ACC Well Respented In NCAA Baseball Tourament

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When the NCAA Division 1 baseball field was announced, it was expected that the ACC would be well represented and indeed that was the case. Seven schools from the ACC were called last Monday. All with a resume that would suggest why they were named to the field. Every one of them possesses a legit reason why they could become NCAA champion by the end of June.

The Louisville Cardinal finish the regular season with the best team ERA in the conference at 2.82, giving up 161 earned runs in 514 innings pitched. What is even more impressive is the 414 hits allowed, 100 fewer hits than innings thrown. Not to mention the 532 strikeouts in those frames. Brendon McKay is the number one starter for the Cardinal as he finished his season with a 9-3 record, only 58 hits allowed in 91.0 innings, walking only 31 while striking out a whopping 124. Putting bat on ball VS McKay is not an east thing to do. When McKay is not on the mound throwing zeroes against the opposition, Nick Bennett might be. He was 5-0 on the year, 2.54 ERA, 49 hits in 58 innings hurled. His numbers may not jump out at you, but the results cannot be argued.

The Cardinal can swing the bats as well and leading the way is Drew Ellis with a .376 batting average, 202 plate appearances 76 hits. He whacked 17 home runs and drove in 53 while scoring 51 runs himself. When not going deep, he also hit 18 doubles on the season and one triple. His 36 extra base hits show how dangerous his bats is. Ellis ended the year with 147 total bases for Louisville.

The North Carolina Tar Heels can also pitch and hit. The pitching was led by J.B. Bukauskas who finished second in the conference in pitching. His 9-0 record with a 2.02 ERA easily will make him the game one starter for the Tar Heels. 111 strikeouts in 89 innings, while only 20 earned runs allowed. On offense, two players stand out in Logan Warmouth and Brian Miller. They were one, two in hits this year. Miller, the leadoff guy, had 87 to go along with 22 stolen bases. Warmouth gathered up 89 hits, 145 total bases, and five triples.

Wake Forest was second in team batting and fielding this spring. A .308 team average can be associated with one player in mind. Gavin Sheets, who was the power man in their lineup. His 20 HR’s and 79 RBI led the conference. Someone had to be getting on base for Sheets to put up these numbers and that guy was Jake Mueller. A .354 average on the season, 81 hits and 14 doubles to his credit. Stuart Fairchild put up some serious numbers as well with a .353 average, 15 home runs, and 26 RBI’S.

North Carolina State had its ups and downs, however, when all was said and done the ups won out. They smacked eight doubles in a game on May 14 VS Pittsburgh. and turned four DP’s in a game back in February against UNCG.

Virginia was the best hitting squad in 2017 with a team batting average of .324 in 56 games. They clubbed 60 HR’s while stealing 75 bases in 89 attempts. They only struck out 212 times as putting the ball in play is what they do well.

Florida State will be trying to give Head Coach Mike Martin something he has been trying to add to resume for some time, a national championship. This may not be the group that gets it done for him, but Pitcher Tyler Holton will give it a shot. A 9-2 mark, to go along with 119 K’S in 96.1 innings is a good start down that road.

The Clemson Tigers round out the ACC schools in this year’s event. Reed Rohlman finished tied for the league lead in doubles with 21 and hitting .375. The Tigers did end the year third in team pitching with a staff ERA of 3.53. Starting pitcher Charles Barnes was fourth in strikeouts with 109 in 95 innings of work.