NC State baseball's ranking moves down after series win at Hawaii
NC State baseball won its second straight weekend series by taking two of three at Hawaii. The Wolfpack won the Friday night and Sunday afternoon contests, propelled by its offense that scored 32 total runs over the three games.
The Wolfpack, which entered the weekend ranked as high as No. 13 by D1 Baseball, checked in at No. 14 in their poll this week. NC State is also No. 18 in Baseball America’s weekly rankings and No. 21 in Perfect Game’s.
NC State moved up a spot in Baseball America’s rankings and slid one spot in Perfect Game’s top 25.
The Wolfpack has been led by Wichita State transfer Garrett Pennington at the plate through the first six games. He is hitting a team-best .407 with four doubles — twice as many as the next closest player — and five RBI.
While Pennington has hit the ball well, East Carolina transfer Alec Makarewicz leads the team with 11 RBI thanks to his six RBI day in the series opener at Hawaii. The third baseman is hitting .360 with a double and three home runs for a team-best 19 total bases.
On the bump, it has been a team effort. NC State has used 12 arms through its first six games on the diamond. The Wolfpack has a quartet of pitchers that have all recorded nine strikeouts — Shane Van Dam, Ryan Marohn, Dom Fritton and Sam Highfill — this season.
Highfill has tossed the highest total number of innings with nine and he has given up six earned runs with nine walks and nine strikeouts. Freshman Jaxon Lucas has the best strikeout to walk ratio on staff with seven fanned batters to just two free bases in his 5.2 innings of work.
The Wolfpack returns home for a five-game slate this week at Doak Field. NC State will host Queens on Wednesday afternoon before a four-game series with Towson over the weekend.
Here’s a look at the complete D1 Baseball Top 25 rankings:
| Ranking | Team | Overall Record | Previous Ranking |
| 1 | Wake Forest | 6-1 | 1 |
| 2 | Arkansas | 5-2 | 2 |
| 3 | LSU | 7-1 | 3 |
| 4 | Florida | 5-1 | 4 |
| 5 | TCU | 7-0 | 5 |
| 6 | Oregon State | 7-1 | 7 |
| 7 | Texas A&M | 7-0 | 8 |
| 8 | Tennessee | 7-1 | 9 |
| 9 | Vanderbilt | 5-3 | 6 |
| 10 | Clemson | 6-1 | 10 |
| 11 | East Carolina | 5-2 | 11 |
| 12 | Duke | 7-0 | 12 |
| 13 | Virginia | 7-0 | 14 |
| 14 | NC State | 4-2 | 13 |
| 15 | Texas | 6-1 | 16 |
| 16 | Alabama | 8-0 | 17 |
| 17 | North Carolina | 5-2 | 15 |
| 18 | Texas Tech | 6-2 | 19 |
| 19 | South Carolina | 7-1 | 21 |
| 20 | Indiana | 6-1 | 23 |
| 21 | Campbell | 6-1 | NR |
| 22 | Coastal Carolina | 5-2 | 25 |
| 23 | Auburn | 6-1 | NR |
| 24 | UC Santa Barbara | 3-3 | 22 |
| 25 | Dallas Baptist | 7-0 | NR |
