Baseball will be here soon, hopefully to rescue us from our ongoing men’s hoops malaise. D1Baseball released its preseason poll today, and slotted NC State in at No. 13. The preseason poll released by Perfect Game last week did not include the Wolfpack. But that kind of disagreement tends to pervade college baseball this time of year.
The Wolfpack has a lot of offense to replace off of last year’s team and didn’t add any clear impact bats through the portal (some of the additions may prove to be impact guys, they just don’t have the track record of a Garrett Pennington or Alec Makarewicz, for example). But Elliot Avent and his staff have earned the benefit of the doubt here.
The pitching staff should be fine, assuming that Matt Willadsen is ready to get back on the mound after having Tommy John surgery last year. If Dominic Fritton can reclaim some of his freshman-year mojo, this is a clear strength—and worthy of a top-15 ranking.