N.C. State varsity baseball was in the national spotlight this summer after punching its ticket to Omaha for the first time since 1968. N.C. State Club Baseball has maintained a high level of competition in recent years, as well.
“We have been ranked in the top 20 nationally in the National Club Baseball rankings every year since I have been here,” said club president Ben Walgenbach, a senior in physics. “This year, we’ll probably start outside the rankings just because we didn’t finish up like we wanted to last year, but we’ll be just as competitive.”
The club team finished the 2013 spring season with a 14-6 overall record and 9-3 against the Mid-Atlantic South division teams. UNC-Chapel Hill, East Carolina, Wake Forest and Elon’s club teams also play in the division.
“We won the Mid-Atlantic conference two years ago, and we were the runners-ups the year before that,” Walgenbach said. “We also reached the Mid-Atlantic regional in those years, but we were one game shy of reaching last year.”
Walgenbach, who is entering his fourth year with the club, has returned to the sport since his final year playing with his high school team was cut short.
“I have been playing since I was four or five years old,” the Hendersonville native said. “I played at Hendersonville High School, and I actually missed my senior year due to an injury, so the club baseball team was a perfect opportunity for me to keep playing after high school competitively but not with the same amount of time or strenuous nature of the varsity team.”
The club is open to all students regardless of prior experience, and everyone who joins will stay on the team during the fall but will be subject to roster cuts when the spring season rolls around.
“You don’t need to try out to make the [fall] team,” Walgenbach said. “We play a fall league, so we draft everybody that comes out, and anybody who wants to play gets drafted into one of our four fall teams, and we play games against each other on Saturdays and Sundays except on football days. It gives everybody a chance to shake the rust off, get back into shape and show us what you’ve got.”
Once spring arrives, it’s a whole different ball game.
“After that fall league–so about six to eight games–we cut the team down after that to about 35 to 40 guys,” Walgenbach said. “Then, the real season starts in the spring.”
According to Walgenbach, the fall league costs $55, which includes field rental fees and jerseys.
“If you make the full team, the dues are a little more,” Walgenbach said. “We do not play on campus, so we have to rent a field from [the city of Raleigh’s Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources Department] in North Hills. We can help out with that. It’s not a very tight situation, but it does cost some money to play.”
For more information on the team and how to join, send email to [email protected] for additional details.
