In a new feature to The Wolfpacker website, the staff will tackle three questions on a weekly basis tackling several relevant subjects pertaining to NC State athletics.
Here are the three discussions for this week.
How should the 2021 baseball season be remembered?
Justin Williams
The 2021 baseball season will be remembered in two different ways. First, it will be remembered as the best season to date in Wolfpack baseball history.
But the season will also be remembered for the gut-wrenching fashion in which it ended. Because of the way the Pack was eliminated, not from a loss but rather a virus, there was never any closure. Just the question of what could have been.
Regardless of what would have happened had NC State been allowed to keep playing in the College World Series, the finish in Omaha still tied for the best in program history.
The trip to the CWS marked the third in school history. Prior to 2021, the 1968 team's appearance in the College World Series semifinals was the program's best finish.
NC State also finished the season ranked No. 4 in most college baseball polls, which also set a program record.
Only time will tell how Wolfpack fans choose to remember this season. To answer the 'should', celebrating the team's successes seems like the more enjoyable option. But there is likely no avoiding that there will always be a sense of "what if" as well.
Matt Carter
How it should be remembered and how it will be remembered are two different questions.
How it should be remembered is, as Justin noted, perhaps the finest year in program history. A team that had fans, for very legitimate reasons, believing that a national championship was in its future. If rival fanbases like UNC on social media were acknowledging that NC State looked like the favorite.
How it will be remembered is probably as the biggest example of NC State "stuff" yet, that is until the athletics program starts producing national title winners. The question has been asked: Can NC State have good things?
Those who prescribe to NC State stuff will use this as the latest example to wonder if the answer to that is yes.
