Elliott Avent - Head Coach - Baseball Coaches - NC State University Athletics

Elliott Avent

Title:
Head Coach
Email:
ncstatebaseball@ncsu.edu
Phone:
(919) 515-3613

Through 29 seasons as head baseball coach at NC State, Elliott Avent has molded the Wolfpack into one of the nation’s best and most consistent programs. Starting with his hiring in 1996, Avent, who is NC State's all-time winningest coach with 1,071victories (1,295 in his 37-year head coaching career), has taken the Wolfpack to the NCAA Tournament in 22 of the last 29 seasons and 17 of the last 20. Avent captured both ACC and National Coach of the Year honors in 2003 and was named USA Baseball's College Coach of the Year in 2021.

Avent led the Wolfpack to a 35-21 record in 2025. NC State was picked to finish seventh in the ACC preseason coaches poll but was in first heading into the final weekend of the regular season. NC State would head into the ACC tournament as the four seed. As the No. 2 seed in the Auburn Regional, 2025 marked the 35th regional appearance for the Wolfpack. Avent moved into third most wins among active head coaches in 2025 and is one win behind Jim Morris for most wins while a member of the ACC.

2024 was a memorable year for Avent, beginning with his 1,000^th win in the Wolfpack Red and White. Behind the Wolfpack's 5-3 series-clinching victory over VCU. NC State head coach Elliott Avent captured his 1,000^th win as the Pack's skipper. The 28-year NC State head coach becomes just the fifth active head coach in Division I baseball and the 35^th qualifying Division I head coach (active or inactive) to reach 1,000 wins at one school.

With 33 wins in the regular season, Avent led the Wolfpack to their 34^th NCAA Tournament appearance. As a No. 10 seed, the Wolfpack, was named one of the 16 NCAA Regional host sites for the 2024 Division I Baseball Championship. With wins over Bryant, South Carolina, James Madison Avent led NC State to their sixth Super Regional in program history.

For the fourth time in program history and the third time since 2013, Avent led NC State to the Men's College World Series after defeating No. 7 national seed Georgia 8-5 in a winner-take-all Super Regional matchup.

NC State opened their trip to Omaha against No. 2 Kentucky. It was the second time Avent’s squad had appeared in Omaha in the past four years. In game one, a 10-inning battle saw NC State fall to Kentucky 4-5. In game two, NC State squared off with Florida and dropped another 4-5 contest to Florida

In 2023, Avent reached another impressive milestone, notching his 1,200^th career victory with a resounding 14-4 win at Miami on March 12. Avent became the 29^th Division I coach to ever reach 1,200 career victories and concludes the 2023 season as one of just six active head coaches with more than 1,200 career wins. The 27^th-year skipper led the Wolfpack back to the NCAA Tournament in 2023, finishing the season with a 36-21 record.

Under Avent’s tutelage, the Wolfpack landed a league-best three players on the ACC All-Freshman Team (Dominic Fritton, Eli Serrano III and Cannon Peebles). Fritton and Peebles both also earned multiple Freshman All-American honors following their 2023 campaigns. Wolfpack catcher Jacob Cozart and NC State third baseman LuJames Groover III earned Second Team All-ACC and Third Team All-ACC accolades, respectively.

After a shortened 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Avent, who was named ABCA/Rawlings Atlantic Region Coach of the Year and USA Baseball College Coach of the Year, guided the Wolfpack back to the College World Series in 2021. It was the third time in program history and first since 2013. Despite a slow 4-9 (1-8 ACC) start, the 2021 squad turned in one of the most historic and memorable seasons in NC State baseball history as it finished the regular season with a 28-15 record, winning 24 of its last 30 games, and closed out conference play with a 19-14 record to finish third overall in the ACC. After earning the No. 3 seed in the ACC Tournament, the Pack reached its first title game since 2015 thanks wins over Pittsburgh and Georgia Tech before suffering a 1-0 loss to 2021 ACC Champion Duke.

After earning its 10th NCAA Regional bid in the last 11 seasons, NC State went on to go 3-0 in the NCAA Ruston Regional to earn the program's fifth all-time NCAA Super Regional berth against top-seeded Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark. In the three-game set with the Razorbacks, NC State dropped its opener, 21-2, then created history by earning 6-5 and 3-2 wins to become the first team in Super Regional history to advance to the College World Series after losing game one by 15 or more runs. The Pack tabbed 10-6 and 1-0 wins over Stanford and Vanderbilt, respectively, and was one win away from advancing to the championship series in Omaha before it was eliminated from the tournament due to COVID-19 protocols, and tied its highest finish in program history with a No. 3 national ranking.

In 2022, Avent's squad finished 36-21 with a runner-up finish in the ACC Tournament. The Pack finished with four All-ACC selections, highlighted by designated hitter Tommy White, who later earned First Team All-America honors from Collegiate Baseball, the ABCA and the NCBWA. Avent recorded his 950th win at NC State on April 20, 2022, when the Wolfpack blew past High Point 13-5.

In the 2021 season, Avent saw a league-leading seven players collect All-ACC honors and a program-best five collect All-ACC Academic Team honors, headlined by ACC Scholar-Athlete of the Year Jonny Butler. Additionally, Butler, Evan Justice and Tyler McDonough collected a combined seven All-America honors and saw Austin Murr win the Gold Glove Award.

Avent joined an elite group on Feb. 14, 2020 as he collected his 1,100th career win with a 4-0 result over James Madison at Doak Field. On April 6, 2021, Avent reached the 900-win milestone at NC State with a 13-2 rout of App State at Doak Field and is NC State's all-time winningest coach.

In the past five seasons, a combined 29 players have been selected in the MLB Draft, headlined by first rounders Will Wilson (2019, Los Angeles Angels) and Patrick Bailey (2020, San Francisco Giants). They are the first Wolfpack players to be drafted in the first round in back-to-back seasons. The eight players taken in the 2019 and 2021 MLB Drafts tied for the second-most in a single season and were one shy of the program-record nine in 2008. NC State’s five MLB Draft selections in 2023, highlighted by LuJames Groover III’s selection in the second round, marked the sixth time since 2014 that the Wolfpack has had at least five players selected in a single draft.

In 2019, NC State turned in a 42-19 record which marked the second consecutive year and 10th time under Avent that a team has posted 40+ wins in a single season. The squad was undefeated through its first 19 games, securing its best start to a season in program history as it was one of the nation’s last two remaining unbeaten teams. Thanks to its hot start, the Pack was ranked No. 1 in a major poll for the first time in program history as it occupied the top spot in the Collegiate Baseball Rankings for three consecutive weeks (March 18 - April 7).

Four players earned All-ACC and All-America honors, headlined by Will Wilson who was named NC State's first-ever ACC Defensive Player of the Year and its first consensus All-American since 2012. Patrick Bailey, a Buster Posey Award semifinalist, and Wilson, a Brooks Wallace Award finalist, were additionally among the candidates for the Golden Spikes Award.

In 2018, NC State hosted an NCAA Regional for the sixth time in program history, each of which has come under Avent’s leadership. The Wolfpack ended the year with a 42-18 overall record, highlighted by tying the school record with 19 ACC wins.

The Wolfpack placed seven players on the All-ACC Team, headlined by Brian Brown, the ACC Pitcher of the Year, and Patrick Bailey, the ACC Freshman of the Year. NC State won its first nine series in 2018, including its first seven conference series. The Pack earned a road sweep at No. 2 Clemson for the first time since 1997.

His 2017 squad won 13 of its last 15 regular season games to earn the program’s third consecutive NCAA Tournament bid. The Wolfpack came within a game of advancing to the NCAA Super Regionals but fell short against the host and seventh-seeded Kentucky Wildcats. In 2016, the Pack hosted an NCAA Regional for the fifth time in program history, all of which have come under his leadership. NC State advanced to the regional final but fell short against eventual NCAA Champion Coastal Carolina.

Avent’s 2015 campaign knocked on the door of a surprise Super Regional berth, taking national fourth-seed TCU to the brink on their home turf. A nucleus of senior leadership piloted the Wolfpack through a 32-20 regular season. In the ACC Tournament, Preston Palmeiro’s walk-off roundtripper pushed NC State to its first title game since 2010. Lefthander Brian Brown earned Freshman All-America honors from NCBWA, one of three starting pitchers nationwide.

The 2014 NC State baseball squad saw seven players taken in the MLB First-Year Player Draft, tied for the third-most all-time at NC State. Carlos Rodon and Trea Turner became the Wolfpack's first-ever three-time All-Americans and gave State a pair of first round picks for the first time in program history. Andrew Knizner earned Freshman All-America honors and a spot on the All-ACC third team. Brett Austin joined Turner and Rodon on the All-ACC first team.

In 2013, the Wolfpack returned to Omaha for the first time since 1968 and the second time in program history. Avent was named the 2013 ABCA Atlantic Region Coach of the Year for his efforts.

Avent's 29 years in Raleigh have created a legacy of victories and of individual and collective achievement:

• 1,071 career victories at NC State
• 35 NCAA regionals
• 6 NCAA Super Regionals
• 40 All-Americans
• 9 of the 10 first-team All-Americans in the program's 118-year history
• 43 first-team All-ACC selections
• 100 total All-ACC selections
• 137 players taken in the MLB draft, 58 since 2015
• ACC and National Coach of the Year in 2003
• 2021 ABCA/Rawlings Atlantic Region Coach of the Year
• Selected for the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team coaching staff in 2004 and '15, and named manager of the team in 2021
• Won a Gold Medal with Team USA at the World University Games in Chinese Taipei in 2004

Since 2003, Avent has elevated NC State baseball to an entirely new level:

• 782 victories
• 17 NCAA Tournament appearances
• A school-record six consecutive NCAA appearances from 2003-08, and 11 NCAA appearances in the last 13 seasons
• First-ever NCAA Regional hosted on campus in 2008, second in 2012, third in 2013, fourth in 2016 and fifth in 2018
• Five NCAA Regional championships, five Super Regional appearances, and two Super Regional championships
• 34 All-Americans and 74 All-ACC selections

No previous period in the program's history comes close to duplicating that level of success. The buzz surrounding Wolfpack baseball really began to take off when Doak Field at Dail Park was renovated during the 2003 and 2004 seasons:

• Annual attendance has risen more than 298% since the ballpark reopened in 2005 (30,407) to this past season in 2023 (90,856)
• From 30,407 in 2005 and a then school record of more than 48,000 in 2008
• The Wolfpack broke that record by drawing 52,840 in 2012, benefitting from the Raleigh Regional which welcomed 13,324 over four days
• All five of the top single-season average attendance numbers have taken place since 2017, setting a new record of 2,904 fans per game in 2022 a year after the Wolfpack's return to the College World Series
• The 2018 season drew in a program record 100,533 fans, while the 2023 campaign finished shortly behind in second place with 90,856

NC State has had just 16 head coaches in more than 100 years of varsity baseball, and none of them have coached the Wolfpack longer than Avent, who passed the legendary Sam Esposito as the program’s all-time winningest coach on May 9, 2010.

“When I first came here, I said this was the only job I ever wanted, and that’s more true today than ever,” Avent says. “I’ve been an NC State fan all my life, and that will never change, so this job means more to me. NC State baseball is all about tradition, and I’m very proud to be a part of that tradition.”

Before coming to NC State, Avent spent eight seasons (1989-96) at New Mexico State University, where he compiled a 224-213 record and left as the second-winningest coach in school history. Avent took over a New Mexico State program that school administrators were considering dropping and guided it to its greatest success ever. He was inducted into the New Mexico State Athletics Hall of Fame prior to the start of the 2023 baseball season.

Avent began his coaching career as an assistant coach at North Carolina Wesleyan from 1981-82 under former Old Dominion head coach Tony Guzzo, helping to lead the Bishops to a two-year record of 62-28 and a fourth-place finish in the 1982 NCAA Division III World Series. Avent followed Guzzo to Virginia Commonwealth in 1983 and worked there for one season. From 1984-85 Avent was an assistant coach at Louisburg (N.C.) Junior College under Hall of Fame coach Russ Frazier, an NC State alumnus.

After his two seasons at Louisburg, Avent joined Joe Breedon’s staff at William & Mary in 1986 and stayed there two years. In 1988, he returned to Raleigh to join Ray Tanner’s first staff at NC State and helped guide the Wolfpack to a then-school record for wins and a 45-16 overall record. He went to New Mexico State the next year.