Uncloggin' Those Bases

-- Baseball continues to bust out the whoopin' stick:

The offensive slump is over for NC State. The Wolfpack, which scored 39 runs on 49 hits in sweeping a three-game series from Wake Forest this past weekend, pounded out another 15 hits Tuesday evening at Doak Field at Dail Park and laid a 12-5 defeat on 24th-ranked UNC Wilmington.

TSW has a rundown of the Pack's excellent NCAA tournament resume.

-- Dustyball is already providing plenty of hilarity in Cincinnati. With two men on in the ninth and his team down two runs, Baker asked Edwin Encarnacion to lay down a sac bunt to get the runners over. Encarnacion has zero successful sac bunts in his career. He failed spectacularly, which fueled a Jeff Brantley rant about his unclutchiness. Encarnacion then promptly hit a walk-off three-run homer. Bases unclogged! Check out the video.

-- This Saturday:

Join us at the Raleigh City Museum to look back at the 1983 “Cardiac Pack” and their legendary run through the NCAA tournament. Author Tim Peeler will moderate as special guests Ernie Myers, Lorenzo Charles, Cozell McQueen, Alvin Battle, Mike Warren, Walt Densmore, and others reminisce about the team. Afterwards, everyone is invited to join us at the nearby Pit Barbecue Restaurant, where we will watch the 1983 NCAA Championship game between Houston and NCSU.

Classic hoops and barbecue. Good deal.

-- An NC State student tried to sell her vote for the democratic party candidate on eBay (as a joke, of course).

-- Khadijah Whittington was selected in the second round of today's WNBA draft.

-- Some DeMario Pressley highlights, courtesy BoltHype.

-- Kind words from TSN's Matt Hayes:

NC State: Don't kid yourself, Tom O'Brien is one of the top five coaches in the game. (SN colleague Tom Dienhart ranked him 4th in the ACC) It took him awhile to weed out the malcontents last year, but by November, the Wolfpack were playing as well as anyone in the ACC (insert your joke here).

This is how Tom O. works: First, he makes the team smarter, then tougher -- and once he finds a quarterback, the winning begins. The question: Can junior Harrison Beck become that leader?