FSU loses to Wake

The Wake Forest Demon Deacons knocked off the FSU Seminoles 4-2 to take Game 1 on Friday. The Deacons were led by a very strong pitching performance from Freshman Brad Kledzik. He pitched 6 strong innings with 8 strikeouts and 1 hit. He did give up 5 walks which he worked around. FSU started scoring in the 8th off of Wake Forest closer Ben Hunter with 2 runs. In the ninth, FSU had runners on second and third and 1 out but could not get any runners across to keep the final score at 4-2.

Terps knock off BC

The Maryland Terrapins knocked off the Boston College Eagles 11-10 in a wild game. Boston College jumped out to a 7-0 lead after 4 innings behind 3 RBI's from Jared McGuire. The Maryland offense woke up in the 5th inning by scoring 4 runs with Dan Melvin hitting a 2 run homer. Maryland was held off the scoreboard until the 8th inning when Kevin Boggan came in and had his worst outing of the season. He only pitched 2/3 of an inning letting up 7 runs on 6 hits and one walk. Kevin had been a very good pitcher for BC this season but did not come through today. BC mounted a comeback in the bottom of the ninth to close it to 11-10 but come not come through with a runner on first with 2 outs.

Weekend Predictions for the ACC 5/5-5/9

Florida State at Wake Forest

Wake takes 2 out of 3.

Maryland at Boston College

BC takes 2 out of 3

Wright State at Miami

Miami sweeps

South Florida at GT

Gt takes 2 out of 3

Clemson at Duke

Weird Sunday through Tuesday series with Clemson sweeping the Blue Devils

Longwood vs NC State on Saturday and Sunday

NC State takes both games.

Hartman is retiring

Long time Virginia Tech head coach Chuck Hartman has decided to retire after 47 years as a head coach effective at the end of the season. He served at Virginia Tech for 28 seasons and currently has a record of 1,441-810-8. This puts him fourth all time in wins. He has coached in four different conferences with VA Tech: Metro Conference, Atlantic Ten, Big East, and currently in the ACC. He also spent 19 years at High Point University as their head coach. This is a loss for college baseball as he is one of the class guys in this industry and raise a glass to him next time.

Minnesota vs North Dakota State

The Minnesota Gophers ended up losing 7-3 to hapless North Dakota State to give them there seventh win on the season. As I said before, This game should not have been scheduled by the Gophers for the academic reasons stated in my previous post.

Article can be read here.

Skeleton Squad

Here is a major issue with scheduling mid-week games around finals. Minnesota has a midweek game at North Dakota State. Coach John Anderson has decided to bring only five pitchers, position players, shortstop Dan Lyons, catchers John Arlt and Kevin Carlson, infielder Jeremy Chlan and outfielder Taylor VanderAarde will not make the trip. The main reasons are due to the fact of projects, studying for finals, and other issues that come up in a regular students life around this time. Should Minnesota have scheduled this game?

Best Pitcher in the Country??

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Andrew Miller of UNC has been the best pitcher this year in the ACC. He is 6-6 and throws in the mid-90's and what makes him even better is the fact he is left-handed. Andrew enters this key weekend for the Tar Heels with a 10-0 record and a microscopic 1.91 ERA with 79 K's in 75.1 innings. The MLB scouts are drooling over this raw talent and would love to see him in their future plans. This kid is the real deal and will likely be up in the majors within 2 years. He is listed on the Dick Howser Trophy Watch List with teammate Jay Cox.

My biggest question is How is this kid at UNC instead of Florida? He is from the backyard of the Gators in Gainesville.

Eagles Sting Yellow Jackets!!!!

Boston College for the second consecutive weekend knocked off a Top 10 team but the difference this week was Boston College ended up winning two games. This was a big step forward for the program which has struggled throughout the season with a ton of early season losses. There has been many indications that Terry Doyle will become a dominant Ace for Boston College next season. He knocked off Clemson last weekend with a solid performance and this past weekend had very little command but still pulled out a 5-4 victory on Saturday. Nate Jeanes returned the favor on Sunday with a 5.2 innings of great junk ball pitching and holding the Jackets to a solo home run by Jeff Kindel who could be heard grunting when he hit the ball. Dave Preziosi had a huge 2 out triple to break the game open on Sunday and San Diego native Jett Ruiz had 3 hits and will be an excellent middle of the order next season.

One important thing to say about GA Tech was the loss of Danny Payne and Steven Blackwood. They both are great hitters and could have caused some trouble but both players were not available after they collided in game 1 and Danny Payne had a separated shoulder and Blackwood a bruised thigh.

I will be there on Saturday in Brockton (TV game) and Sunday in Chestnut Hill likely the last ACC home game for the seniors. I can't wait till next year and see how we do.