ACC Baseball News & Notes: A look at Week 2 of League Play

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Week 2 of the ACC baseball season began on Friday and all 16 teams in the conference were in action for the first time this season. Last weekend 10 teams played with Wake Forest sweeping their series. Last weekend’s surprise may have been Boston College taking two of three on the road at Virginia. Let’s see how week two looks in the league.

Six teams were ranked in this week’s D1 Baseball Top 25 poll. They are Florida State at #5, North Carolina at #6, Clemson at #10, Wake Forest at #14, Stanford at #18, and Virginia at #23. Duke and Virginia are traveling partners this weekend as both schools head to the West Coast for the first time in league play. The Blue Devils are in Palo Alto, California to face the Cardinals. Stanford returns home after taking their first series as a member of the ACC last weekend at Chapel Hill against the Tar Heels. Duke’s Ben Miller is tied for second in the nation with 10 home runs. The Cavaliers will look to bounce back from last weekend’s series loss to BC by heading to Berkeley to face the Golden Bears.

The only team in the league yet to play a home game of any kind is Notre Dame. They will have to wait at least another weekend as they head to Clemson to take on the Tigers. Clemson has this week’s ACC Player of the Week in second baseman Jason Purify who last week helped the Tigers to a 5-0 record by hitting .600 (12-for-20) with two HRs, two triples, one double, nine RBI, and five runs scored. He slugged at a .1.150 clip, with a .583 on-base percentage, and also stole a base. After their series win at Virginia, the Eagles have only played one home game themselves and they head to Tallahassee, Florida to meet up with the Seminoles.

The Pittsburgh Panthers head to Atlanta, Georgia to play the Yellow Jackets. On Tuesday of this week, GT P Mason Patel grabbed win number six on the year. He leads the country in wins with six wins in his six appearances to date. He has thrown 20 scoreless innings in those six outings. On offense, Georgia Tech is third in the nation in doubles.

Virginia Tech is at North Carolina State this weekend. The Hokies are tied for the nation lead in doubles with 50. Sam Tackett is one of four hitters in the country to be hitting .500 or better so far on the year. The Demon Deacons will be facing this week’s ACC Pitcher of the Week Ryan Marohn who threw a complete-game shutout last weekend. Last Sunday, he went the full nine striking out a career-high 14 batters while allowing only four hits. He boasts a 3-1 record with a 1.73 ERA, and 38 strikeouts and has thrown back-to-back complete game shutouts.

Wake Forest is home to Miami this weekend. They are the other team with 50 doubles on the season which ties them for the lead in the country. Last Friday, Mark Houston had a 10-RBI game and he leads the league with 34 RBI which is also third in the country. On the mound, Logan Lunceford leads the conference with 42 strikeouts. That number is third-best in the nation.

Next week we look ahead to week three in the ACC.