ACC Baseball News & Notes: Tournament Teams Almost Set

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With two weeks left in the ACC baseball season, the field for the postseason tournament is just about set. Eight teams are already in. North Carolina, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Louisville, North Carolina State, Virginia, and Virginia Tech are in. Two more schools, Georgia Tech and Wake Forest could join the group this weekend.

As we get closer to postseason play, several websites are starting to put out a projected field of 64. Several ACC teams are expected to be in the field. D1 Baseball has ACC teams hosting regional events. Clemson, Duke, Florida State, North Carolina, and Virginia are looking good to host that first weekend of the tournament. North Carolina State and Wake Forest are being looked at as a number 2 seed. Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech are being slotted as #3 seeds.

In terms of rankings, the league is doing just fine, thank you. In the D1 Baseball Top 25, the Clemson Tigers are at #2. They are joined in the ranking by Florida State at #8, Duke at #9, Virginia at #10, North Carolina at #11, Wake Forest at #12, and N.C. State at #23. The league continues to boast the second-best RPI in the country while leading the country in road success and road RPI. Seven teams are ranked inside the Top 25 in RPI. Clemson at #4, North Carolina at #6, Florida State at #7, Wake Forest at #11, Virginia at #12, Duke at #18, and NC State at #24. Fourteen teams are ranked inside the Top 50 of the RPI.

The ACC is starting to dominate the NCAA stats list. Wake Forest’s Chase Burns leads the country with 140 strikeouts this year. He is tied for fifth in the country in wins with nine. Burns is part of a pitching staff that is ranked in the top seven in the nation in strikeouts per nine innings at 11.6. Wake is not alone in that category as Florida State is at 11.5 thanks in part to Jamie Arnold who has struck out 101 hitters this season. This has him ranked seventh in the country and second in the conference. Duke is in the mix as well at 11.1 per nine while allowing seven hits per nine which ranks them second in the nation.

The Atlantic Coast Conference leads all leagues in batting average at .301, on-base percentage .407, runs at 5,374, hits with 6,768, doubles at 1,313, triples at 103, total bases with 11,637, runs batted in 4,919, and sacrifice flies with 316. Virginia ranks second in the nation with a .342 batting average. They also ranked second in hits with 594. Virginia Tech is tenth in the nation in hitting with a .317 BA.

Notre Dame leads the league and the country with a .984 fielding percentage. They are one of two league teams that are playing non-conference baseball this weekend. The Irish are playing Toledo at home, the other is Boston College which hosts Maryland at Harrington Village starting on Saturday. North Carolina’s Matthew Matthijs leads the country in wins with 11 to this point. The Tar Heels are home to Louisville this weekend.

Wake Forest first baseman Nick Kurtz has one of the better batting eyes in the league and maybe the country. He leads the country in walks with 60. He has a nation-best 1.40 walks per game. For his career, Kurtz has 171 walks drawn. He also ranks second in on-base at .508, fifth in home runs with 58, and fifth in slugging percentage at .735.

Next week we will look at the home stretch of the ACC baseball season.