ACC Baseball News and Notes Log Jam at the Top

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The official start of spring has arrived, and college baseball is now in full swing. In the ACC, the battle is on to gain an edge in the division races as the halfway point nears. Let’s take a look at what else is going on in the league.

In the Atlantic Division, the Louisville Cardinal have a one-game lead over Notre Dame in the standings. This is, in large part, to a road sweep at North Carolina State last weekend. This upcoming weekend, Louisville is back on the road with first place at stake as they head to South Bend to take on the Fighting Irish. They will do so riding a three-game winning streak thanks to last weekend’s series win at North Carolina State. If there is a team to keep an eye on in this division, it would be Florida State. At the moment, they are two games back in the loss column of Louisville.

Henry Davis has been the most consistent hitter in the Cardinal lineup. He has at least one hit in the 19 games the team has played to this point. He is tied for the second-longest hitting streak in program history at 21 games. The sophomore catcher is hitting .412 and ranks second in the league with 28 hits and third with 23 RBI. Davis is also second in the league in stolen bases with eight, A far cry from having just one through his career at Louisville.

After getting off to a slow start, the Seminoles are starting to turn things around and are playing good baseball. Last week, the Seminoles racked up four wins, all of them versus top-10 in-state opponents. After a 10-2 win over Florida in non-conference play, Florida State made the trip to Coral Gables to take on Miami. The bats came alive against the Hurricanes as they totaled 34 runs in the series. They also got very good pitching as well, allowing only two runs to the Hurricanes all weekend long.

In the Coastal Division, there is a three-way tie for the top spot between Pittsburgh, North Carolina, and Georgia Tech, all sitting at 8-4 in league play. Of the three, the most surprising may be the Panthers. Until this week they had yet to play a home game. That will change as Pittsburgh will welcome Bucknell to Cost Field for the team home opener on Wednesday afternoon. Then, this weekend, they will host Virginia Tech in their first conference home series. For the Panthers, their position in the league standings may very well be a surprise to most who follow the ACC. Before the season got underway, Pittsburgh was picked to finish last in the Coastal.

Another player who is getting it done with the bat is Boston College’s Sal Frelick. He is first in the conference in hits with 31, first in runs with 22, second in total bases with 55, and tied for second in doubles with seven. Through 18 games for the Eagles, Frelick has walked more times than he has struck out and also has four stolen bases to his credit. Major League Baseball scouts consider him to be a possible first-round pick in this summer’s draft. Numbers like these will not hurt his chances.

The ACC Player of the Week is Florida State sophomore outfielder, Robby Martin. He hit .550 and slugged 1.150 for the week with three home runs, three doubles, and 12 runs batted in. He went 11-for-20 at the plate while scoring nine runs. He went deep twice and knocked in five runs in the win over the fifth-ranked Gators. Over the weekend in Miami, Martin was 8-for-15 with three doubles and a home run.

The ACC Pitcher of the Week is Michael Krian of Louisville. In his Friday night start vs the Wolfpack, Krian carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning. He would finish his outing by allowing two hits over 7.1 innings pitched with a career-best 13 punch outs. He retired the first 11 batters he faced and did not give up an extra-base hit. He remained unbeaten on the bump as he picked up win number four on the year.

We will be back next week with more from the ACC.