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With four weekends left in the college baseball season, things are getting tight in the ACC. The Florida State Seminoles have a one-game lead on Clemson for the top spot in the league. With all 16 teams making the conference postseason tournament, where you finish may be very important. With that said, every game still has importance associated with it. So here is where the league stands heading into the weekend.
As of a week ago, the league continues to do well in the polls and rankings. In the rankings, 13 of the 16 teams are ranked in the top 50 of the RPI, and three teams are in the top 10. Clemson is at #7, North Carolina at #8, and Florida State at #10. In the polls, D1 Baseball has six teams ranked in the top-25. Clemson at #2, Florida State #4, UNC at #8, Louisville at #19, Georgia Tech at #24, and NC State at #25. If the NCAA Baseball Tournament were to begin this weekend, the conference would be in great shape. D1 Baseball field of 64 projections has 11 schools in. Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina, and Georgia Tech as regional hosts. The Stanford Cardinals are being tabbed as one of five teams to watch.
There were a couple of mid-week games that may have caught your attention. On Tuesday, the #24 Yellow Jackets traveled to Auburn to meet the #11 Tigers. Auburn picked up the 1-0 win on a bases-loaded walk in the second inning. Pitching was on display for both teams as five Georgia Tech hurlers allowed only five hits and an earned run. They did have one wild pitch and five hit by pitch. The Tigers used four pitchers who combined to give up two hits and strike out 15 Yellow Jacket hitters, while walking only four.
The other big midweek game saw Clemson hosting Georgia. The Tigers would score single runs in the 1st, 3rd, and 7th to take a 3-0 win over the Bulldogs. Five Tigers pitchers contributed to the shutout. Jacob McGovern got the win (3-0) with 1.1 innings of one-hit baseball. Lucas Mahlstedt pitched a scoreless ninth with two strikeouts to pick up his 15th save of the year. He leads the league and the country with those 15 saves.
There will be two league series involving top 25 teams from the conference starting Thursday night. #2 Clemson heads to Raleigh, NC, to face #24 NC State. The Tigers have won six of their seven games played on the road this spring. The Wolfpack is 18-6 at home, 6-3 in league play. The other one is Florida State at Louisville. The Seminoles are 9-3 on the road, 7-2 in league play. The Cardinals are 22-3 at home this season, and 7-2 in conference play. The other big event will be on Sunday afternoon when the Miami Hurricanes will be on the road to meet the BC Eagles at Fenway Park. It’s the annual ALS Awareness game that will be at the home of the Boston Red Sox for the sixth time. The game has been played in the name of former BC player Pete Frates, who was diagnosed in 2012.
The ACC Player of the Week is Notre Dame catcher Carson Tinney. The Irish swept Stanford last week, and Tinney was a big reason why. He batted .750 (9-for-12) with nine hits, two doubles, four home runs, seven RBI, and ten runs scored. He posted an .800 on-base percentage and a 1.917 slugging percentage. Behind the plate, he was a perfect 4-for-4 in throwing out runners trying to steal. Tinney is the first Irish player to win the weekly honor since 2022, and he is the first Player of the Week since 2018.
The ACC Pitcher of the Week is Clemson’s Drew Titsworth. In his first career start, Titsworth went six innings of three-hit baseball in helping the Tigers to a 2-1 win over #17 Louisville. Titsworth did not allow a runner past second base and faced only three batters over the minimum. He recorded three strikeouts and a walk in his six innings, which is a career high. Titsworth is now 4-0 with a 2.86 ERA, .214 batting average against, 32 strikeouts to seven walks in 28.1 innings. He became the third Clemson pitcher to win the weekly award.
Next week, we will be back with more from the ACC.
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