Bradley Wilson spent three years on the App State baseball pitching staff, undergoing quite the transformation from a struggling starter to an ultra-reliable reliever. Before he finished his final season with the Black and Gold, Wilson reflected on the ups and downs to get to this point.
A graduate student from Lillington, Wilson played at East Carolina University for two seasons before transferring to App State his sophomore year. The right-handed pitcher made his collegiate debut for the Pirates during the COVID-19-shortened season in 2020 and medically redshirted in 2021. He got a chance to pitch more frequently in 2022, but he didn’t get a lot of opportunities to take the mound or receive the coaching he preferred.
“I couldn’t really become the pitcher that I wanted to become,” Wilson said. “I’m not knocking them at all; it just wasn’t the right fit for me,” Wilson said. “I knew pitching, but I didn’t know in-depth pitching, like how to get a batter out. It was more, ‘Just throw it over the plate and see what happens.’”
After arriving in Boone, Wilson still couldn’t find his groove as a starter during his first two years in the High Country. Despite throwing an upper-90s fastball, his earned run average across those two seasons was close to 10 per game.
That’s when head coach Kermit Smith and pitching coach Jim Leggett realized something had to be done to fulfill Wilson’s potential. Ahead of the 2025 campaign — Wilson’s final year of eligibility — he was moved from the starting rotation to the bullpen to ease some of the stress he dealt with.
The risky decision worked wonders. Almost immediately, his pitching significantly improved, as well as his morale and trust in his teammates and coaches. The new role allowed him to focus on attacking opposing batters for an inning or two, instead of having to worry about conserving himself over the course of a long start.
“I think it’s a lot more free, a lot more relaxing,” Wilson said about the transition from being a starting pitcher to a reliever. “I didn’t really do well with pressure. I felt like I put way too much on myself when I started. I feel like it’s one of those things where you have to pick up your teammate, coming out of the pen, rather than somebody picking you up. I like being able to have the opportunity to do that.”
Wilson credited several App State coaches for his revitalization, including Leggett, Conor McCarthy — the Mountaineers baseball director of player development — and Ricky Meinhold — former Mountaineers pitching coach and current Toronto Blue Jays pitching development coordinator.
“Ricky was here over the summer, and we just kind of sat down and broke down, ‘Okay, what do you do well, and what do you not do well?’ And then we started messing around with a cutter, and that’s now become a main pitch,” Wilson said.
Wilson added that he had worked with a handful of different coaches over the years, which made it difficult for him to form a bond with a coach who wouldn’t be around for long.
“But Ricky helped me a lot with that, and Jim helped me a lot this summer, and then Conor came in and kind of fine-tuned what Ricky and Jim were already telling me,” Wilson said.
Wilson’s accountability has marked a key part in his development as both a pitcher and team leader. Coaches said his responsiveness to feedback and ability to apply it to future outings has greatly contributed to his growth with the Mountaineers.
“The number one thing that impresses me about Bradley is his self-accountability,” Leggett wrote in an email. “He is a guy that is almost always going to evaluate himself first. It’s even to a fault sometimes. But a talented pitcher with that kind of approach to his work and performance is inevitably going to keep getting better.”
Leggett said Wilson has a unique ability to set his ego aside and trust his coaches.
“Not only does he believe in what we think is the best way for him to attack hitters, he takes time to understand it for himself,” Leggett wrote. “He asks good questions, and he takes in the information you share with him.”
His experience as a starter, being thrust into the bullpen in his final year of college baseball and the work put in on the physical and mental side of the ball all culminated in a strong outing on March 29 against Old Dominion. Wilson came into the game in the third inning and proceeded to toss 7 shutout innings against the Monarchs, allowing just 3 hits while striking out 3 batters. His exceptional pitching helped propel App State to a 6-1 win, and he continued to excel on the mound the rest of the season, finishing with a 4.39 ERA, his best during his time with the Mountaineers.
Wilson’s goal is to get drafted by an MLB team, but if that doesn’t happen, he said he may use his two undergraduate degrees — one in marketing from his time at East Carolina and one in general management from App State — and go back home to Lillington to become a project manager.
Regardless of what he does after college, Leggett is confident Wilson will be great.
“Bradley is a guy that brings so much to the table,” Leggett wrote. “Great energy, humor, work ethic and accountability stick out to me. He will be outstanding in anything he chooses to do. There are just so many outstanding qualities, it’s not surprising to any of us that success is following him.”
With his time at App State at an end, Wilson said he hopes to remember it all with no regrets.
“I just want to be able to look back and know that I gave it my best shot and that I impacted as many people as I could in a positive way,” Wilson said.
