RALEIGH, N.C. -- Because of the renovations at Doak Field, NC State's home baseball schedule was reduced to just 10 games this season, and the fifth-ranked Wolfpack plays its final three home games of the year this weekend when Maryland comes to town for a three-game Atlantic Coast Conference series.

Game times are 7 p.m. on Friday, and 1:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

NC State, 37-10 overall and 13-5 in the ACC, is in third place in the ACC standings by percentage points, but the Wolfpack's conference record actually is a half-game better than Florida State and Georgia Tech, who are in first place at 11-4. Maryland is 16-28 overall and 4-13 in the ACC, in eighth place.

Redshirt-freshman righthander Michael Rogers (10-1, 2.19) will start on Friday vs. Maryland. Rogers will be making his 13th appearance, all starts, including two complete games. He has allowed 78 hits, walked 26 and struck out 81 in 90-1/3 innings. In his last start, April 26 vs. North Carolina at Doak Field, Rogers picked up his ninth consecutive victory with seven strong innings against the Tar Heels. He allowed two runs on eight hits, walked four and struck out seven.

Junior righthander Vern Sterry (10-0, 2.53) will start the second game of the series against the Terrapins. Sterry has made 12 appearances, all of them starts, and has allowed 67 hits, walked 26 and struck out 96 in 85-1/3 innings. In his last start, April 27 vs. North Carolina, he got no decision for the first time in 10 starts, after working six innings and allowing three runs, one earned, on five hits. He walked four and fanned six.

Junior lefthander Nate Cretarolo (4-2, 5.19) will start the series finale for NC State. Cratarolo has made 13 appearances, six of them starts, and has allowed 64 hits, walked 26 and struck out 47 in 52 innings. He made a pair of relief appearances this past weekend against North Carolina, picking up the victory in the middle game of the series with two innings of work. He allowed two runs in that game, both unearned, on three hits. He walked none and struck out one. In the Sunday finale against the Tar Heels, Cretarolo allowed one run on six hits in 4-2/3 innings. He walked two and struck out none, and did not figure in the decision. In his last start, April 12 at Wake Forest, Cretarolo allowed seven runs, four of them earned, on seven hits in 5-2/3 innings. He walked three and struck out six.

Maryland has not announced the order of its pitching rotation, but its three weekend starters will be junior righthander Steve SChmoll (4-4, 3.22), sophomore righthander Sean Kane (1-6, 5.88), and sophomore righthander Chris Clem (3-6, 6.04).

NC STATE VS. MARYLAND: While the Wolfpack leads this series by an overwhelming 82-44 margin, Maryland swept the three-game series at College Park last year, and the Terps have won four of the last six games between the two schools, five of the last eight, and seven of the last 11. Prior to that, The Wolfpack had thoroughly dominated Maryland, winning eight in a row, and 20 of 21 from 1993-98.

Head coach Elliott Avent has a 12-7 record against Maryland. His teams defeated the Terrapins the first eight times they played them. At Doak Field, Avent is 7-2 against Maryland. The Wolfpack won two of three from the Terps at the Doak two years ago, winning the opener 5-1, losing the middle game 7-5, and winning the finale 15-7.

A year ago at College Park, the Terps throttled NC State by scores of 16-12, 7-6 and 7-0.

THE RANKINGS: NC State enters play this weekend ranked fifth nationally by Collegiate Baseball, seventh by Baseball America, and eighth by USA Today Sports Weekly. No. 5 is the highest that NC State has been ranked since USA Today Baseball Weekly ranked the Pack No. 5 on May 10, 1993. On May 3, 1993, Collegiate Baseball and Baseball America had NC State ranked No. 4, while Baseball Weekly had the Wolfpack at No. 3.

POTENT 1-2 PUNCH: With a 20-1 won-lost record between them, NC State hurlers Vern Sterry and Michael Rogers now are tied as the fifth-winningest 1-2 pitching punch in Wolfpack history.

Three different pairs of NC State pitchers have combined for 22 wins in a season, which is the school record. Brad Rhodes (11-1) and Jeff Hartsock (11-3) in 1988 were the first.

In terms of winning percentage, the combination of Sterry and Rogers is the hands-down leader at .952, although admittedly there is a considerable amount of baseball yet to be played this season.

Of the previous pairs of NC State pitchers with 20 or more decisions, the best won-lost percentage was the .875 compiled by Matt Donahue (14-2) and Tommy Sports (7-1) in 1992.

CORRECTION: It has been stated in these notes that at 10-0, junior righthander Vern Sterry has tied for the longest winning streak by a pitcher in NC State history. Make that the longest single-season winning streak in school history.

Robert Toth won 13 games in a row, but did it over the course of the 1984-85-86 seasons. Toth went 3-0 as a sophomore in 1984, 6-0 as a junior in '85, and then won his first four decisions as a senior in '86.

Righthander Brad Rhodes began the 1988 season at 10-0 en route to an 11-1 record for the year, and that is the single-season mark that Sterry has tied. Redshirt-freshman righthander Michael Rogers, who is 10-1 on the season, is right on Sterry's heels, by the way. Rogers now has won his last nine decisions in a row.

QUICK ACC START: At 13-5 in Atlantic Coast Conference play, NC State has tied for the second-best ACC record ever by a Wolfpack team through 18 games. The school record is 14-4, set by the 1993 team and tied by the 1997 squad, which was Elliott Avent's first team. The 1990 Pack also was 13-5 after 18 ACC games.

THE BIG TURNAROUND: NC State went 7-17 in the ACC in 2002. A year later, the Wolfpack has already is 13-5 in the conference heading into play against Maryland this weekend. That's a six-game improvement over 2002 with six ACC games still to be played.

In the history of the ACC, the biggest one-year turnaround was nine games by Clemson from 1993-94 (11-11 to 20-4).