The distinctive ping of bat against ball. The smell of fresh-cut grass. A hot dog slathered with mustard.

Baseball season — that beloved harbinger of spring — is in full swing, and CALS student Brock Deatherage is front and center for the Wolfpack.

The outfielder earned a spot on the 2016 ACC All-Academic Team, starting every game last season and hitting .317 with 45 runs, nine doubles, five triples and a career-high six homers. He also leads the team in base-stealing, nabbing 14 on 18 attempts in 2016.

Equally gifted with the pigskin, Deatherage was a star football player in high school. He turned down football scholarships to Harvard, Dartmouth,Tennessee and Ole Miss, among others, to attend NC State.

A junior agricultural business management major, Deatherage says he’s “been in agriculture my entire life,” growing up on a North Carolina dairy farm. He hopes to return to farming some day.

Read on to learn a little more about the player with the coolest name in college baseball.

What’s it like being a student-athlete at NC State?

Being a student athlete at NC State isn’t anything new to me. Playing sports and focusing on school is all I have done my entire life.

What’s your career goal?

I’d like to play baseball at the next level for as long as possible, then farm for a living.

What are some of your favorite classes in CALS?

All of my crop science classes are my favorite.

What have you learned here that you’ll take with you when you graduate?

I’ve enjoyed learning different farming methods through my crop science classes as well as my ag business classes.

In five words or less, what’s the best thing about CALS?

We farm, you eat.

This post was originally published in College of Agriculture and Life Sciences News.