Raleigh Regional - The Day Before (5/29)
posted by Scott Hood on Thursday, May 29, 2008
Watching batting practice, it appears the ball carries pretty well here at Doak Field. The dimensions of the ballpark are as follows: 320 to LF, 370 to LCF, 400 to CF, 380 to RCF, 330 to RF. USC hit numerous bombs out of the ballpark. One thing that amazed me was the bat control of the players. Before every pitch, Tanner would call out the portion of the field he wanted the player to hit the ball to and the vast majority of the time the players would hit it exactly there.
Tanner said he'll likely go with a lineup that features Phil Disher at catcher and Parker Bangs (he had a very good BP on Thur.) at DH, but, with 24 hours to go before the first game, he didn't want to show his hand too much. Andrew Crisp is healthy and ready to go since aggravating his back injury in Hoover. Sam Dyson will be the starting pitcher, in case you missed the news yesterday.
This is the first time N.C. State has hosted a Regional here in Raleigh and I can sense the excitement among the coaches, players and staff here. The ballpark seats about 3,000 or so. The concourses are very wide. It seems to be a fan friendly ballpark. NC State hosted a Regional in Wilson, NC in 2003 due to the renovations at Doak Field.
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1:35 - We're here at the media center next to Doak Field in Raleigh Regional. South Carolina has just completed its press conference following a 75-minute workout. As expected, most of the questions, especially from the media here in the Research Triangle area, centered on Ray Tanner's return to N.C. State. Tanner played for the Wolfpack in the late 1970's and was an assistant coach under the legendary Sammy Esposito before taking the head coaching reins in 1988. He remained there until taking the USC job after the 1996 season. Tanner still has a lot of friends and family in the area and planned to visir Esposito later today. Tanner grew up in Johnson County, N.C.
Watching batting practice, it appears the ball carries pretty well here at Doak Field. The dimensions of the ballpark are as follows: 320 to LF, 370 to LCF, 400 to CF, 380 to RCF, 330 to RF. USC hit numerous bombs out of the ballpark. One thing that amazed me was the bat control of the players. Before every pitch, Tanner would call out the portion of the field he wanted the player to hit the ball to and the vast majority of the time the players would hit it exactly there.
Tanner said he'll likely go with a lineup that features Phil Disher at catcher and Parker Bangs (he had a very good BP on Thur.) at DH, but, with 24 hours to go before the first game, he didn't want to show his hand too much. Andrew Crisp is healthy and ready to go since aggravating his back injury in Hoover. Sam Dyson will be the starting pitcher, in case you missed the news yesterday.
This is the first time N.C. State has hosted a Regional here in Raleigh and I can sense the excitement among the coaches, players and staff here. The ballpark seats about 3,000 or so. The concourses are very wide. It seems to be a fan friendly ballpark. NC State hosted a Regional in Wilson, NC in 2003 due to the renovations at Doak Field.
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Scott Hood. Since February of 2005, Scott has covered the South Carolina football, men's basketball and baseball programs for GamecockCentral. He may be reached by email at scottblog(at)gamecockcentral.com. Replace (at) with @.