NC State’s 2024 softball season came to a conclusion over the weekend—the Wolfpack swept Pittsburgh, but with a 6-18 league record, did not qualify for the ACC tournament.
In obvious ways, State made improvements in Lindsay Leftwich’s first season as the head coach—like win total, for instance. State finished the year 30-23 overall after sputtering to an 18-35 record in 2023.
But that 6-18 league record was identical to the one State put up last year, and I’ve been trying to square that with a vast improvement (24-5 this season) in the non-conference and pretty much coming up empty. Everything about this season statistically suggests it was a pretty solid step forward for the program … except ACC play.
See the below comparison, which includes three NCAA softball power ratings (ISR, Massey, ELO) that I could find.
(Sources: ISR, Massey, ELO. Massey for overall SOS, ELO for OOC SOS.)
The schedule schedule strength the last two years is comparable, and the ACC did not become dramatically more difficult in 2024. NC State’s road schedule in ACC play was tougher this season, and the Pack also had to play a series against an elite Duke team that it avoided in 2023—so maybe that’s the explanation here. Still, I’d have expected the team’s improvement to be reflected at least a bit in its conference record. Bit of a conundrum there.
Anyway, the important thing here is that the overall picture is encouraging. The program still needs an injection of good pitching—ACC foes had a .911 OPS against State pitchers—but a complete overhaul there was always going to be a challenge in one offseason. Given all the problems Leftwich inherited, I think we saw what we needed to from her in year one.