ACC Baseball Weekend Roundup

Given that there are about 15 polls for College Baseball, I suppose I should just pick one and stick with it, so we'll be going with Baseball America's version.

Virginia opened up with a tough non-conference road series against #16 ECU, and pulled out 2 of 3. Game one on the strength of staff Ace Danny Hultzen (6IP 2ER, 3BB, 4K; 2-for-4 from the plate) they won 6-2. ECU pulled away 6-1 in Game 2, while UVA won the rubber game's 4 hour slugfest 14-11.

"I thought Virginia was one of the better clubs I’ve seen in my five seasons at East Carolina," ECU coach Billy Godwin said. "From the top of that order to the bottom, Virginia has a fantastic lineup. That lineup is very good."

The win put UVA up to #1 in the Rivals25 and the Baseball America Top 25, after Texas' losses to New Mexico, for the first time in school history. ECU drops to #22. I'm still surprised Virginia is up here this high.

UPCOMING
Feb. 24: George Washington
Feb. 26-28: Rhode Island

#4 Georgia Tech swept their opening series against Missouri State and won by a combined score of 37-3:4-0, 20-3, and 13-0.  The Mizzou State staff has two good MLB prospects. 1B Tony Plagman went 6-for-8 in the first 2 games with 3 HRs and 6 RBI, but the story of the weekend was the pitching staff. Deck McGuire went 7, striking out 10 on Friday while Jed Bradley struck out 12 over 6IP Sunday on just 72 pitches and won ACC PoW. Right now GT looks pretty scary.

UPCOMING
Feb. 23-24: @ Georgia Southern
Feb. 26-28: Xavier

#7 Florida State swept their initial 3 game set against Georgia State and the Noles worked an amazing 25 walks in 3 games. Staff Ace Sean Gilmartin was shaky to start Friday afternoon but struck out 7 over 7 innings and FSU won 11-3. FSU recovered from a weak opening performance from Geoff Parker but still slammed them 14-7 on Saturday, while Junior southpaw John Gast was solid over 6 innings Sunday and FSU's bats again feasted 12-2. SS Stephen Cardullo (4-for-6, 6 R, 7 RBI, HR, 7 BB) and OF James Ramsey (4-for-8, 5 R, 6 RBI, 2 3B, 6 BB) led the FSU offense.

UPCOMING
Feb. 24: North Florida
Feb. 26-28: Hofstra

#16 Miami's Chris Pelaez went 8-for-11 with 4 runs scored and 4RBI and the Canes stole 10 bases in their 3-game sweep of Rutgers: 12-1, 10-8, 9-7. LHP Eric Erickson (5.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 6 K) came back from Tommy John surgery Friday to shut down the Scarlet Knights and Miami overcame a 2-run deficit in the bottom of the 9th Sunday with a 3-run walkoff homer by Zeke Devoss.

UPCOMING
Feb. 24: Florida Gulf Coast
Feb. 26-28: Manhattan

#20 UNC struggled against George Washington but swept the series. Game 1 was a 6-5 10-inning victory after a 9th inning comeback, in which the Tarholes won on a wild pitch. Righty Patrick Johnson (7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K) was strong Saturday and UNC put up a 4-run 7th to win 4-2. UNC's Colin Bates was again solid Sunday over 7 innings as UNC won 6-3. Seems pretty clear that pitching will once again be UNC's strongest dimension this year.

UPCOMING
Feb. 23: UNC Greensboro
Feb. 26-28: Maine

Boston College has to reload after losing 1st Rounders Mike Belfiore and Tony Sanchez, but took 2 of 3 against a solid Tulane squad over the weekend. Junior Pat Dean worked 7.0 innings on the mound and sophomore Anthony Melchionda drove in a career-high four RBI as BC won 8-5. Soph. Mike Dennhardt threw 7 innings of 2 hit ball to power BC in game 2 12-0, and Tulane never trailed in game 3 as their bats beat up BC freshman Andrew Del Colle 14-6. Tulane is no slouch in baseball, so I expect BC to end up ranked soon.

UPCOMING

Feb 26-28: in Auburn Tournament: Auburn, FAU, and Mizzou

Virginia Tech started out with a very tough slate on opening weekend, and it was thought that their good pitching would carry them this year, but on the first weekend it didnt. In a 3-game tournament at Coastal Carolina, Kentucky crushed them 15-6 and Ace Justin Wright lasted just 2.1 innings. #12 Coastal pounded them 13-5 Saturday, and VT's bats woke up against West Virginia Sunday to win 14-3.

UPCOMING:

Feb 26-28: @ Charleston Southern

NC State's Dallas Poulk shared the ACC Pow honors with Tech's Bradley this week, driving in 10 runs in their 3-game sweep of La Salle in which the wolfies set a school record for offensive production. Game one was a 32-3 massacre featuring 6 homers and 17 runs in the first 2 innings, Game 2 had a final of 18-3, and game 3 15-9. NC State's heralded freshmen really lit it up offensively this weekend.

UPCOMING:

Feb 23: Campbell

Feb 26-28: Coastal Carolina Tournament: UC-Irvine, James Madison, Coastal

Duke didnt look too great this weekend, but somehow beat a formerly-ranked Georgia squad 9-5 in a Tournament at Baylor, splitting the two games with the Pups. Duke lost game 1 to Baylor 9-3, and dropped game 2 to the Bears 3-2 with a RBI Single in the 7th. Duke should not pose much of a threat in the Coastal Division this year.

UPCOMING:

Feb 26-28: Fordham

The weak Turtles got swept by a weak FIU team this weekend. Jack Cleary went 3-for-3 in his first game as Maryland's starting catcher to help the Terps get out to an early 3-0 lead, but FIU's four-run fifth inning catapulted it to a 10-3 season-opening victory. FIU jumped on them early in game 2 to win 11-2, and Maryland's pitchers held them in check but couldnt get any support in game 3, falling 4-1.

UPCOMING:

Feb 26-28: Delaware

The usually scrappy Wake Forest team opened the 2010 season by splitting four games against Army and Dayton. The Deacs won the first two games of the season, defeating Army 6-2 in the season opener on Friday and downing Dayton 7-5 in the first game of a doubleheader on Saturday. Wake Forest dropped a 5-2 decision to Army in the nightcap of Saturday's doubleheader and closed the weekend with a 19-10 loss to Dayton on Sunday.

UPCOMING

Feb 23: Coastal Carolina

Feb 26-28: 4-game set against Kent State