RALEIGH - To become a bigger, better basketball player, Andrew Brackman figured he needed to bulk up. Now the N.C. State baseball star believes excessive weightlifting has adversely affected his pitching this spring.

Regarded as a top major-league prospect, Brackman -- who will be on the mound Saturday at Georgia Tech -- has a 6-3 record and a 3.67 earned run average and has seen some of the zip slip off his fastball.

"It hurt my velocity,'' said Brackman, who was humming 99 mph pitches last summer but is throwing in the low 90s now. "I've got to cut back on the weightlifting. I feel I'm muscling the ball instead of having that whip action. I've got to concentrate on keeping the arm flexible."

Brackman, a 6-foot-10, 245-pound junior who played basketball for the Wolfpack as a freshman and sophomore, decided to play baseball full-time this year in preparation for the June draft.

"I'm no longer trying to get a basketball body,'' he said. "I was used to staying in the weight room until I couldn't lift my arms any more. You do too much, it can hurt you. I've [also] got to lose weight, get down to 218, 220."

Brackman has pitched more innings (61.1) than at any other time in his college career, striking out 53 and walking 24.

He has flashed several sparkling, Brackman-like moments, such as in a seven-strikeout, one-walk performance against Coastal Carolina that coach Elliott Avent called "the best game I've ever seen pitched" against a tight strike zone and a highly rated opponent.

Conversely, in a 16-3 loss to Wake Forest on March 24, Brackman got belted for nine hits and five earned runs in four innings.

"If I had to give myself a grade, it probably would be about a D because I'm not really pitching the way I wanted to pitch,'' Brackman said. "Things haven't gone my way."

Avent concurs that too much lifting has hurt his pitcher, but he quipped that he's glad Brackman wasn't his freshman English professor.

"He's grading himself a little rough,'' Avent said. "The bar has been set so high for him ever since he arrived at State. He's had a good year, probably not what he was hoping for or what we will see down the road. Right now, he's got to hit his spots a little better. But we are talking about a 7-footer who controls the ball. We're happy he's on our side."

Though Brackman's ERA is a bit inflated, it doesn't mean his draft stock has dropped.

One scout, who asked to remain anonymous, said major league clubs have a "huge" interest in Brackman. He has intimidating size and throwing ability and, the scout noted, the kind of personality makeup managers desire.

Brackman, who fishes for relaxation, says he has felt more pressure this season than the previous two because of the draft.

This came after wrestling all last summer about whether to remain a two-sport athlete or specialize in one.

After deciding to stick with baseball, Brackman said he missed basketball so much he didn't want to go to State games or even watch the Wolfpack on television. Then, when the Pack made a late-season run in the ACC Tournament and NIT, he agonized even more.

First-year basketball coach Sidney Lowe wanted Brackman on the court.

"I got letters [from Lowe] in the mail like I was in high school,'' Brackman said. "He came to some summer [baseball] games in Fayetteville."

But Brackman concluded his brightest future is in baseball and said he believes he made the right decision to focus on pitching rather than on popping jumpers.

He's getting more work on the mound, which scouts wanted him to do. He's also trying to add a change-up to his repertoire of curve, knuckle-curve and fastball.

And he's trying to regain his flaming velocity, too.

"I can get it back easily, maybe in a week or two,'' Brackman said.