Weekend Preview: Baseball Travels To Wake Forest

April 3, 2015

Game Notes | ACC Release
 
THE FACTS
 
MATCHUP: Boston College (12-14, 4-7 ACC) at Wake Forest (19-12, 6-6 ACC)
WHERE: Gene Hooks Field at Wake Forest Baseball Park in Winston-Salem, N.C.
WHEN: Friday, April 3 at 6 p.m. | Saturday April 4 at 4 p.m. | Sunday, April 5 at 1 p.m.
RECORD vs. OPPONENT: Wake Forest leads the series, 14-13
 
HOW TO FOLLOW
 
Twitter:  @BCBirdball
Live Stats: Friday | Saturday | Sunday
Live Video (Fee): Friday | Saturday | Sunday
 
THE MATCHUP
 
Pitching Matchups
Friday: RHP Jeff Burke (2-3, 4.71 ERA) vs. RHP Matt Pirro (6-1, 2.89 ERA)
Saturday: RHP Mike King (0-1, 1.71 ERA) vs. RHP Will Craig (1-1, 5.71 ERA)
Sunday: RHP John Gorman (3-2, 5.63 ERA) vs. RHP Connor Johnstone (1-2, 7.71 ERA)
 
Scouting the Demon Deacons

Wake Forest leads the Atlantic Coast Conference with a .308 team batting average. Infielder and pitcher Will Craig leads the league with a .422 batting average. He was recently named the Division I Midseason Player of the Year and to Perfect Game USA's Midseason All-America team, leading the nation in RBIs (45), home runs (10) and total bases (93). He also leads the ACC with 49 hits. Three other Wake hitters rank in the top 20 in the league for batting average, all batting over .330.
The Demon Deacons pitching staff is last in the league in pitching with a 5.72 team ERA. Friday's starter, right-hander Matt Pirro, leads the league with six wins and he is tied for 17^th in the conference with a 2.89 ERA. His 45 strikeouts is tied for ninth overall while his 17 strikeouts looking is tied for third.
The Demon Deacons are coming off a 10-4 home loss to Coastal Carolina, suffered on Tuesday.
Wake took two of three from Clemson in South Carolina over the weekend. The other ACC series the Deacons won was against Virginia Tech, winning two at home. Wake picked up conference victories at Florida State and Miami as well.

 
THE SERIES

The Eagles come in one down in the all-time series with Wake Forest, which began in 2006, when Boston College joined the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Demon Deacons have won 14 games to BC's 13.
The Demon Deacons have won seven straight games in Winston-Salem, with the last loss coming in 2009 and Wake has taken five of the past six games, including two out of three on the road a year ago.
Last year, the two teams split a doubleheader in Brookeline, Mass., before the Deacons took the series at Bryant University's field in Smithfield, R.I.
The teams do have a history of sweeping each other. In 2013, the Deacons swept the Eagles in Winston-Salem. They also won all three games in 2011 and in 2006, both times at home. In 2012, 2010 and 2007, the Eagles swept Wake, all in Chestnut Hill.

 
WHAT'S GOING ON WITH THE EAGLES

The Boston College baseball team travel to Wake Forest on a three-game conference win streak. The Eagles have won four of their last five ACC games.
BC's .975 fielding percentage is second in the league and the Eagles' 24 errors are the least in the conference.
Junior Chris Shaw was named the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Hitter of the Week and ACC Player of the Week after he led the Eagles to a perfect 5-0 week, recording 11 RBIs, nine hits and a 1.000 slugging percentage. Shaw went 0-for-12 at Louisville in the second ACC weekend, but has bounced back since, tallying at least one hit in the nine games since. Since then, he has racked up 14 hits, including four doubles and four home runs, 11 runs and 15 RBIs. He has also been walked six times.
Sophomore Nick Sciortino is currently riding a career-long six-game hit streak. In that span, he racked up seven hits, including five doubles, six RBIs and four runs.
Sophomore Michael Strem continues to be a doubles machine as 13 of his 34 hits are doubles, leads the ACC. His 0.50 doubles/game is tied for seventh in the nation and also leads the conference. Strem is building on his production from his freshman season in which 13 of his 22 hits were doubles. He has reached base safely in the last 10 games.
Senior RHP John Gorman has 34 strikeouts so far in 2015. His 164 career strikeouts is 10th in BC record books.
Junior RHP John Nicklas has not allowed a run in his last nine appearances, 12.2 innings. He's given up 10 hits, four walks and struck out 12 in that span. He has two saves on the season and six in his career, which is tied for sixth in BC record books.
Freshman Donovan Casey leads the Eagles with a .356 batting average and is tied for second on the team with 26 hits. In the last 14 games, he has 19 hits.
Freshman Jake Palomaki is currently riding a career-long, four-game hit streak, which began with a 4-for-5 performance against Duke on March 28. He has seven hits, including his first career home run, three runs and two RBIs. He has reached base in the last nine games.
Junior Joe Cronin has reached base safely in the last 12 games, tallying 10 hits, 10 walks and seven runs, dating back to March 14 in Louisville. Earlier in the year, he tied his career long with a nine-game hit streak, spanning from the end of last year to the start of this season and totaling 15 hits.

Boston College Athletics

Weekend Preview: Baseball Travels To Wake Forest

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