Doucette's ACC Baseball Notes April 25th

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The end of April is here, and with it comes the knowledge that the conference season is in its home stretch. Let see what going on in the ACC.

With four weeks left to be played, most in the know of College Baseball are counting on seven teams being selected from the league to reach the field of sixty-four when it is announced on Memorial Day. It’s a bit down from last year when twelve were invited to the field. To say it has been a down year in the conference would be unfair. However, it must be said that seven teams at the moment have losing records in league play with five of those same teams having losing marks overall.

With that said there are teams that projected to have high seeds once tournament time arrived and possibly home field advantage in regional action. Those teams are, North Carolina, Clemson, and Louisville.

In the divisional races with nine games remaining to be played, the Louisville Cardinal have a one-game lead over the Clemson Tigers in the Atlantic Division. While in the Coastal, North Carolina still has a four-game lead in the loss column over Virginia. The best race is with the teams at or near the bottom of the league. Seven teams are within two games of each other and that’s important to note because the two teams that finish in last place do not play in Louisville at the conference tournament.

The ACC player of the week was Wake Forest OF Stuart Fairchild. The Jr from Seattle, Washington hit .500 with 14 RBI, 11 hits, nine runs scored, four home runs, and three doubles to lead the Demon Deacons to a 5-0 record heading into last weekend’s play.

The pitcher of the week is Louisville starter Brendan McKay as he allowed just one hit in last Thursday’s win over Georgia Tech. He finished with eight strikeouts, two walks, and only one hit in eight strong innings of work. He is now 5-2 on the year and for his career with the Cardinal, he is 26-9. The Junior from Darlington, Pennsylvania retired the final 13 batters he faced in the game while reaching the eight strikeout total for the 24th time in his career. He ranks second in career punch outs with 321, has a 1.19 ERA and 76K’s in 53 innings of work this year.

Next week we will take a look at who has been nominated for post-season awards as well as check in on the races as teams scramble to get to Louisville, KY. for this year’s tournament.