Wake Forest Athletics
Baseball Sees Omaha In Its Grasp As ACC Championships Approach
5/6/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 6, 2002
By Jay Reddick
Riggs Field in Clemson, S.C., has seen its share of big-time college baseball, but the perennial powerhouse Clemson Tigers probably never played a bigger series against Wake Forest than the one they played April 26-28.
The Tigers entered the series ranked No. 1 in the country by Baseball America but actually second in the ACC. The Deacons, who had played five more games within the league coming in, were up by a game and a half. Wake Forest had also achieved its highest national ranking ever, at No. 3 coming into the series.
The series established dominance, sort of, in an ACC season that had featured competitive balance at an unbelievably high level. Before the weekend, six teams had a mathematical chance at the league's regular-season crown, and five of them were among the top 19 teams in the country.
Put it this way: Florida State, the No. 8 team in America, needed a three-game sweep of 14th-ranked Georgia Tech just to get to .500 in the ACC.
How have the Deacons done it? The team is 17-1 in games decided by two runs or less, and victories like a 6-5 win over Virginia Tech on April 17, when Ryan Johnson's home run broke a ninth-inning tie, have become almost routine.
Many of the clutch performances have come on the mound. Kyle Sleeth, the team's Friday starter in every weekend series this year, was 8-0 with a 2.99 ERA entering the Clemson series. And Dave Bush had nine saves, the best ERA vs. ACC teams and had helped the team to a 66-0 record over two seasons when leading after seven innings.
Deacons coach George Greer gave much credit to the bullpen for keeping the team where it is - not only Bush, but setup man Adam Hanson (3-0, 4.70).
"Those two guys have really carried a lot on their shoulders," Greer said. "They've really been key, but all our pitchers has really carried us through the early part of this season."
Offensively, freshman Adam Bourassa has been a fantastic setup man, compiling a .417 average, and Jamie D'Antona has been a rock in the middle of the Deacons' lineup, hitting 15 homers, including four in a key series against Maryland April 19-21.
Maybe D'Antona and his teammates, who scored 52 runs in three games against the Terps, were trying to make a liar out of Greer. WFU's coach had said before the series that the Deacs had "not reached our potential offensively."
Thanks to an exam break, WFU is nearly done with its ACC schedule, with only a three-game set at doormat Duke remaining. So the team and its fans will be able to sit back and watch the rest of the league struggle to catch up.
How does the biggest rivals stack up, both for the remainder of the regular season and for the ACC Tournament ahead?
Clemson obviously looms as a large threat. The Tigers feature two of Baseball America's 16 finalists for national College Player of the Year on the left side of their infield in shortstop Khalil Greene and third baseman Jeff Baker. The team's pitching staff is also second in the league. The three strikes against the Tigers could be its three remaining league opponents: Georgia Tech, Florida State and Virginia.
North Carolina has surprised plenty of observers with a 13-5 ACC record and has a very good shot at sneaking into the top seed. Russ Adams, who has played four positions, was hitting .372 and leading the nation in stolen bases, and the Tar Heels enjoyed a similar position to WFU with only two series left: at Duke, and at Georgia Tech.
Speaking of the Yellow Jackets, the squad had lost just eight games this season through April 23, but six of those were in the ACC (two to Wake Forest, three to Florida State and one to Maryland). The Yellow Jackets were one of only two teams with both a pitcher and a position player in the Player of the Year running (Stanford is the other). Left-hander Kyle Bakker was 8-0 with a strikeout an inning, and catcher Tyler Parker was hitting .319.
Florida State has emerged as the league's true darkhorse. The team's ACC record was only 6-6 after the sweep of the Yellow Jackets finished up on April 21, but the next three opponents (N.C. State, Duke and Maryland) were all ensconced in the bottom half of the ACC standings, leaving a huge season-ending series at Clemson. Infielder Ryan Barthelemy will have to continue his hot hitting for the Seminoles to have a chance.
At 7-8, with series against Georgia Tech, Clemson and N.C. State remaining, Virginia was only just barely a mathematical part of the ACC race. But stranger things have happened.
Baseball America's John Manuel called winning a series at Clemson "just very, very tough to do." But he believed that even a second-place finish in the strong ACC would mean a lot.
"Wake can finish second in the league, finish in the top 10 nationally and not only play host to a regional but earn a top-eight national seeding and find a place to have the super-regional, whether at Hooks or in Greensboro," Manuel said.
When asked to handicap the ACC race for Gold Rush, Greer relied heavily on tradition.
"I always say, when you're talking college baseball, that any team with Florida in its name, in its address or on its shirt is going to be your top contender," Greer said. "As you come north, in Atlanta they spend a lot (to contend) in baseball, in Clemson they spend a lot. Those two are recruiting machines, and you can never discount them.
"In our state, Chapel Hill has come back a little bit, and Virginia is certainly tough."
But what of the Deacons?
"We are absolutely where we want to be," Greer said. "We've got as many good arms, if we're healthy, as anybody, and that'll help us in a short series."
"Where we want to be" may be a bit premature for Greer. Because solid play in three short series will move the Deacons into the true elite of the game and where they REALLY want to be.
Omaha. The College World Series.
It's within their grasp.
