RHP Matt Willadsen excited for final season at NC State, rebounding from season-ending elbow injury

Matt Willadsen forgot what it felt like to toe the rubber. He couldn’t remember the last time his competitive juices flowed on a baseball field. The last time he took the mound at NC State’s Doak Field, Willadsen left holding his right elbow after firing a pitch on the first day of the Wolfpack’s 2024 spring practice slate.

The 6-foot-3 pitcher’s season was over before it even started. That run to the College World Series? Willadsen wasn’t there for it. Instead, he was in the middle stages of an 11-month recovery journey following elbow surgery. 

In all honesty, Willadsen had times where he wasn’t sure if he’d even want to pitch again.

But after four years with the Wolfpack, Willadsen was determined to make a return to the mound. He felt he couldn’t leave his team hanging with one year of eligibility left. 

“I was tossing and turning,” Willadsen said recently. “But it’s something I couldn’t do to this team and this program. I had to come out here for one last year.”

So when Willadsen was able to get back on the mound with a batter in the box during a preseason practice in January, it signaled a big step in his recovery. While it was anticipated that he would be able to pitch in 2025, proving that he could do it to himself seemed to be pivotal. 

That live batter session went well. As Willadsen walked off the dirt, he was met by his teammates and the Pack coaching staff for a congratulatory hug or pat on the back. But when Willadsen found NC State pitching coach Clint Chrysler in the dugout, the hug turned into a long embrace. 

It was a special moment for everyone to watch on that winter day in Raleigh, but especially so for Wolfpack coach Elliott Avent. NC State’s 29th-year coach had a front row seat as Willadsen’s smile in the dugout had a sense of satisfaction to it. 

Finally, all the rehab work in the training room paid off. So did the throwing regimen he was on to get back to full health. It was a winding road to be able to hold the ball again, but the end result of the grueling road back was fruitful.  

“That’s the way baseball is. It doesn’t give you everything you want, and it doesn’t give you what you think you have earned — this isn’t an equal opportunity sport,” Avent said. “But when it does give you something back, like that with Matt and Clint, it makes all those hours, the sacrifice and discipline, it makes it all worth it.” 

Willadsen is ready to go for the season-opening series against Fordham. He will begin the year in the bullpen on a pitch count, but the Wolfpack hopes he can return to the form he had when he was healthy.

“My freshman and sophomore year, he as a dog here,” senior right-handed pitcher Carson Kelly said of Willadsen. “Seeing him back out there makes me the happiest I can be.” 

Willadsen, a Holly Springs, N.C., native, tossed a team-most 81 innings with 86 strikeouts, 31 walks and an opposing batting average of .248 en route to a 3.78 ERA as the Pack’s Saturday starter during the 2023 campaign. He allowed two or fewer runs in 12 of his 16 starts as a junior, and was going to be a key piece of the Wolfpack’s starting rotation last spring.

That was put on hold, but he has a chance to grow into that role this time around. 

While Willadsen is ready for his final go around with the Wolfpack, the last year has taught him a lot about himself. He was able to pull from NC State’s other pitchers as he watched from the dugout, while he kept himself mentally strong to allow him to grow moving into this spring. 

“I think it’s another stepping stone,” Willadsen said of how the injury affected him. “We had a quote [last week], ‘Where you want to go, there’s fear. And to get over the line, you have to cross fear.’ I felt like that’s part of what I did. I faced the fear.”

Willadsen worked through it. Now, he has his sights set on helping the Wolfpack back to Omaha for the third time in a five-year stretch. He was key in doing so in 2021 with four innings of relief in the winner-take-all Super Regional game at Arkansas, but Willadsen didn’t pitch in the College World Series the following week. 

Then, he had to watch the Pack return to TD Ameritrade Park on television last spring. NC State brought his jersey to hang in the dugout while it was there, but that wasn’t the same for Willadsen. 

He wants to touch the dirt in Omaha. And he’s willing to do anything to be able to take the ball in front of more than 20,000 fans on baseball’s biggest stage.

“It’s my last year out here,” Willadsen said, “so I’m going to give it everything I’ve got.”