It is a new era for the NC State Wolfpack baseball team. Longtime head coach Elliot Avent retired, leaving Chris Hart as the new manager. Hart will have some familiar faces around for the 2027 campaign, including two of the best offensive threats from last year’s team.
The Returnees
The Wolfpack lost some notable hitters to the pros last season, including Sherman Johnson, Ty Head, and Chris McHugh. However, several notables are also back.
Outfielder Rett Johnson was a wrecking ball for NC State last season. As a freshman, Johnson batted a team-high .381 with 75 total hits, four behind Luke Nixon for the team lead.
Also returning is Mikey Ryan, the NC State junior who batted .342 with nine home runs for the Wolfpack. It was a very successful year for Ryan, who transferred to State from LSU after the 2025 campaign and received regular playing time.
Aside from those two, Andrew Wiggins, Christian Serrano, and Vincent DeCarlo are also back.
Moving to the pitching staff, the Wolfpack had to play much of the year without Jacob Dudan and Ryan Marohn. Cooper Consiglio, who led the school in total strikeouts last season, is also gone.
The Wolfpack did retain Anderson Nance, who was a very good reliever for the school over the past two seasons. Nance, over the course of his first two seasons in Raleigh, struck out 114 over 107 innings.
Ryder Garino, also a junior, returns to NC State. The tall right-hander punched out 55 over 39 frames as a primary reliever.
Sam Harris, Aiden Kitchings, and Luke Hemric are among the other returning pitchers for the 2027 campaign.
The Newcomers
Justice de Jong has bounced around over the course of his very short collegiate career.
de Jong, one of the top high school products from New York in 2025, was originally committed to Duke. But after Chris Pollard went to Virginia, the right-hander went to Auburn for his freshman season. The problem for de Jong, though, is that he didn’t work much for the Tigers last season on a deep Auburn pitching staff. He only pitched in six games.
Now, de Jong will get a fresh start with NC State. He’s coming off a productive summer with Chatham in the Cape Cod League. de Jong finished with a 27.3% Whiff% and his 44 total swings-and-misses were among the top 40 in the circuit for pitchers.
There are many more new names on the pitching staff who were acquired through the transfer portal. Tall right-hander Harrison Holbrook, plus Elijah Sanders and Connor Chicoli, are new hurlers. Chicoli is on his third school in three years, as he spent 2025 with Georgia Tech and 2026 with South Carolina. He worked in 31 combined games.
Maddox Monsour didn’t see much action as a freshman with the University of Texas. Now a sophomore, Monsour played in just 12 games as a freshman with the Longhorns, batting .185 during that time.
Hunter Warren, one of several departures from Wright State, and former UT-Tyler outfielder Connor Clark are also new names. Warren led Wright State in total hits (82) last season, and will be joined on the 2027 NC State roster alongside Raiders teammate Chet Lax.
Seven new freshmen are on the 2027 roster, including speedster Gunnar Alm.
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