Putting NC State Baseball’s 5-Game Losing Streak in Perspective

D1Baseball, Baseball America, and the NCBWA all ranked NC State in their Preseason Top-25s, placing them 13th, 18th, and 17th respectively. Despite there being a lot of turnover to the roster after the Wolfpack’s College World Series run last year, there were still high expectations for NC State heading into the 2025 season.

After starting off the season with a 3-game sweep of Fordham, the Wolfpack has lost 5 straight, losing to Liberty and Richmond in midweek games and to Ohio State, Alabama, and Coastal Carolina at the Jax College Baseball Classic in Florida this past weekend.

As a result, it’s not shocking that the Wolfpack fell out of the NCBWA and D1Baseball’s Top-25 rankings this week, while Baseball America barely kept them in the rankings, at number 23, before their 1-5 loss to Richmond earlier today.

Baseball is a game of streaks; an early-season 5-game losing streak does not necessarily predict a down year in 2025.

That said, how common are 5-game losing streaks?

This is Elliott Avent’s 29th year as the head coach at NC State, and through today’s game, the Wolfpack has played 1,044 games under his watch. This is only the ninth instance of a 5-game losing streak. Since 1997, NC State has experienced a 5-game losing streak 6 times, a 6-game losing streak 1 time, and a 7-game losing streak 2 times.

Longest Losing Streaks at NC State Under Avent (Since 1997)

• 2002 – 7 games
• 2009 – 7 games
• 2014 – 6 games
• 2025 – 5 games
• 2024 – 5 games
• 2021 – 5 games
• 2019 – 5 games
• 2018 – 5 games
• 2001 – 5 games