Another weekend at Doak Field at Dail Park has come and gone and the No. 8 NC State baseball team has continued its dominant start to this young season, most recently defeating High Point and Longwood in midweek matchups and sweeping Quinnipiac in its weekend second series of 2022.
Through eight games, the Pack still remains undefeated. Let’s take a look at what we can take away from this first batch of matchups this year.
It’s Tommy White’s world and we’re all just living in it
It’s no secret that freshman first baseman Tommy White, better known as ”Tommy Tanks,” has had an incredible start to his collegiate career, currently leading both the Pack9 and the NCAA in hits, RBIs and home runs. His accomplishments have earned him Collegiate Baseball National Player of the Week honors for the second week in a row.
Adding four more homers to his stat sheet in the series against Quinnipiac, including another grand slam in the series opener, White has nine dingers on the year, and at one point this weekend was tied for sixth place in team home runs in the NCAA. Yes, you read that right, compared to other teams he’s top 10 in the country. The Wolfpack as a ball club currently sits tied for fourth place with 18 bombs through eight games.
As much as the attention he’s receiving mainly revolves around his “Tom Bombs,” White has done an excellent job of driving in runs anytime he’s up to the plate. Currently batting .588/.650/1.412, with just three strikeouts, White also leads the team in RBIs with 29, 18 more than sophomore infielder LuJames Groover III and sophomore outfielder Dominic Pilolli who are tied for second with 11 each.
Truly any pitcher’s nightmare at the moment, if White’s success continues at the rate it’s started at, you’ll be hearing a lot more about the freshman from St. Pete.
Impact of a veteran presence and transfers
As impressive as White has been, much of NC State’s offensive success has been overshadowed by White’s accomplishments at the plate. In fact, there’s obviously no way White would have been able to accumulate all those RBIs if not for the fact that the rest of his teammates keep getting on base.
Through eight games, the Pack is outscoring opponents 112-34 thanks to a combination of success from veteran batters and transfers, and the team has an on-base percentage of .481.
Senior infielder J.T. Jarrett actually leads the team, and is No. 7 in the NCAA, with a .591 batting average and fellow senior infielder/outfielder Devonte Brown sits in fourth on the team with an average of .361, accumulating eight and nine RBIs each and three homers combined.
There were also a lot of questions entering this year if NC State’s transfers would be able to fill the holes left behind in the offseason, but these newbies continue to prove again and again that they can be relied on.
In recent achievements, UNC-Charlotte transfer Groover III provided a clutch double to score two in the eighth and the walk-off hit the Wolfpack needed in the extra-innings matchup against Quinnipiac. He’s batting .459/.500/.703 to start the season with seven extra-base hits.
Redshirt junior infielder Josh Hood, who transferred in from Penn, got the offense started for the Pack9 in the comeback matchup against the Bobcats with his first bomb of the year, and there’s also Pilolli from Charlotte who’s slashing .346/.485/.692 with two homers of his own.
The success of these transfers along with the reliability of Jarrett and Brown has proven to be a key asset for the Pack9 in these first eight games and will be crucial for NC State moving forward.
Answering pitching questions
Now that the Wolfpack has two weekend series and two midweek matchups under its belt, we can also get a better look at the pitching staff this season.
Sophomore righty Sam Highfill got the Friday night start against the Bobcats totaling seven strikeouts in four innings pitched, giving up two earned runs. He was lights out through the first three innings but gave up a couple of singles for two Quinnipiac runs in his last inning pitched in the fourth.
That evening we really got a look at the NC State bullpen who combined to pitch five innings with one earned run and seven strikeouts. Sophomore Garrett Payne pitched two innings for his first career win while senior Canaan Silver provided two innings of relief and sophomore Chris Villaman was completely dominant in the ninth.
Another young arm, sophomore righty Matt Willadsen struggled in the earlier Saturday matchup against Quinnipiac, giving up six earned runs and seven hits in just 3.2 innings. The bullpen wasn’t much more successful, combining for another four runs through the final 6.2 innings, though recording 11 strikeouts.
Veteran senior lefty David Harrison showed the most control all weekend though still giving up three earned runs in 5.2 innings while striking out six. Three more arms got a little work out of the bullpen that game, combining for just one earned run and three strikeouts in the final 1.1 innings of action.
Quinnipiac is clearly a team that can hit, and while the Wolfpack was able to pull out the sweep, it will be important to keep an eye on how this relatively young pitching staff fares with the other incredibly talented offenses in the ACC later this season.
Strong start at home
One other important note is that all of the Pack9’s success this season has been in front of a home crowd in Raleigh.
NC State has its first taste of away action this coming Wednesday just south of campus at Campbell University before returning back to the state capital for another home weekend series, this time against Northeastern.
While no game is ever particularly easy, ACC action is almost upon us, which will prove to be even more of a testament as to just how successful this Wolfpack team can be.
