Clemson continues to win

The Clemson Tigers swept the Florida State Seminoles by scores of 9-1, 4-3 (10 innings), and 11-2. The Clemson Tigers picked up six huge wins in the ACC this past week which has led them to clinch the Atlantic Division title with one weekend to spare. The Clemson offense has been led lately by Andy D'Alessio who hit 4 home runs against Duke in the three game set and 4-10 with a homer and 3 RBI's against FSU. Marquez Smith also was a thorn in the side of the Seminoles by going 5-11 with six runs scored, three doubles, a homer, and 3 RBI's. Looks like Clemson will not be leaving the friendly confines of Doug Kingsmore Stadium until the College World Series in Omaha.

UVA knocks off the Tar Heels

UVA scored a big 4-1 victory over the Number 1 ranked UNC Tar Heels and Andrew Miller. The Hitting Wahoos scored 2 unearned runs against Miller in the second and the fourth innings. Miller pitched 6.1 innings giving up 7 hits, 3 runs (1 earned), and 8 strikeouts. He did not have his A game tonight but still gave a decent performance. Sean Doolittle had another great performance pitching 6.2 innings giving up 4 hits and 0 runs with 5 strikeouts. Casey Lambert picked up his eighth save on the season. The teams are back at it tomorrow on the Regional Sports Networks at 1pm EST.

ACC Weekend Preview for 5/12-5/14

The ACC heads to the second to final weekend with some key conference matchups in Charlottesville, VA and Clemson SC.

UNC at UVA

The Tar Heels invade the Hitting Wahoos of UVA for a big ACC Clash. This should be an excellent series with both teams having tremendous staffs. UNC is led by All-Everything Andrew Miller (10-0 1.91 ERA) who will face off against Sean Doolittle (8-1 1.99 ERA) in Game 1. Saturday's game will be televised on the Regional Sports Networks with Robert Woodard (5-1 3.21) facing off against Jacob Thompson (9-1 2.39). In the series finale, Daniel Bard (6-2 3.69) will face Mike Ballard (6-2 3.01).

We predict that UVA takes 2 out of 3 and loses the first game of the series against Miller.

FSU at Clemson

The Seminoles head to Clemson's Doug Kingsmore Stadium for an important series for seeding in the ACC and NCAA tournaments. FSU and Clemson both changed up the order in their staff for the weekend series. In game 1, FSU will send Tyler Chambliss (10-3 2.01 ERA) to face Stephen Faris (6-2 2.69). Faris had some struggles this season on the mound with a horrible performance at Boston College where he only went 1.2 innings and had very little control. If he finds his control, He should be fine against the Hitting Noles. Game 2 is the best matchup of the weekend. Bryan Henry (9-2 1.88 ERA) will face Josh Cribb (8-0 2.66) in a battle of the aces. Cribb has pitched well in the entire season while Henry has pitched well against the weaker teams in the ACC but has struggled against the likes of UNC and Miami. FSU will start for Game 3 Mark Sauls (1-0 2.70 That is not a misprint) against Tommy-John surgery phenom Jason Berken (7-3 2.77). Berken is a hard-throwing and fast working right hander who topped out against Boston College at 94 MPH.

I predict that Clemson will sweep FSU.

Duke at GA Tech

Tech will sweep the Blue Devils

NC State at Va Tech

NC State will take 2 out of 3

Miami hosts Wake Forest

Wake Forest takes 2 out of 3.

As always feel free to email me at bpfoley2004@yahoo.com with any hot topics or questions.

Bulldogs take a bite out of the Jackets

Georgia beat the Georgia Tech tonight 5-4 in 11 innings at Turner Field home of the Atlanta Braves. Bobby Felmy hit a one out double off of Tech's super closer Matt Wieters to drive in Gordon Beckham with the winning run. GA Tech did not play with Wes Hodges (calf) and Danny Payne (shoulder) because of injuries. Neither team had a starter go longer then 2 innings as they were just setting their respective teams up for the weekend series against Auburn and Duke.

Showdown in Atlanta Delayed

The Georgia-Georgia Tech game has been postponed to Thursday night at Turner Field. This game is known as the Spring Baseball Classic for Kids because it benefits Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. The game will still be played at Turner Field and will still be broadcasted on CSS.

UNC Super Sophomores

North Carolina became the first team in the nation to record 40 wins as they beat Campbell 6-3 on Tuesday evening. This was UNC's first game in eight days because of the break for Final exams. UNC was led on offense with home runs from Sophomores Reid Fronk, Josh Horton, and Benji Johnson. They all contributed with solo home runs. Matt Danford picked up the win for the Heels and Andrew Carignan continued his strong closing on the season with his 12th save. UNC will be in action on Wednesday with Winthrop.

Jack Leggett's guys take two

The Clemson Tigers came out and swept a doubleheader from the Duke Blue Devils by scores of 7-4 and 14-0.

In the first game, Clemson was led by Andy D'Alessio and Marquez Smith. Andy hit two home runs and Marquez went 3-4 with a homer and two doubles. Josh Cribb pitched 6.2 innings letting up 4 runs (2 earned) with ten strikeouts. Daniel Moskos pitched the ninth inning to pick up his eighth save.

The second game Clemson destroyed the Duke pitching by picking up 14 runs in the win. Adrian Casanova led the offense with a 3-3 performance with a double and two RBI's. Marquez Smith continued his strong hitting on Monday with another two hits and driving in two runs. Stephen Faris started the game but was on a pitch count. He pitched 3 innings without letting up a hit. Duke did not have a runner get past first base the entire game.

The series concludes tomorrow at 1:00 pm.

Record Breaker

Tim Lincecum from the University of Washington struck out 16 batters in Friday's night 6-4 victory over the 5th ranked Oregon State Beavers and fellow All-American Dallas Buck. Lincecum broke the career strikeout record of the Pac 10. Lincecum is only a junior but throws smoke and lit up the guns in the Cape Cod League last year. He looks like a solid first round pick in the upcoming draft. He has a 95+ fastball which is almost unhittable. John Manuel and Buster Olney weigh in with this article from the Washington Huskies website.

BC finishes Home Schedule with a Win

Boston College completed their home schedule with a come from behind 6-3 win. Nate Jeanes took the mound and was his consistent self in getting out of jams in his five and a one-third inning of work. He gave up three runs but only 2 were earned as Johnny Ayers made an error on a ball in the sixth inning. Matt Meyer and Kevin Boggan shut down the Terps offense for the rest of the game which let BC come back with some clutch hitting. With the game tied at 3, Boston College exploded for three runs in the bottom of the eighth off Maryland's best relief pitcher Seth Overbey. Shawn McGill and Ryan Hutchinson both got hits with one out to have runners on first and second with one out and Eric Campbell at bat. Campbell delivered with a shot over the third base line to score both runners. Eric has started to hit the ball much better in the last few weeks and seems to becoming a force with his bat. He is only a freshman, so he has plenty of time to become better at bat. He is very smooth defensively though.

FSU knocks off Wake in 20 innings

FSU behind a strong bullpen beat the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in a 20 inning game by a score of 4-3. This was the longest game played by any ACC Team. FSU did not let up a run for the final 17 innings of the game and did not give up an earned run the entire game. Wake held FSU scoreless for 13 straight innings. Barret Browning picked up the Win for the Seminoles with Michael Hyde getting his first career save.

BC knocks off UMD

Boston College received another solid outing from Terry Doyle today to lead the Eagles to a 9-4 victory. Doyle improved his record to 5-4 with a 3.28 ERA. His next start and final start on tea season will be against the UNC Tar Heels in two weeks. Hopefully, BC pitches him against Andrew Miller to have a showdown of aces. Shawn McGill and BC punter and second baseman Johnny Ayers had three hits to lead the attack. McGill had three RBI's and Ayers had 2 runs scored respectively. Jared McGuire made a Yastremski like catch in the sixth inning. Top play of the year nominee from me. I will be there on Sunday for the final home game of the season.

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.

Is Shane Robinson The Best Player in Country??

This Seminole player tends to do the little things right every time he takes the field. Whether it is throwing guys out at the plate or getting the key single to drive in some runs, this guy just comes through in the clutch. Anyone else has some thoughts on him?