Avent Sees Wolfpack Hitting Its Stride Once Again

RALEIGH — NC State took care of business against Duke on Friday, beating the Blue Devils 10-4 at Doak Field. Taking care of business is becoming a common occurrence for the Wolfpack, having now won five straight games. The luck of late is helping the team turn its fortunes quickly after a poor start to ACC play that saw the Pack lose seven games in a row.

Head coach Elliott Avent believes the Wolfpack is hitting its stride at the right time once again, having worked its way through a gauntlet portion of the schedule. Now, the main battle is consistency, which could get even more difficult as the grind of the regular season continues in the coming weeks. However, things are back on track in Raleigh.

Playing the game the right way

The victory over Duke saw NC State's offense continue a stretch of quality play. The losing streak included some very uncharacteristic performances from the Pack's bats, as the team seemed to fall into a collective slump. The three wins over Notre Dame saw the offense come back to life again, especially after the walk-off Sunday win. Avent was happy the trend continued.

"I just told the team, we played really well," Avent said. "That's the best we've been all year at working counts. (Aidan Weaver) is one of the top pitchers in the league, no doubt... But he didn't command his fastball early on... We got him up... past 50 pitches after two innings... I thought we did a great job of recognizing what was going on."

Mikey 'Moonshot' Ryan.☄️ pic.twitter.com/Ly3TrQiB00
— NC State Baseball (@NCStateBaseball) April 10, 2026

While Mikey Ryan blasted a pair of homers and Sherman Johnson added another of his own, the Wolfpack's skipper believes the rest of the scoring offered more promise. Doubles, infield singles and quality base-running helped NC State put up the 10 runs on a solid Blue Devil staff, including chasing Weaver out of the game after just two innings.

"Home runs are great, but small ball will lead to big runs and getting a smash double in the gap... Or something like that," Avent said. "If we can execute the small game, and I think we're starting to figure it out... They're starting to understand and better than that, they're understanding that if they practice it more... They increase their opportunities to do it in the game."

NC State's veteran coach still believes there is another gear his team can take things to. The Wolfpack struggled during the back-to-back trips to Florida State and Georgia Tech, a pair of teams now ranked in the top five in the country. Now, Avent hopes his team can continue to ride the momentum of the last five games to a series win against the Blue Devils.