The Wolfpack have now shored up the corner infield spots heading into the 2025 season
Nice.
Committed #Pack9 pic.twitter.com/Bwycl02nMd
— Matt Ossenfort (@Mattozzy34) July 2, 2024
As you can clearly deduce from the above, NC State baseball received a commitment from Matt Ossenfort, a transfer first baseman from Vanderbilt. Ossenfort will have three years of eligibility remaining, but will be a draft-eligible sophomore in 2025. Based on his playing time in 2024, he could be eligible for a redshirt for that season and thus be a redshirt freshman in 2025 with four years of eligibility remaining.
The 6’3, 218 pound lefty played a reserve role for the Commodores as a freshman in 2024, hitting .182/.250/.545, 8.3 BB%, 50.0 K%, 0-0 SB in just 12 plate appearances across 6 games, making three starts. Those three starts all came in late March and his last appearance in a Vandy uniform was on April 9th in a pinch-hit effort.
Ossenfort was a top 350 player coming out of the prep ranks where he attended Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and was teammates with one of the Pack’s top commitments for the incoming 2024-2025 freshman class, infielder Devin Fitz-Gerald. Hopefully that relationship will help convince Fitz-Gerald to forego MLB overtures via the draft and make his way to Raleigh.
Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin had this to say about Ossenfort, from his Vandy bio:
Matt comes to us with a high aptitude for hitting. He is a well-rounded hitter who has power and uses the whole field. I love his potential inside our program. Ozzie is a very competitive player with a strong desire to be good. He is a personable young man with a curious mind. A lot of fun to coach.
D1 Baseball was complimentary of Ossenfort’s power during their 2023 Fall Report on the Commodores. He played in the Cal Ripken Collegiate League in the summer between high school and college and absolutely tore it up, hitting .376/.480/.693, 16.5 BB%, 17.3 K%, 4-4 SB, mashing 8 HR off college pitchers in 28 games. Obviously those are much more of the numbers indicative of his talents.