ACC Baseball News & Notes: Virginia and Wake Forest still on top

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The magical seasons of both Wake Forest and Virginia are steamrolling right along. Wake has lengthened their lead in the Atlantic Division by three games on Louisville who is coming off a sweep at home over Boston College. Virginia, in the Coastal Division, leads by one game over North Carolina. The Tar Heels do have two games in hand on Virginia as play begins this week. Both the Demon Deacons and the Caliavers are the only teams in the conference to have reached the twenty-win mark at home. The two have combined to lose only once all season at home. Here is what else is happening in the ACC.

The Demon Deacons (29-4, 12-2) find themselves in quite a position as the second half of league play gets set to begin. They are ranked no lower than fourth in every poll in college baseball. They are off to the program’s best start since 1950 through 32 games. Since March 21, Wake Forest has won 10 of their last 11 games. Their pitching staff, which has been great all year, has not allowed more than five runs in any game during this stretch. While the starting pitching has gotten most of the headlines, and rightly so, The back end of the bullpen should not be overlooked. Camden Minacci leads the league in saves with eight in 11 appearances.

Virginia (29-4, 11-4) is getting it done at the plate leading the league in hitting with a team batting average of .333 in 32 games. They lead the league in on-base percentage at .431, in runs scored with 296, doubles with 88, and RBI with 273. They have struck out the fewest times in the conference at 201. They have the second most sacrifice hits with 13, and they are fourth in sacrifice files with 13. They know how to score runs in a variety of ways which is why their record speaks for itself. Since March 22, Virginia has won 10 of their last 12 games.

Another team that might be showing signs of life is Notre Dame (17-13, 7-8) the Irish had won four of their last five before Tuesday’s loss at home to Michigan State 7-6. Their offensive woes have been front and center since the season began. They are last in the conference in hitting with a .230 batting average. Their on-base percentage of .343 is also dead last, as is their slugging percentage of .379%. Their total of hits, which is 218, is dead last as well. While it can easily be said that the pitching in this league is pretty good, being able to create some offense is a must if you are going to survive in this league.

The Duke Blue Devils (21-11, 7-7) come to Chestnut Hill this weekend to face the BC Eagles. They arrive off of a 19-0 win over Davidson earlier this week. Last weekend, they took two of three at home from Virginia Tech. The Blue Devils have the third-best team ERA in the league at 3.46. They have allowed the third-fewest runs in the league at 113 and the second-fewest earned runs at 98. The staff is averaging almost 11 strikeouts per nine innings while giving up four and a half walks per nine. They are tied for the league lead in shutouts with four which is tied for eighth best in the country. They field the ball pretty well, They are 47th in the nation with a .977%, 26 errors in 31 games.

This week’s ACC Player of the Week is Virginia third baseman Jake Gelof. In a 4-0 week for his team, Gelof hit .438, going 7-for-14 with three home runs, a double, and a triple. He drove in nine RB in the three-game sweep of Miami last weekend. The junior hit two of those home runs on Sunday which moved him into a tie for most career HR at Virginia with 37. He was responsible for driving home four of the six runs on Sunday.

The ACC Pitcher of the Week is Florida State’s, Jackson Baumeister. The sophomore struck out a career-high 14 hitters on Friday night vs Clemson. He allowed four hits, zero runs, and two walks in seven innings. He struck out the side to get his night going and had at least one punchout in all seven innings he pitched. The 14K’s were the most by a league pitcher this year. The seven innings and 110 pitchers were career bests.

That’s all for this week. We’ll be back next week with more from the ACC.