NC State working to blend elite freshmen, transfer portal additions with current roster

Fresh off an NCAA regional appearance last spring, NC State baseball revamped its roster in two ways: through recruiting elite high school talent and filling in the gaps with a highly-touted transfer portal class. 

NC State signed the No. 5 freshman class, according to D1 Baseball, headlined by right-handed pitchers Chance Mako and Jaxon Lucas, and catcher Alex Sosa — all top-75 freshmen by Perfect Game. It also brought in the No. 12 group of transfer portal additions. 

Between the two avenues of recruiting, NC State has 20 new faces on the roster, including six transfers. For Wolfpack coach Elliott Avent, who is entering his 28th season at the helm of the squad, blending his team together has been a focus this offseason. 

“To me, I’m a big chemistry guy,” Avent said. “I think it’s hard to build a team, especially with 39 players, when you only play so few. … Trying to build that team chemistry, you have to have that, because there’s so much adversity in baseball itself.”

Avent has taken the Pack to a pair of College World Series appearances, and NC State is searching to get back there for the first time since the 2021 campaign. The first step in that process has been building the team that is unified as one. 

“To overcome a lot of things that you go through, you have to have that team bond and team chemistry and everybody wanting the same goals, the same mission,” Avent said. “To do that any year has always been tough, but to do it with the transfer portal, so many new players every year, it becomes a little more of a challenge.”

While the transfer portal has created a new age in college athletics, baseball is no different. The Wolfpack has benefited from it, but it has also lost key players through it as well. Most recently, catcher Cannon Peebles, who hit .352 with 11 doubles, 12 home runs and 50 RBI last season, transferred to Tennessee. 

Though it lost a key young hitter, NC State was able to bolster its roster with a mix of experienced position players and pitching. 

Western Carolina transfer Brandon Butterworth, Sane Fe transfer Josh Hogue, Wichita State power hitter Garrett Pennington and East Carolina transfer Alec Makarewicz are all expected to make an impact in the infield for the Pack this spring. NC State also added key pitching through the portal, including Tennessee’s Hollis Fanning and Division III standout Shane Van Dam, who struck out 43 batters in 29.1 innings at SUNY Cortland last spring. 

Though the transfer portal has become a hot commodity around college athletics, Avent’s recruiting approach has not changed. He still wants to hang his hat on bringing in talented high school players, which was evident by the team’s top-five class this season. 

Outside of Mako, Lucas and Sosa, Avent was able to run through nearly every other freshman that has arrived on campus and had positive words about each of them. While the 16 first-year players likely will not all play key roles this season, and some will, Avent was excited about what the Wolfpack is building through the traditional recruiting route. 

“At NC State, we’re still trying to build our roster and our team through the old days of recruiting high school players,” Avent said. “That’s how we still build our team. We use the portal just like we used to use junior college in the old days.”

But while the elite freshman class the Wolfpack signed will help keep the foundation of the program rising, Avent continued to stress the importance of merging the youth with proven collegiate talent to strengthen the Pack’s roster.

“It’s a great freshman class, but they’re still freshmen,” Avent said. “You can win with freshmen, but it’s nice to blend freshmen in with experience and veterans. It’s hard your first year of college, and for those guys to relax and let their talents play, it’s nice to surround them with the veterans. That’s what we’ve done here.”

Avent was excited about the various additions to his roster, from the long list of freshmen pitchers to the portal signees. While it may be challenging to build chemistry with a team littered with newcomers in key spots, Avent was pleasantly surprised how the Pack has come together with a month before the season opener against VCU on Feb. 16 at Doak Field. 

“We have a lot of new faces, and to get those guys to become a team, there’s a big process,” Avent said. “I’ve been really impressed with how the guys have got to know one another and how the guys have handled things.”