NC State Baseball Preview: Pitchers

We are 1 week away from the start of the 2025 college baseball season and this is a year where the expectations for Elliott Avent and his Wolfpack team are sky high. As far as preseason expectations go, this NC State team may arguably be the most praised in the history of the program. A very large part of that can be credited to the pitching staff that NC State boasts heading into the season. Because of that there is no better spot to begin 2025 Pack9 preview than with the pitchers!

The 2024 season was one that proved to be memorable from multiple different fronts. Record setting individual statistics, veterans leading and contributing, rookies becoming crucial pieces to the team, transfer additions exceeding expectations, regional host, and to cap it all off a trip to the College World Series. You can't ask for a much better spot to begin the 2025 campaign than what the '24 team left. So many crucial arms from the 2024 team are returning to Raleigh for the '25 season and many believe the pitching staff will be the heart and soul of this team and carry the Pack a long way. Key back end bullpen pieces such as Jacob Dudan and Derrick Smith both return. Long relievers, or even potential midweek starters, such as Cooper Consiglio, Jaxon Lucas, Andrew Shaffner, and Caden Wimbish return as well. And finally adding in multiple weekend rotation options (which is a good problem to have) like Ryan Marohn, Dominic Fritton, Matt Willadsen, and Heath Andrews. Top to bottom, side to side, NC State's entire pitching staff is loaded with talent and more importantly depth. So many guys can serve multiple different roles if needed. Let's dive into the pitching staff more deeply, beginning with the starters.

For the last few years, the weekend starting rotation was practically set in stone and was laden with veteran experience. Sam Highfill, Logan Whitaker, and Matt Willadsen (when healthy) were the 3 guys State was going to send out to toe the rubber in a weekend series. No questions about it. This year is a little different. Not only does State have veteran options, the Pack has multiple different players who are weekend rotation caliber. Matt Willadsen has the most experience as a weekend starter and will be ready to go on opening day. After missing the 2024 season, Willadsen is expected to slide right back into a weekend starter role, where he has been the majority of his career in Raleigh. Willadsen's ability to control games and throw hitters off balance by changing speeds and eye level for hitters is his calling card. Prior to his injury, Willadsen's changeup was known as one of the better off-speed pitches in the ACC. With experienced starters Highfill and Whitaker departing after last season, Willadsen's return to the rotation couldn't come at a better time. He will be considered the "anchor" of that rotation due to his large amounts of experience. Willadsen's spot in the weekend rotation is all but a given in my eyes, the other 2 weekend spots however are going to be interesting to see who falls into those roles. Dominic Fritton is a prime candidate to fill one of those weekend spots. He brings a good amount of starting experience to the table and was tied for the most starts on the roster in 2024 with 17. The upside for Fritton is that last season in 73 innings pitched, he tallied 72 strikeouts, which was 2nd on the roster. Fritton posts a mid-90s fastball which he uses regularly as an aggressive strikeout pitch and is effective when he can spot it accurately. The negative about Dominic Fritton however is that last season he struggled, mightily at times, with that fastball control. He posted a 7.64 ERA last season and allowed a whopping 22 home runs while also walking 47 hitters. That is the biggest downside to Fritton, his tendency to give up the long ball. In Fritton's bad outings, he was known to walk men on base and then give up a homer. The number of home runs allowed HAS to come down if Fritton is going to be successful as a starter in 2025. We have seen times where his stuff is electric, when he can run that fastball up the ladder and get hitters to chase it, but doing that consistently is the biggest key to success for Dom this season. The last 2 weekend starter candidates are younger guys, both entering their 2nd season in Raleigh. Ryan Marohn and Heath Andrews are the other 2 guys fighting for a weekend rotation spot. Marohn saw a pretty decent amount of time in his true freshman campaign, appearing in 16 games and starting 10 of them. Marohn was a regular midweek starter for State in '24. His skillset was evident early and showed throughout the season. He posted a 3.97 ERA last season, striking out 46, and walking 25 in 59 innings of work. Marohn even recorded a save last season. The reports of Marohn coming out of Raleigh this fall were quite positive and I personally believe he has the tools to be a fantastic player for the Wolfpack this season. If it were up to me, he'd no doubt be in a weekend starters role. Heath Andrews is the other option many believe could compete to be a weekend starter. If you look at his numbers from last year, that is a hard statement to believe. Andrews made 10 appearances (starting 1), only throwing 9.1 innings and allowing 13 runs on 18 hits in that small sample size and posting a 11.57 ERA. But throughout the summer and fall, and now into the spring, is where Andrews has really turned it around. Rave reports about Andrews came out of Raleigh during the fall from a few different outlets and again leading into this season, one of those outlets being D1 Baseball (the most trusted media outlet for college baseball). Andrews appears to be riding a hot streak and has really worked to improve his stuff. Will be get the opportunity to be a weekend rotation piece? D1 Baseball thinks so as they have him slated as a projected starter. The only thing that continues to linger is his performance from last season. Although it was in limited action, he struggled at times and that definitely will be in the minds of Clint Chrysler and Elliott Avent when finalizing this rotation.

Now, who I want to see in the weekend rotation and who I think will be in the weekend rotation are two different things. The weekend rotation I would LIKE to see is this: Marohn on Friday, Willadsen on Saturday, and Andrews on Sunday. Yes, I am willing to slide Andrews into that role initially and ride what appears to be the hot hand. The schedule is favorable early and will be a great opportunity to continue that momentum into games against live bats and competition that should be handled. If it's apparent he doesn't have it, then slide Fritton into that spot. Some will say Fritton should be in that starters role all along, and I get why. Coach Avent tends to favor veteran guys as well. The walks and home runs allowed last season for him are a huge obstacle for me. In today's age of college baseball, the long ball is king. Throwing a guy out there in a weekend series in arguably the best conference in the country, who is prone to give up multiple home runs a game, is a potential death sentence. I believe Fritton is a bigger threat out of the pen and is more effective that way, as we saw in '23. His fastball is good. He can use it as a strikeout pitch or as a set up. But it's much harder to hit when he's fresh out of the pen and batters have to adjust to that in the middle of a game, rather than seeing it 2-3 times through the lineup. Longevity is still an option for Fritton if he were to be a bullpen guy. If someone needed to eat some innings, he could still possibly do that. But what do I think the rotation will actually look like come February 14th? Here's my prediction: Fritton on Friday, Willadsen on Saturday, and Marohn on Sunday. This leaves Heath Andrews as a possible long relief option out of the bullpen during a weekend series or even slotted into a weekday starters role. As I mentioned earlier, Avent tends to ride with veteran guys. This definitely means Willadsen would be back in a starters role and Fritton would get the nod as well. Now I could be completely wrong about who gets the ball in those weekend starts, this is just my prediction. There have been whispers that Dudan could slide into a starter's role and the possibility of Cooper Consiglio becoming a weekend starter has been tossed around. I doubt those moves will be made, but hey you never know.

This leaves the midweek starter spot up for grabs. Some may say that whoever gets left out of the weekend rotation should slide into that midweek starters role. While the logic for that mindset isn't bad, more goes into it. Even if a guy doesn't earn the last weekend rotation spot, the role for that player will still be pretty big. More than likely that player, no matter who it may be, will be shifted to a weekend bullpen piece. The midweek starter, in most cases, is a younger player who the coaching staff believes has upside and potential to be a weekend rotation piece in the future. Ryan Marohn is a great example of this from last year, and there are so many more who fall into the same boat. The Pack has option after option for this spot. Heath Andrews could land here since he is still a young player after all, Jaxon Lucas is a prime candidate, Cooper Consiglio served as a midweek starter for some time last season, Andrew Shaffner is a name that has been associated with this spot, and even Camden Wimbish I could see potentially landing here. Now there is a good possibility that the weekend starter role could change throughout the season, that happened last year with Consiglio and Marohn. Using the process of elimination, I think getting a good prediction about who will be in this spot initially is possible. Obviously guys such as Dudan and Smith will not be used in this role. IF they even appear in a midweek game, they will not be in a spot to throw many pitches. Consiglio made 5 starts last season in the midweek, but as we saw down the stretch his performances out of the bullpen were stout. Consiglio, more likely than not, will serve as a weekend long reliever or the "tight spots" lefty. He is too talented to be back in the midweek role. Jaxon Lucas I believe will be another weekend bullpen piece, wouldn't be surprised if he makes a start or 2 in the midweek but don't believe it will be regular starting appearances. This leaves Andrew Shaffner and Camden Wimbish. My mind leans Andrew Shaffner gets the nod. D1 Baseball posted some confidence in Shaffner and we have heard Shaffner receive praise from the coaching staff this offseason. This just seems to me like the midweek starters role sets Shaffner up to potentially jump to a weekend starters role moving forward.

We've discussed the starters and in doing that have also mentioned several bullpen roles we expect guys to have. So now lets finish off with the guys in the back end of the bullpen, the ones tasked with slamming the door to preserve wins. Everyone knows this 1-2 punch, Jacob Dudan and Derrick Smith. Both of these guys were lights out in crunch time last season for the Pack9. In 48 innings of work, Dudan posted a 4.50 ERA while striking out 56 batters and recording 6 saves. Dudan's arsenal consists of a mid to upper 90s fastball and a wipeout slider. Reports show that he has added another pitch in the offseason as well. Dudan pitched in arguably the biggest battle of the '24 season. With the bases loaded in game 3 of the Athens super regional, Dudan faced off against, soon to be Golden Spikes Award winner, Charlie Condon. Dudan would win the battle and strike out Condon with a nasty slider and then get a groundout one bater later to get State out of the jam, a turning point in that game and series. His counterpart Derrick Smith was just as good. In '24, Smith posted a 4.55 ERA with 41 strikeouts and 8 saves in only 29.2 innings of work. Smith only surrendered 11 walks as well. A true two-headed monster, Dudan and Smith give State such an advantage that is rarely seen in college baseball today. A set-up, closer combo like that is next to unheard of in college baseball. The sheer talent of those 2 is impressive enough, but the consistency as well gives State the ability to close out just about any game they have a lead in after the 6th or 7th inning. I want to add Cooper Consiglio into this conversation though as well. We saw Consiglio come into some big moments last season and perform as well. As was mentioned earlier, this makes him flexible to make appearances in long relief since he has a starters background or enter games as the "lefty specialist" to get outs against tough left handed hitters. All 3 of these guys are weapons out of the bullpen. Any program would be happy to have 1 of these guys, let alone all 3. As a matter of fact Dudan, Smith, and Consiglio were all ranked as top 50 relievers in college baseball this year according to D1 Baseball. Consiglio came in at 47th, Smith checked in at 7th, and Jacob Dudan was voted into the number 1 spot, the best reliever in college baseball. NC State was the only school to have 2 players in the top 10.

As we have discussed, the talent across the entire pitching staff is prominent. Veterans, rookies, and everything in between are all expected to contribute this season. Year in and year out it seems like State has plenty of bats but some questions about the pitching staff. 2025 feels like the opposite. The Wolfpack bullpen is full of talent and depth. Keep in mind that Shane Van Dam will return from injury early in the season as well. If he can reach the level of game readiness, then that pool of talent and depth becomes even deeper. I expect the pitching staff across all levels (starters, relievers, and closers) to lead NC State to success in '25.

-Bobby Black