NC State baseball ranked No. 21 in a pair of preseason polls

It’s getting closer to the most wonderful and also pain-inducing time of year—baseball season. We are inside of a month away from NC State’s season-opening series against Wagner, which begins Feb. 17.

The Wolfpack will begin the season ranked in at least two polls, at No. 21 in both: Perfect Game’s preseason top 25, and D1Baseball’s preseason top 25. The Pack is also No. 30 in Collegiate Baseball’s early top 50.

NC State should be back in the NCAAs after last year’s snub—injury gods willing, of course. Elliott Avent did a good job reloading through the transfer portal, and we can expect the lineup to hit well again, even in the absence of Mr. Thomas Tanks. (Still painful to think about that.)

Both D1Baseball and Perfect Game have seven ACC teams ranked, led in both cases by Wake Forest, which heads into the season annoyingly loaded. Four of NC State’s first five league series come against a ranked opponent (Miami, Virginia, Louisville, Wake).