Building a successful sports program is no easy feat. It requires talent evaluation. It requires effective messaging. Most of all, it requires patience.
As softball head coach Lindsay Leftwich heads into her third season at the helm, NC State is on track for success after a decade of missing the postseason. Results from her first two seasons were short of expectations as the team finished 6-18 in ACC play both years, but there are some signs showing what is to come.
Recruiting
The first sign of impending success is Leftwich’s recruiting ability. NC State is ranked 20th nationally and fifth in the ACC for the 2026 recruiting class, with three four-star and six three-star recruits set to join the Wolfpack next season.
Leftwich’s emphasis on high school recruiting is indicative of her strategy in the modern collegiate athletics landscape. She aims to use the transfer portal as a “Band-Aid” for potential gaps while building the rest of her team from the ground up.
“We would love for them to get here, [for] us to grow them and then to graduate from here,” Leftwich said. “So that is what we would like to do. I think it’s what we’re good at. And I hope that’s what we get to hang our hat on here in the future.”
Although the 2025 recruiting class was not highly ranked, the potential is still there. Freshmen on the roster for NC State include utility Morgen Talley, infielder Lily Livingston, infielder Carly Short and catcher Carmen Montes de Oca.
Filling the gaps
One of NC State’s biggest weaknesses in 2025 was defense. NC State was dead last in the ACC with 70 errors, costing the Pack multiple games over the course of the season and ultimately causing it to miss the ACC tournament, which features 12 of the conference’s 15 teams.
“We’re going to play defense better than anyone has seen NC State play defense in a long time,” Leftwich said. “We filled some holes that we needed to in the infield and I think we have a group that really thinks about defense differently. Last year we lost 10 games by one run. And if we had played defense a little better in spots, that could have changed anything.”
Another gap in NC State’s game that needed filling was its pitching depth. With its 2025 ERA leader Carly Maxton transferring down the road to UNC-Chapel Hill, the Pack needed to bring in a few reliable arms. Accordingly, Leftwich sought out graduate right-handed pitcher Charli Orsini from Tennessee, and junior righties Kendall Weik from Madison College and Kadie Becker from South Carolina.
“All three of them have brought just a different look to the staff,” Leftwich said. “Charli is from Australia and feisty. She’s not afraid to be crazy and use her voice and fist pump after a strikeout. And so she kind of brings some juice to the pitching staff, which has been cool. And then Kendall and Kadie Becker are both, like, they just put their head down and do the work kind of kids.”
Stack ‘em up
Every great team needs a slogan. For 2024 NC State men’s basketball, it was ‘why not us?’. For the 2025 NC State men’s soccer squad, it was ‘carry the culture’. For 2026 softball, Leftwich has adopted the slogan ‘stack them up.’
The slogan is not only a rallying call for this team. More than that, it is indicative of Leftwich’s time at NC State so far. She is building a program brick by brick, and slowly bringing NC State softball to the top. Only time will tell how tall the team will tower.
