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NC State Baseball

BASEBALL: What to expect in 2023

February 16, 2023
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Baseball season gets started Friday with a three-game series with Wagner in Raleigh. Here’s a breakdown of what I’ll be looking for this year.

Schedule

NC State has not played a power 5 non-conference game since February 2020 when the Pack swept Iowa, Purdue, and Minnesota before the season got shut down. This will be the third consecutive season without a non-conference power 5 game. How is this possible? 

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It’s inexcusable that a program as good as NC State schedules as poorly as they do. There’s an endless number of solid non-power 5 teams within driving distance that aren’t on the schedule: VCU, Charleston, Campbell, Charlotte, Liberty. SEC country is not far away, NC State should be playing a non-conference series against an SEC team every year.

This year's schedule is bad again. Belmont is solid but the rest of the non-conference series are layups. ECU and Coastal are really good but there’s only three games against those two combined.  UNCW is fine. Other than that, nobody moves the needle. This is going to be a problem come tournament time, as it was last year.

Health

I told James repeatedly last year that the season would come down to the health of Sam Highfill, Matt Willadsen, and Chris Villaman.

Highfill battled a back injury all year, was never himself, and eventually got shut down – and State fell short of the tournament.

Same thing applies this year. Highfill, Willadsen, Logan Whitaker, and Justin Lawson all need to be healthy.

Aaron Fitt from D1Baseball has noted a couple of times that Highfill’s status is up in the air after his back injury from last year. Good news is it appears he has been on the mound in preseason scrimmages. Fitt also noted Willadsen had offseason surgery on his hip, but has recovered well and should be good to go.

Lineup

Gino Groover is the headliner this year. He’s a potential ACC player of the year candidate and all-American. Carter Trice is the most accomplished addition to the lineup.

It’s not always a good thing to be old in baseball, but State has a lot of guys who have played multiple seasons of college baseball already: Noah Soles, Dom Pilolli, Kalae Harrison, Trevor Candelaria, Parker Nolan.

Payton Green and Jacob Cozart were talented freshmen who really emerged late in the year, and I think they are key cogs this year. Eli Serrano is the only freshman I project to start, and it’s worth noting he will be a draft-eligible sophomore in 2024.

Defense

State’s issues defensively were well-documented last year, and I think you saw a concerted effort to address that in the portal.  This is another case where being old has benefits, as it could certainly help the Pack play cleaner baseball. Nolan should slot right in center and Harrison is a glove-first player. Cozart is one of the best defenders behind the plate in the country.

Questions still remain: Can Green and Groover handle the left side of the infield? If not, things get dicey. How does State replace Jarrett, Hood, and Brown up the middle?

My biggest question is where does Carter Trice fit in? It’s a numbers game right now. Daniel is running our projected lineups, and right now there’s one too many outfielders. I’m currently leaving Soles out of the lineup, but can that actually happen?

Trice was a utility player at ODU.  In fact, he primarily played infield. If that happens, that’s an easy solution. In the Fall, Trice battled injuries and has appeared headed for the outfield or DH since. State’s best offensive lineup includes Trice at second base. Will it play out that way?

Overall

Elliott Avent has this program in a place where you know what to expect year in and year out, and I don’t expect this year to be any different. This team should hit its way to the NCAA Tournament and will be very competitive in a loaded ACC, especially the Atlantic Division.

I would not project this team to be heavily in the hosting mix, although that’s primarily due to the schedule giving them very little margin for error. They’ve got to be nearly perfect to get to the top 16, and there’s too many questions around the defense, Highfill’s health, and the bullpen for me to project that.

BASEBALL: What to expect in 2023

7,011 Views | 28 Replies | Last: 1 yr ago by franco910
Steve Williams
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Good stuff. Excited about this years team.
SniderFC
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Who does the scheduling for baseball?
TraCha4
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Play Ball!!
EthanBarry
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SniderFC said:

Who does the scheduling for baseball?
I imagine operations actually makes sure it comes together but Avent is likely picking who they want to play.
Packamylase
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When does the season get started?
wnosaj83
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What's the story with Gupton?
EthanBarry
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wnosaj83 said:

What's the story with Gupton?


What do you mean?
braz213
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So Highfill's back injury is something that could flare up at any time?
ShaggyWolf
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Excited to have you covering this all year, Ethan.
wnosaj83
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Sorry that was unintentionally very vague. He's a local kid a big recruit. What are you thoughts on him contributing this season?
rbaker
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If Sam could pitch 3 on Friday and 3 on Sunday, that could help 2 days. Great way to start him off at the start of the year. I hear he's healthy.
EthanBarry
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wnosaj83 said:

Sorry that was unintentionally very vague. He's a local kid a big recruit. What are you thoughts on him contributing this season?

He's a huge ceiling guy. Hit tool needs to come along, I think you'll see him off the bench this year and start next year. But he's so talented as soon as they feel good about his at bats and putting the ball in play he will play a lot
EthanBarry
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ShaggyWolf said:

Excited to have you covering this all year, Ethan.
Appreciate it!
ncsuchris
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metcalfmafia
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Scheduling, as it is with basketball as well, is a two way street.
SportManagementEngineer
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Really excited about the lineup, seems we've got quite a few options with guys who have proven they can hit on the college level.

Defense/fielding really only has one way to go from last year so you hope that is improved. It killed us last year and made things harder on our pitching staff.
Twitter: @JJwith2Jays
Alex Gee
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Andrew Sanders sharing some really good tidbits on The Wolfpacker podcast. Ethan tweeted a summary of the discussion.

On Sam Highfill (rough transcription): Feeling good, pitching well. Expect him to play a huge role this season. Although, at least to start the season off, they do not see him as a starting pitcher. Instead State is going to utilize Highfill in the Evan Justice/Chris Villaman "swing role". The thought process is that he can give you 6 solid innings in a start and impact one game, or potentially give you 3 on Friday and 3 on Sunday and close out two wins. Doesn't mean that eventually he moves back into a weekend starter role i.e Reid Johnston in 2018.

He's worked up to a starter's workload and is NOT a one inning guy. In theory he could enter a game for State in the 4th inning and close it out from there.
wnosaj83
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Thanks Ethan! I just listen to the pod and you answered all my questions there.
Packsd14me
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Great job Ethan. I love me some baseball. Excited for the season to start. I think the lineup comes down to how well Harrison hits. Trice moves to second base if he doesn't. Harrison comes in late for defense if he doesn't hit. Lots of time to determine the best lineups. I expect to see Avent experimenting early on to determine the best guys.
DJncsu13
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Good stuff Ethan. Thanks!
"For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack"
Follow me on twitter: @d_johnson13/@PackUniforms
SportManagementEngineer
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Twitter: @JJwith2Jays
wilmwolf
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Can't remember if that's the same shoulder he hurt last year.
Just a guy on the sunshine squad.
metcalfmafia
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Kid just can't seem to stay healthy.
FLWolf
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That sucks-he will probably come back as a DH as throw will be the last thing he will be able to do with a shoulder injury

Wish him the best
Glasswolf
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wilmwolf80 said:

Can't remember if that's the same shoulder he hurt last year.
I believe both injuries happened to his right shoulder
franco910
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Sorry if it's been posted but how close is Sam Highfill to being back? Also what happened to Matt Suggs? He played at UNCW and I saw where he committed to transferring to State but didn't see his name on current roster.
Alex Gee
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franco910 said:

Sorry if it's been posted but how close is Sam Highfill to being back? Also what happened to Matt Suggs? He played at UNCW and I saw where he committed to transferring to State but didn't see his name on current roster.
Highfill has had a few appearances and looks really good. Pitched yesterday afternoon. 6.2 innings total across 3 appearances. 7 strikeouts. 2 wins.

I'm pretty sure Suggs ended up signing a FA contract after the draft and never made it to Raleigh.
franco910
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Thank you.

Alex Gee said:

franco910 said:

Sorry if it's been posted but how close is Sam Highfill to being back? Also what happened to Matt Suggs? He played at UNCW and I saw where he committed to transferring to State but didn't see his name on current roster.
Highfill has had a few appearances and looks really good. Pitched yesterday afternoon. 6.2 innings total across 3 appearances. 7 strikeouts. 2 wins.

I'm pretty sure Suggs ended up signing a FA contract after the draft and never made it to Raleigh.
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