Brown Off to Red Hot Start for Wolfpack

Brimming with confidence from a successful summer, NC State's Devonte Brown has driven in seven runs and had multiple hits in three of four games this season

NC State baseball coach Elliott Avent didn't have to ask what Devonte Brown did this summer. He could see with the way the right-handed hitting junior swung the bat the first time he stepped into the batting cage upon his return for the new school year.

Brown was a different, more confident hitter than in his first two seasons with the Wolfpack, an improvement that prompted Avent to pencil him into the cleanup spot of his opening day lineup.

It's a role in which, at least so far, the versatile Georgia native has thrived.

Brown ripped a pair of doubles and drove in a run in that first game against James Madison last Friday, a 4-0 State win, and he has taken off from there. He's got eight hits, scored five runs and driven in seven more through the first four games of what is shaping up as a breakout season.

"Summer ball was a big confidence booster," Brown said of his 33 games with the Brookhaven Bucks of the Sunbelt League of Georgia, where he hit .281 with eight homers and 22 RBI.

"I got a lot of at bats. The main thing I worked on was rhythm, timing and being consistent. Those were the biggest three things for me."

As important as those elements might have been, Avent said the most beneficial aspect of Brown's summer in Atlanta was the experience he got simply by playing every day.

"You've got to play this game," Avent said. "That's why the pros, when they used to sign them, they'd say 'if we can get them 2,000 at bats in the minor leagues.' It takes that to learn to play the game.

"The tools are there, your ability is there. But it takes that many at bats to understand this game and relax to being good. So plaing this summer was very important to Devonte. It just built his confidence up. Right now, he's been very valuable to us."

Ranked as the No. 5 shortstop and No. 30 overall prospect out of Georgia, Brown was a Perfect Game high honorable mention All-American while helping East Coweta High School to four straight region championships.

But he found playing time only sporadically in a veteran lineup once he arrived at State.

He played in 62 games with 19 starts through his first two seasons, mostly at third base and DH. Although he hit .286 in 49 at bats in 2019, only two of his 14 hits were for extra bases and he drove in just five runs -- hardly the kind of numbers you'd expect from a middle-of-the-order hitter.

But Avent saw something in Brown that told him the numbers didn't really matter that much.

"It's always been there," the veteran coach said. "It's just a matter of Devonte understanding who he was.

"People do their lineups differently, but two through three, four, five ... those are the guys you need to drive in runs and we think he can drive in runs."

He has so far.

Brown followed up his strong opening game performance with another two-hit game on Saturday before going 3 for 4 with four RBI in helping State complete a three-game sweep of JMU on Sunday.

Then Tuesday against Longwood, he showed off his power stroke by leading off the third inning with his first homer of the year, a drive over the wall in left center, to propel the Wolfpack to a 6-1 victory.

His hot start has helped take some of the pressure of the team's star, preseason All-America catcher Patrick Bailey, who has just one hit in his first 11 at bats.

"I'm just looking for pitches to hit hard," Brown said. "I'm pretty relaxed in that (cleanup) spot. I don't mind where I am. I just trying to be relaxed and hit the ball hard just like everybody else."

Cover image by Jaylynn Nash/NC State athletics