Deacons Travel To Rice Invitational

Feb. 13, 2002

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Wake Forest (1-0) at Rice Invitational

Date/Time: February 15-17, 2002
Site: Reckling Park (Houston, Texas)
Broadcast: Friday - www.ktru.org
Live Stats:

Probable Pitching Matchups

Friday

WF: #24 Ben Clayton, Jr., LHP (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs.
Rice: #34 Steven Herce, Jr., RHP (0-0, 0.00 ERA)

Saturday

WF: #34 Tim Morley, Fr., LHP (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs.
NM: #32 Aaron Smith, Jr., (1-1, 6.14 ERA)

Sunday

WF: #20 Kyle Sleeth, So., RHP (1-0, 1.29 ERA) vs.
NU: #38 Dustin Timm, So., RHP (0-0, 0.00 ERA)

Deacons Travel to Houston

Wake Forest continues its four-game road trip to begin the season with a weekend visit to the Lone Star State and Rice for the Crowne Plaza / Rice Invitational.
The Deacons will be put to the test against stiff competition that includes eight-ranked Nebraska, tenth-ranked Rice and New Mexico.
Wake Forest is familiar with Rice's Reckling Park having participated in the Coca-Cola Classic last year against Rice, UCF and Purdue. In that event, the Deacons lost to Rice 3-2 and went 1-2 on the weekend.
The trip also marks a homecoming for Wake Forest's two Houston natives, junior Stephen Ghutzman and freshman Chris Caudill.

Quickly Looking at Wake Forest

In the preseason, the strong suit of the Deacons would certainly appear to be the quality and depth of the pitching staff. Kyle Sleeth returns after leading the team with ten wins as a rookie. Also back this season is senior Dave Bush who led the team in ERA (2.65), saves (16) and strikeouts (78).
At the plate, there are more question marks. Just three starters return from last year's ACC Championship team -- Jamie D'Antona, Nick Blue and Ryan Johnson.

In the Rankings

Wake Forest ranks anywhere from 12th (Writers Association) to 22st (Baseball Weekly). Amazingly enough, last week the Deacons jumped 10 spots in the Writers Association poll before having played a single game.

Bush, D'Antona: Preseason All-Americans

Dave Bush and Jamie D'Antona were named in a number of publications to preseason All-America teams.
Bush, a third team All-American last year, was named to the first team by the NCBWA and to the second team by Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball. In 2001, he finished second nationally in saves with 16.
D'Antona, last season's National Rookie of the Year with a .364 average, 17 HR and 77 RBI, a second team selection by Collegiate Baseball.

Programs! Get Your Programs!

Wake Forest welcomes 16 newcomers to the team for 2002 and returns just 14. Of those 16 new faces, four were in the starting lineup on Tuesday at Davidson.
In fact, from 2001 to 2002, there was a new starter at every position. Only Jamie D'Antona and Nick Blue were holdovers from last year's opening day lineup but both were at different positions.

Opening Day Lineups

    2001                    2002C   Jason Aquilante       Stephen Ghutzman1B  Jamie D'Antona      Jeff Ruziecki2B  Nick Blue       Ryan HubbardSS  Jamie Athas       Nick Blue3B  Corey Slavik     Jamie D'AntonaLF  Matt Price         Steve LeFaivreCF  Cory Sullivan       Adam BourassaRF  Carlos Brackley       Ryan JohnsonDH  Josh Hansen       Brad SciolettiP   Scott Siemon     Kyle Sleeth

On Deck: Home opener vs. Elon

After returning from Houston, the Deacons will return to Hooks Stadium to play Elon. Wake Forest posted a 23-4 record at home in 2001.
The Deacs haven't played the Phoenix (formerly known as the Fighting Christians) since 1998.

Bush Back For Senior Season, Cleared To Pitch Following Injury

Dave Bush, recognized by Baseball America as the nation's top senior and best overall closer, made a lot of Deacon fans happy when he passed on Tampa Bay's contract offer to return for his senior year.
The native of Devon, Pa., was the fourth-round choice of the Devil Rays in June but couldn't come to terms with the team, opting to return to the Deacons for his final season.
Bush, who originally came to Wake Forest as a catcher, has been showered with accolades since his dominating pitching performance against Clemson in the 1999 ACC Championship game. He is a two-time Cape Cod League All-Star, a third-team All-American last year and is Wake Forest's all-time leader in appearances and saves.
In November, a blood clot was discovered in his leg. A procedure performed at Duke Medical Center combined with proper medication has brought Bush back to full health and leading experts in the medical community expect no after-effects from the clot.
On Monday, Feb. 11, he was cleared to play. He is available to pitch this weekend at Rice.

Sleeth Among Nation's Best Sophomores

In its college baseball preview, Baseball America identified pitcher Kyle Sleeth as the seventh-best sophomore in the country.
The Colorado native got some attention last year by beating four NCAA tournament teams over the course of the season, winning ten games in all. But he really turned heads this summer on Cape Cod when he pitched his way to an all-star appearance for Cotuit.
In fall and spring scrimmages, Sleeth's fastball was clocked in the upper-90's.
He lived up to the billing on Tuesday at Davidson when he went seven innings to get the win. Sleeth allowed just one run on six hits with a career-high 10 strikeouts and no walks.
Sleeth started the game in the neighborhood of 95-96 mph with his fastball and stayed around 93-94 even into the seventh inning.

Bush, Clayton Rate Among Top Pro Prospects

Allan Simpson of Baseball America, considered to be college baseball's answer to Mel Kiper, has compiled an early look at the 2003 draft.
Among his top 100 draft-eligible pro prospects are senior RHP Dave Bush (14th overall and the top senior) and junior LHP Ben Clayton (74th).
Wake Forest will get a look at 18 of the remaining players on Baseball America's list over the course of the regular season. Thirteen of the top 100 players play their college ball in the ACC.

Greer Begins 15th Season at Wake Forest

Head coach George Greer is the fourth winningest coach in ACC history with 515 wins since coming to Wake Forest in 1988.
During his 15 years at Wake Forest, Greer has coached 11 All-American and 10 Freshman All-Americans. The Deacons have won 30 games each season and in the last four years, the team has won 40 contests and qualified for the NCAA Tourney for an unprecedented four straight years.

Random Notes

The Wake Forest roster has players from 15 different states... eight Deacons hail from California... Wake Forest was 36-0 when leading after seven innings last year... six teams on the 2002 schedule made the NCAA Tournament last year including two -- Georgia and Nebraska -- that made the College World Series... Ryan Hubbard and Jeff Ruziecki were teammates at Huntington Beach HS and Cypress Junior College before coming to Wake Forest.

Deacons Picked To Finish Third in ACC

The Atlantic Coast Conference released its preseason polls for baseball on Jan. 30. Wake Forest, the defending league champion, was predicted to finish third in a vote by the league's coaches. Clemson narrowly edged Florida State to claim the title of preseason favorite.
Last year, Wake Forest was picked fourth in the preseason and finished third in the regular season before capturing the conference tournament for the third time in four years.

Random Notes, Part II

Eight current Deacons have been drafted at some point during their career... 10 of Wake Forest's 30 players did not start their college baseball careers at Wake Forest... five came from other four-year schools and five came from junior colleges... in a vote by their teammates, Dave Bush was voted the toughest pitcher to hit and Adam Bourassa the toughest hitter to get out.

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