ACC Baseball News & Notes: It's Tournament Time in Durham, NC

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The Atlantic Coast Conference season is over. Twelve teams have made the final cut and are heading to Durham, NC for the conference tournament that gets underway this morning. Boston College (34-17, 16-14) will play Virginia Tech (30-21, 12-17) in Pool C play at 11 AM to begin the tournament. There are four pools, with three teams in each of these pools. Everyone will play two games from Tuesday through Friday. The four pool winners will then meet in the semi-finals on Saturday with the two winners from those games playing for the ACC tournament championship on Sunday, and the automatic bid to the NCAA Baseball Tournament.

The four teams that will head pool play are #1 ranked and overall #1 seed Wake Forest (45-9, 22-7). They head pool A. Virginia (44-11, 19-11) heads pool B, Clemson (39-17, 20-10) heads up pool C, and Miami (37-18, 18-12) heads up pool D. The Tigers will bring a 12-game winning streak to Durham. Virginia takes a nine-game streak to the event. For the Miami Hurricanes, this will be the 48th trip to the conference tournament, For the #3 Clemson Tigers, this will mark the 44th time in the field. The all-time leader is a team that did not make this year’s field. Florida State has been in this event a total of 59 times.

The Cavaliers finished with the top team batting average at .334. Catcher Kyle Teel won the batting race with a 414 average in 55 games. Teel also slugged .668 with an on-base percentage of 480. His numbers were good enough to be named Player of the Year in the league. Teel is 6th in the country with his 91 hits. Virginia led the league in doubles with 149, and in RBi with 459. They also scored the most runs at 502.

Wake Forest had the best pitching staff by far in the league. A 2.72 team ERA in 54 games and led the league in shutouts with nine. However, they registered zero complete games. In fact, the league had only two all season. Drue Hackenburgh of Virginia Tech and Carson Liggett of Louisville were the only ones who went the distance this year.

Boston College was the best fielding team in the league with a .982% (34 errors in 51 games) and they turned 40 double plays. Those numbers ranked them #8 in the country in fielding. The team they will face on Tuesday morning, the Hokies, are ranked #2 in the league with a .980% (37 errors in 51 games) and they turned 47 twin-killings. They ranked #13 in the nation in fielding.

Wake Forest junior infielder Brock Wilken led the league and was tied for third in the country with 25 home runs. He was seventh in the nation in home runs per game at .46. Brock led the league in runs scored with 70 for an average of 1.30 a game. His 70 runs have him tied for 11th in the nation. His runs per game are 19th best in the nation. He is still chasing the all-time mark in the conference. As play begins in the postseason tournament, Wilken has 65 career HR and is four away from tying for the all-time lead that is held by Anthony Maisano GT, WF (1986-90) and JD Drew FSU (1885-97) with 69.

The best pitcher in the league is really no surprise. Rhett Lowder of Wake Forest finished the season with a 12-0 record. He is the only pitcher in the nation who has a perfect record. He leads the nation in wins (12) and is third in ERA (1.73). He was named to the All-ACC first team as well as Pitcher of the Year in the ACC. His coach Tom Walter was named ACC Coach of the Tear for leading the Demon Deacons to a 45-9 record. The Rookie of the Year is Cam Cannarella of Clemson. He was also named to the All-Rookie Team in the league. He finished third in the batting race with a .393 average, and he was third in hits with 88 which ranks him 12th in the country. He led the ACC in stolen bases with 23.

The final weekly awards go like this. There were Co-Players of the Week. Billy Amick of Clemson won the award for the second straight week. He went 8-for-15 (.533) with a HR, two doubles, 10 RBI, four runs, a .867 slugging percentage, and a .556 on-base percentage in four games for the Tigers all wins. He has at least one hit in all four games. Cannon Peebles of NC State went 6-for-8 with two HRs, eight RBI, two doubles, six runs scored, and five walks. He reached base 11 times in 13 plate appearances over the weekend. The Pitcher of the Week is Logan Whitaker of the Wolfpack. In his final home start of 2023, he went seven innings of shutout baseball allowing just one hit and striking out six. He threw 113 pitches and faced the minimum three times in those seven innings.

Enjoy the baseball that is ahead in Durham. Come the weekend, we will know who will be crowned champion of the ACC.