Nick Rice’s baseball journey will take him from Raleigh, N.C., to Madison next month.

The Madison Mallards, a member of the 16-team collegiate Northwoods League, announced that the Tremper graduate will be a member of the team’s pitching staff this summer.

The 6-foot-4, 209-pound left-hander made five appearances (three starts) with the Mallards as a late-season injury replacement last summer and posted a 5.40 earned-run average in 181/3 innings.

“In the short time Nick played for us last summer, he performed really well,” Mallards manager CJ Thieleke said in a press release. “He was always in our plans, being a local (Kenosha) kid, and will bring a fresh arm and great attitude to the ballpark every day. We’d definitely like to see him develop into a solid starter.”

The Mallards open their season on Wednesday against the Wisconsin Woodchucks at the Duck Pond in Madison.

Rice is in his first season at North Carolina State after pitching at Southern Illinois as a freshman and Madison Area Technical College as a sophomore.

In 15 relief appearances with the Wolfpack, the junior has posted a 9.00 ERA in 13 innings with 10 walks and nine strikeouts. In a recent stretch, he stranded eight of nine the runners that he inherited.

Rice pitched 1/3 of an inning in a 17-5 loss to sixth-ranked Georgia Tech in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament before a crowd of 4,215 on Friday at NewBridge Bank Park in Greensboro, N.C.

NC State ended up losing to 13th-ranked Florida State, 8-3, before an ACC championship game-record crowd of 6,247 on Sunday.

The Wolfpack (38-22, 15-15 ACC) will now await word on whether it receives a bid to the NCAA Tournament. Pairings for the tourney will be announced today.

— Andrew Horschak