FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
RALEIGH, N.C. – The NC State baseball team will put the finishing touches on fall practice over Halloween weekend with the annual intersquad fall world series. Game times will be 6 p.m. on Friday, October 30; 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 31; and 1 p.m. on Sunday, November 1.
The series will be an opportunity for fans to get a first-hand look at the 2010 team and its nationally 11th-ranked recruiting class. The Wolfpack has 15 newcomers, 11 freshmen and four junior college transfers. Many of them have had impressive falls, and will be pushing for playing time in the spring.
Game 1 will feature junior righthander Jake Buchanan vs. sophomore righty Cory Mazzoni. Between them, Buchanan and Mazzoni started 14 games and worked 112 innings a year ago. Both righthanders, coming off strong summer seasons and impressive falls, figure as prime candidates for weekend starting jobs in the spring.
The game 2 matchup will pit junior lefthander Grant Sasser against junior lefty Nate King. Sasser was used primarily as a matchup lefthander last spring, but had a strong summer in the Shenandoah Valley League, followed by a strong showing this fall. King is a transfer from Lower Columbia Community College in Vancouver, Wash., and earned second-team league all-star honors in 2009.
The series finale on Sunday will match freshman lefthander Mike Clark against sophomore righthander Mike Russo. Clark was a highly regarded signee out of American Heritage High School in Plantation, Fla., and a 32nd-round draft pick by the Boston Red Sox this past June. Russo, from Princeton, N.J., was the Philadelphia Phillies’ 49th-round pick in 2008.
All three games of the fall world series will be seven innings. Admission is free.
