The Wolfpack will open the 2025 Auburn Regional against the ASUN champs and their conference pitcher-of-the-year
2025 Auburn Regional | 2-seed NC State vs 3-seed Stetson
Fri, May 30 @ 2:00pm (ESPN+ / Stats)
NC State certainly drew quite the draw for their opening opponent in the Auburn Regional. An talented team that laid waste to their conference, played a strong non-conference schedule, and is led by an experienced and successful head coach. Sounds great!
Stetson rolls in as the #3 seed in the regional, having won the ASUN’s Graphite division with a 24-6 mark in conference play. The Hatters (40-20 overall) went 3-1 in the ASUN Tournament, eventually being awarded the tournament title – and the league’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid – when the championship game was cancelled due to inclement weather.
Head coach Steve Trimper has 27 years of experience as a D1 head coach with runs up north at Manhattan College and Maine before spending the last nine seasons down in the Sunshine State leading the Stetson program. Trimper led Maine to a pair of NCAA Regional appearances (2006, 2011) and this will be his third Hatters team to make a Regional appearance, joining the 2018 and 2024 squads.
That 2018 Stetson team was easily the best of Trimper’s career and was arguably the best Hatters team in program history. They went 48-11 overall while ranking 7th nationally in RPI. That season ended in the Chapel Hill Super Regional after Stetson won the DeLand Regional that they hosted.
This year’s team can’t match that 2018 team’s RPI (#63 in 2025), but it’s a better offensive group. As a collective, the 2025 ASUN champs are batting .279/.373/.402, 85 2B, 46 HR, 10.9 BB%, 18.1 K%, 128-156 SB. They’re not a team that hits for a ton of power and their 6.2 runs/game mark is the lowest of the four teams in Auburn, but it’s a consistent group with solid contact skills that can put pressure on you on the base paths while not making a lot of self-inflicted damage.
Four position players earned All-ASUN recognition for their efforts on the season, lead by 1st Team selection JR SS Lorenzo Meola (.311/.396/.529, 8 2B, 11 HR, 12.1 BB%, 18.3 K%, 10-12 SB), the ASUN Defensive Player-of-the-Year, a semifinalist for the Brooks Wallace Award (nation’s top shortstop), and a guy with 162 career starts at the premium defensive position for the Hatters. He’s an MLB level glove.
The top bat in the Hatters lineup is former NC State transfer JR 3B Isaiah Barkett (.380/.450/.476, 12 2B, 2 HR, 9.6 BB%, 3.3 K%, 30-36 SB), a 2nd Team All-ASUN pick and the son for Wolfpack alum and former MLB player Andy Barkett. The elder Barkett spent his post-playing days in professional baseball coaching, including as the assistant hitting coach for the 2018 World Series champion Boston Red Sox. The younger Barkett received minimal playing time with the Wolfpack in 2023 but has been a cornerstone of the offense for the Hatters the last two years. And, no, that strikeout rate above is not a typo. Barkett has just 21 strikeouts in 482 collegiate plate appearances, a 4.4 K%. He played in the Cape Cod League last summer.
JR FR Jordan Taylor (.311/.351/.491, 16 2B, 7 HR, 5.2 BB%, 19.0 K%, 22-22 SB) was also a 2nd Team All-ASUN selection. After starting his career at Florida State, he spent a season at Chipola JUCO before winding up with the Hatters this year and turning in a performance that’s put him back on MLB Draft radars (he was a top 100 draft prospect coming out of high school in 2022 before opting to head to Tallahassee). Taylor put on a show at the ASUN Tournament, going 6-for-14 with a 2B, 2 HR, 5 R, 4 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K, and 1-1 SB.
2nd Team All-ASUN and 1st Team All-Name pick FR LF Foster Apple (.311/.394/.373, 10 2B, 1 HR, 10.7 BB%, 15.6 K%, 0-1 SB) has put together a solid first year with 19 multi-hit games. rSO 2B Juan De La Cruz (.296/.407/.408, 5 2B, 4 HR, 14.6 BB%, 16.0 K%, 28-38 SB), a breakout player in his first years a starter, was also a 2nd Team All-ASUN honoree. He redshirted at Virginia in 2023 before transferring to Stetson.
JR 1B Landon Moran (.271/.399/.401, 8 2B, 5 HR, 12.0 BB%, 15.8 K%, 9-9 SB) didn’t receive any all-conference honors in 2025 was a 2023 ASUN All-Freshman Team selection and is coming off a 5-for-14 effort at the ASUN Tournament. Not a traditional first baseman – he’ll be an OF at the next level – he played in the Cape Cod League last summer.
The pitching staff isn’t to the level of that 2018 squad that had a 2.66 ERA and featured six future draftees, including future MLB RHP Logan Gilbert. While they may not have the starting pitching depth of the 2018 Hatters, this year’s Stetson group is still plenty talented, led by ASUN Pitcher-of-the-Year rSR LHP Jonathan Gonzalez (9-2, 2.26 ERA, 87.2 IP, 5.2 BB%, 29.1 K%) and featuring a solid and deep bullpen. D1 Baseball named Gonzalez as the Auburn Regional’s Best Pitcher and tabbed Stetson’s relief corps as the Best Bullpen.
Gonzalez started 17 games over his first three years with Stetson in a swingman role before missing all of 2024 with an injury. He’s bounced back to his best form ever this year and will be a big challenge for NC State’s hitters. He’s not an overpowering arm with a fastball that will top out at 90 mph, but his impressive control allows him to work hitters with pressure pitches and his changeup is lethal.
The bullpen is led by 1st Team All-ASUN SR RHP Ty Van Dyke (7-0, 9 SV, 1.04 ERA, 43.1 IP, 8.7 BB%, 37.6 K%). Van Dyke is a former JUCO arm who spent two years at Seminole State College before transferring to Stetson, but his rise to domination this year was not foreseen after his 2024 season with the Hatters (2-1, 2 SV, 6.98 ERA, 29.2 IP, 15.8 BB%, 23.3 K%). He’ll bump 97 mph with his heater but his slider is the real out pitch.
rSO RHP Jake Gorelick (4-0, 2 SV, 1.41 ERA, 38.1 IP, 4.9 BB%, 15.5 K%) is the other standout reliever from an ERA perspective. He’s a multi-inning reliever who thrives on weak contact and has only allowed 2 ER over his last 13 appearances. Like Gonzalez, his game revolves around his ability to control the strike zone.
Other relievers of note include rSO RHP Zane Coppersmith (4-3, 1 SV, 7.33 ERA, 27.0 IP, 12.0 BB%, 23.2 K%), a 2024 2nd Team All-ASUN arm (2024: 3-1, 3 SV, 1.82 ERA, 29.2 IP, 14.2 BB%, 26.8 K%) who features a mid-90’s fastball and better stuff than that ERA would lead you to believe. SO LHP Matthew Heyl (2-0, 2.93 ERA, 30.2 IP, 10.7 BB%, 15.7 K%) has put up solid numbers and SR RHP Justin Solimine (3-2, 3.97 ERA, 47.2 IP, 10.0 BB%, 17.0 K%) is an effective innings eater.
JR RHP Mason Davenport (1-4, 6.57 ERA, 37.0 IP, 12.0 BB%, 25.1 K%) is an intriguing arm. He’s 6’9, 255 former JUCO transfer who spent last summer in the Cape Cod League, and his last four appearances have combined for 7.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 5 BB, 10 K.
Defensively, Stetson posted a .977 fielding percentage on the year with a .980 mark in ASUN play. For comparison, NC State posted a .975 fielding percentage on the year with a .978 mark in ACC play. No single player on the Hatters has more than 7 errors on the year, so like the Wolfpack, this is a relatively solid team across the board that’s going to support their pitchers on the mound, with an infield led by a slick-fielding shortstop.
Being a 2-seed has the inherent joy of playing the 3-seed, which is always going to be a challenging opponent. Generally that means a flawed but talented team from one of the bigger conferences or a feisty well-oiled machine champion of a smaller conference. The Wolfpack get the latter in this 2025 Auburn Regional.
While Stetson likely doesn’t have the starting pitching depth to carry them to the Regional title and the program’s second ever Super Regional, they have more than enough to send NC State into the loser’s bracket in expedient fashion. The Wolfpack will have their work cut out for them on Friday afternoon.