Albany baseball players happen to have a keen interest in NC State’s results so far this season.

That would typically strike most people as rather odd, but it’s not.

Following Tuesday’s 12-7 road win over Fairleigh Dickinson, Albany players were checking scores from other games, and taking a very close look at the box score in NC State’s loss to Campbell. In that Wolfpack loss, they wanted to know if Tommy ‘Tommy Tanks’ White hit a home run. He didn’t. He went 1-for-5 with a pair of strikeouts. He held pat. A sigh of relief permeated throughout the team bus.

So, why would Albany players care so much about what Tommy White, the nation’s home run leader, is doing? Two words: Brad Malm.

While White has been captivating plenty of hearts and minds around the country, Malm, a fifth-year senior for the Great Danes, has almost been keeping the same pace. He didn’t have a home run against Fairleigh Dickinson – he had three hits–, but he sits second nationally in homers with eight, just one why of White. He has also developed into a pure hitter, batting .394 so far this season with a double, eight homers and 17 RBIs, along with a 1.599 OPS. Miraculously, eight of his 13 hits are homers.

He’s got his eye on the top, and he’s one of the best stories in college baseball so far this season.

“He’s a fifth-year senior, and he’s probably the best player I’ve ever had, and I’m a pretty conservative guy,” Albany head coach Jon Mueller said. “He may not be the best athlete I’ve ever had — I’ve had some guys who were a bit more athletic — but in terms of just an overall baseball player? Yeah, he’s the best. He’s out there playing a premium position at a very high level.”

Malm is no stranger to success. The 6-foot-1, 185-pound, Medford, N.Y., native, hit .208 as a freshman, but quickly turned things in a positive direction his next season with a .319 average, two homers and 24 RBIs. He was hitting in the upper 200s during the 2020 season before it ended, while he took yet another step forward last season with a .345 average, four homers and 39 RBIs. Most notably, he ended the season with a whopping 22 doubles.

In addition to his success at the plate, Malm also established himself as a premium second baseman two seasons ago. He proved himself so much as a defender that he moved to another, even more premium position — shortstop — last season. There, he made just four errors while putting together a solid season at the plate.

“The biggest takeaway with Brad is that he’s a walk-on in this program, and he just built himself into a high-end defender at second base. I think he made four errors. He’s just a premium defensive player. He was a first baseman the first couple of years, did second base and now he’s a shortstop.”

Despite his success last season, the veteran Malm didn’t get drafted in the MLB draft. He wanted to know why, and Mueller had an answer.

“The last thing that was missing for Brad was just getting drafted,” he said. “I just told Brad that if you want to get drafted, you better throw 95 mph off the mound, you better hit 15 dongs or you better steal 35 bases. That’s how you get drafted.

“He took that to heart, that’s for sure,” he added. “He was pretty salty that he wasn’t one of the Top 50 shortstops in your power rankings, so his goal was to go off this season.”

Malm worked extremely hard during the offseason. He was previously 6-foot, 175 pounds according to Mueller. But when he came back for spring workouts, he was up to 190 pounds because of the additional strength. He also worked diligently to improve his swing. Whereas in the past he had more of a flat swing, Mueller said he came back with a bit more launch angle in his approach. In turn, that has led to more of a long ball presence in his swing.

“He went from 175 to 190 pounds, and when he came back, and he’d take his shirt off to work out, it was kind of disturbing how ripped he was,” Mueller said with a laugh. “Our team will lift at school, and I promise you that guy is going home and lifting even more. He’s probably going home and lifting six days a week. Like a lot of our players, he’s just one of those hard-nosed, tough guys.

“He’s an incessant worker,” he added. “He looked into changing his bat angle, and he’s getting a pretty good launch angle at the plate right now. He knows what he’s trying to as a hitter. And there are times when you watch him in the on-deck circle, and you’re wondering if he should really be swinging like that. Then, he gets to the plate, some pitcher tries to go in on the knuckles, then he cranks it. That’s how you know it works.”

It works against teams of all calibers, too. Some might look at Albany’s schedule and assume most of his homers came against Fairleigh Dickinson or Maryland-Eastern Shore, which was a four-game series. Some did come in that series against UMES. But his breakout party was Opening Weekend on the road against No. 15 Georgia.

In that series, Malm hit a home run off Georgia reliever Jaden Woods in the first game, hit a two-run shot off Liam Sullivan in the second game and put icing on the cake for the weekend with another home run against Georgia flame-throwing starting pitcher Dylan Ross.

He passed tests against one of the best.

“He could’ve had another home run against those guys — but he hit one that was a bomb, but foul,” Mueller said. “I’m not going to say this is going to continue, but there have been a combination of things that have led us to being here and to Brad being the type of hitter that he is right now.

“We’re enjoying this,” he added. “We play in a park at home where it’s 410 to left center, and it’s hard to get balls out. That’s why he had 22 doubles last season. This is just fun to follow. Brad isn’t a real vocal guy, so when he screams rounding third base after hitting a home run, all the guys in the dugout are just going absolute bananas.”

Tommy White, and rightfully so, has captivated college baseball fans with his gruff look, advanced approach and big-time power already this season. It’s now Brad Malm’s turn to captivate those same people.

The best thing about all of this? The home run race is just beginning.

It’s only going to get better.

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