The Razorbacks crushed the Pack 21-2 in game one, but State clawed back to win the next two games, claiming the series and punching its ticket to Omaha.
"It comes from believing in each other," Avent said. "You have to buy into a team concept. Believe in one another, commit to one another. Understand what the game is all about. Understand how you have to respect the game and compete with the game, but you can't compete against the game because the game wins every time.
"I think our players understand that, and we have unbelievable leadership from the older guys in our program, who have brought the guys that maybe haven't played in college as long along with leadership by showing them the way. These guys grew up through the season, and now the confidence level of this team is at an all-time high."
Along with Stanford, NC State is in the same pod as Arizona and Vanderbilt in the regional-like format. The College World Series is divided into two pods, with the winner of each competing in a three-game series next weekend for the national championship.
If the Wolfpack wins Saturday, it will face the winner of Arizona-Vanderbilt on Monday to remain in the winner's bracket. A loss would set up a meeting with the loser of the Arizona-Vanderbilt game in what would be an elimination game in the loser's bracket.
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