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ACC Baseball News & Notes: Division Titles Still Up For Grab

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With three weekends left in the ACC, division titles are still up for grab. In the Atlantic, Louisville has a one-game lead on Notre Dame while in the Coastal, Miami holds a one-game lead on a surging Virginia Tech team that shows no signs of slowing down. Ten of the fourteen teams play this weekend with some sort of winning streak. This continues to show how strong this league is. There is plenty to play for this Mother’s Day Weekend. Let’s see what is happening.

For the Miami Hurricanes (17-7), there is good news and bad news. The good news is that Miami is the first team to clinch a spot in the ACC baseball tournament set for May 24-29 in Charlotte, NC. The bad news is that the Hurricanes still need to look over their shoulder to see who is chasing them. Last weekend, the Canes slipped up by losing two of three to Georgia Tech (12-12). The Yellow Jackets got very good starting pitching during that series. Friday night, John Medich and two relief pitchers combined to limit Miami to just six hits and one earned run. The offense gave the pitchers all they would need by taking Miami starter Carson Palmquist deep twice. Andrew Jenkins in the fourth, then Kevin Parada in the seventh, both bases-empty HRs help GT take game one 3-1. On Saturday, Tech took the series with a 7-5 win. Parada hit his second HR of the series. Tech came up with a four-run fourth to get the win. Miami would avoid the sweep by winning on Sunday. While clinching a spot is a good thing, winning the division is better. That’s because the two division winners will be the top two seeds in the tournament.

Virginia Tech (14-8) did something last weekend they had not done since joining the ACC in 2005, beat Virginia in Charlottesville. The Hokies, who began the season as an unranked team, have completely changed that. They are now the highest-ranked ACC team in the baseball polls. As they head into this weekend’s two-game set with Villanova of the Big East conference, VT is ranked #3 by Perfect Game. The series win also secured the Commonwealth Clash Trophy for Virginia Tech. It is the first time that the Hokies have won the all-sport head-to-head challenge since 2018. On the diamond, the series win on the road was the first since May of 1943. Both Miami and Virginia Tech will play outside the league this weekend. The Hurricanes play host to North Dakota State beginning on Friday.

In the Atlantic Division, Louisville is back on top by a game over the Fighting Irish. ND was home last weekend taking on a struggling Boston College team. The Eagles took game one of the weekend behind Joe Mancini who went seven and gave up 10 hits and one unearned run. The Eagles got HRs from Barry Walsh, a solo shot, and a 3-run bomb from Cammeron Leary in the fourth. BC wins 7-4. Notre Dame took both Saturday and Sunday’s games as the Eagles’ defense sprung some leaks that led to big innings for the Irish.

The Cardinals (14-7) are back on top based on their sweep of Clemson (6-14). The Cardinals’ offense scored 35 runs in the three-game set. However, their pitching staff allowed 25 in what turned out to be a high-scoring weekend of baseball. The wildest of the three games took place on Sunday. An 18-15 affair that Louisville won with the help of four Tigers errors. It would take nine Cardinals pitchers to get the job done with Garrett Schmeltz getting the win for Louisville. There were seven home runs hit in the game, five by Clemson and two by Louisville. The game came down to who could catch the ball and make plays. Louisville did, and Clemson not so much. The Cardinals will have a chance to extend their lead this weekend as they head to Wake Forest (10-11). Notre Dame has the weekend off for final exams.

If there was a player in the Clemson lineup that Louisville pitchers just could not get out, it was third-baseman Max Wagner. For the second straight week, Wagner is this week’s ACC Player of the Week. Check out these numbers. In the five games that Clemson played. four coming against top-25 teams, Wagner hit .650, with four home runs,18 RBI, and 11 runs scored. He slugged 1.350, with a .708 on-base percentage. He walked four times and has now reached base by hit or walk in 17 of his last 24 at-bats. Against Wofford last Wednesday, he went 3-for-5 with two home runs and six RBI. He then went 9-for-12, two HR, two doubles, seven RBI, six runs, 1.417 slugging, and a .766 on-base vs Louisville. On Sunday alone, Wagner went 4-for-5 with two homers and five RBI.

This week’s Pitcher of the Week is also putting up some numbers of his own. Florida State’s LHP Patrick Messick extended his scoreless streak at home to 28.2 innings over his last four starts. In Friday’s 10-0 win over TCU, Messick went seven, allowing just two hits and one walk, while striking out 14 which matches his career-high. It’s the third time this season he has had a 14-strikeout game. He is also the only hurler in the league to have one. Over the scoreless innings streak, Messick has allowed 13 hits, two walks, and struck out 53 hitters. He leads the country with 116 punchouts and has 12 double-digit strikeout games. Seven of those have come this spring. This is the fourth time this year he has been named Pitcher of the Week. He was also named NCBWA Pitcher of the Month for April. He threw 33.1 innings with a 2.30 ERA, 23 hits, and just one walk over five appearances. Friday night, he will open the series at Boston College.

That’s a look at the ACC baseball for this week. Next week we will be back with more.

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