NC State baseball head coach Elliott Avent isn’t one for cliches or coach talk. Avent tells it how it is. He’s quick to point out something he doesn’t like but also quick to praise. So it was no surprise Avent had an honest assessment of his team heading into the season.
“We’re going to need pitching,” Avent said. “We lost 70% of our offense.”
Fortunately for the Wolfpack, there’s a consensus it boasts one of the best pitching staffs in the country. In D1Baseball’s Top 100 relievers list, NC State was the only school with two pitchers in the Top 10 — sophomore Jacob Dudan at one and junior Derrick Smith at seven — and sophomore Cooper Consiglio cracked the Top 50.
Plus sophomores Jaxon Lucas, Heath Andrews, Ryan Marohn and Camden Wimbish are all expected to be key cogs in the rotation after showing flashes of brilliance in their freshman seasons. Then there are veterans like junior Andrew Shaffner and senior Carson Kelly who’ve proved they can get the job done.
“I’d say we were pretty deep last year, and I think we might have even more guys this year,” Kelly said.
The players mentioned above already make up one of the most formidable pitching staffs in the country. But if two other players can return to peak form, NC State has the chance to boast the best arm barn in the nation.
The pitchers in question? Graduate right-hander Matt Willadsen and junior left-hander Dominic Fritton. Willadsen is coming back from injury after missing all of last season while Fritton is trying to bounce back from an underwhelming sophomore campaign.
Pegged as the Wolfpack’s top pitcher going into 2024 after leading the team in innings pitched and strikeouts the year prior, Willadsen’s season ended before it began when he injured his elbow on the first day of spring practice.
Willadsen said he should be ready to go on opening day, but Avent said he will start the season in the bullpen, allowing Willadsen to gradually work his way back to form. While Willadsen coming out of the bullpen will be a welcome sight for the Pack, at some point it will want to see him as a starter.
In 2023, Willadsen produced seven quality starts — an outing of at least six innings while giving up three runs or less. If Willadsen can replicate that this season and then hand the ball off to Dudan and Smith, the Wolfpack will be tough to beat.
Then there’s Fritton, who started 17 games last season but is trying to put 2024 behind him. After leading the Wolfpack in opponent’s batting average and ERA in 2023 on the way to First Team Freshman All-America honors, Fritton regressed his sophomore season. His ERA went from 3.59 to 7.64, he struck out fewer batters despite pitching 10 more innings and nearly doubled his amount of walks.
Fritton had the option to enter the draft after last season, but he chose to return to NC State because of the faith the coaching staff showed when they stuck with him last season despite the struggles. Going into this season, Fritton said he has a lot more mental clarity.
“Don’t put too much pressure on the moment, not try to do too much,” Fritton said. “If you can just put all the mental blocks by and just go out there and play, that’s the best thing to do.”
Now that Fritton is more at peace with who he is as a pitcher, there’s hope he can replicate his freshman season. His coach believes he has what it takes to get back there, pointing to a moment from the day’s earlier scrimmage as evidence of his belief.
Avent said Fritton didn’t have his best stuff during the game, but it was Fritton’s response to adversity that gave Avent the confidence his starting pitcher is back on track.
“His body language, his professionalism on the mound showed not only me, but it showed every player in that dugout how you’re supposed to act when you’re playing at a program like this,” Avent said.
With a clear-minded Fritton and a healthy Willadsen, both have the opportunity to reconjure their 2023 selves — something that could take NC State’s already lethal pitching staff to new heights.
If Fritton and Willadsen can reach their full potential then the Wolfpack’s arms will be more than capable of carrying an inexperienced offense back to the Men’s College World Series.
