Deacons Open ACC Baseball Season at Maryland

March 13, 2003

Weekend Schedule

Wake Forest Begins ACC Championship Race at Maryland. . .

The Demon Deacons (10-5), ranked 14th by Baseball America, travel to Maryland (5-8) for the opening weekend of the Atlantic Coast Conference schedule. All three games will be carried live by Maryland's student radio station, 88.1 FM WMUC, and on the internet at www.wmucsports.com.
Wake Forest heads to College Park after splitting a pair of midweek games, losing 6-5 to Liberty and hammering Wofford at home a day later, 26-8.
Maryland also split their midweek games with a win over Towson and a loss to VCU.

The Deacons and Terrapins: Series History. . .

Wake Forest leads the all-time series 74-46-1, owning a 18-3 record in College Park since 1988 when George Greer became coach. When the teams met in Winston-Salem last year, the Deacons captured a three-game sweep of the Terps for the first time since 1999.
In that series, Wake Forest outscored Maryland 52-13, batted .448 in three games with 13 home runs. Nick Blue earned ACC Player of the Week honors after going 10-for-13 (.759) against the Terps, one of six Deacons to hit .400 or better during the weekend.

Wake Forest and Maryland Connections. . .

Maryland head coach Terry Rupp one season at Davidson College where he played for Wake Forest coach George Greer.
Maryland coach Terry Rupp was on the coaching staff of Team USA where Kyle Sleeth went 7-1 this past summer with a 1.44 ERA. Sleeth threw two complete games for the Red, White and Blue, the first pitcher to accomplish the feat in the long, illustrious history of Team USA.

Deacons in ACC Openers. . .

Wake Forest has started the ACC schedule with a win in each of the last four seasons, dating back to 1998. This is only the third time in 10 years the Deacs have opened on the road.

Scouting the Deacons. . .

Wake Forest returns all nine starters from last year's 47-win team that finished second in the ACC and earned a fifth straight NCAA Tournament bid. Not to mention perhaps the best pitcher in college baseball, junior Kyle Sleeth.
In all, the Deacons have four players on their roster with All-America credentials, including Sleeth, junior third 3B Jamie D'Antona and senior OFs Adam Bourassa and Ryan Johnson.
Wake Forest has tremendous speed at the top and the bottom of the order and relies on its table setters to get on base for D'Antona and Johnson who both ranked among the nation's leaders in runs batted in last season.

Feast or Famine. . .

Having scored 25 or more runs on three separate occasions this year, it's safe to say the Deacons have one of the most explosive offenses in the Atlantic Coast Conference, if not the nation.
Meanwhile, the Deacon bats have also gone ice cold on an equal number of occasions this year. Wake Forest was shutout by Nebraska, mustered just one run in 13 innings against Notre Dame, scratched across one run against Elon and averaged less than five runs per game last weekend against Le Moyne.

Changing the ACC Landscape. . .

Since 1998, Wake Forest has a record of 93-47 against Atlantic Coast Conference competition, without question the program's most successful period since winning the ACC's only national championship in 1955.
Only Florida State (103) has won more games during this stretch.
However, Wake Forest has won three ACC championships (1998, 1999 and 2001) over the last five years. Florida State (2002) and Georgia Tech (2000) claimed the other two titles.

Men of Steal. . .

The Deacons are on a torrid base stealing pace, having swiped 35 bases in 40 attempts in just 15 games. That's an average of 2.3 per game. The school record for stolen bases in 90, set in 2001, with an average of "only" 1.45.
Adam Bourassa and Ryan Hubbard each have 15 thefts to their credit, the second- and third-leading base stealers in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Streaks, Stats and Trends. . .

Jamie D'Antona's three doubles against Wofford on Wednesday tied a school record held by several Deacons... until Tuesday, a 6-5 loss at Liberty, the Deacons had won 85 straight games when leading after seven innings, a streak that had been in effect since April 2000... Wake Forest has been error-free defensively in three of its last four games... the Deacons are 9-0 when scoring 6 or more runs but only 1-5 when scoring 5 or less... Adam Bourassa has the team's longest hitting streak entering the weekend at six games... Steve LeFaivre has 10 hits in his last 18 at-bats... Wake Forest is hitting .371 at Hooks Stadium but only .220 as a team in five games away from "The Hook."

Injury Updates. . .

Ryder Mathias, who underwent shoulder surgery last fall to repair torn labrum, had been limited to pinch hitting duty until Wednesday when he caught the ninth inning against Wofford... Nick Blue is still out with a recurring shoulder injury and he did not travel with the team to Liberty early this week... Ryan Johnson continues to be slowed by an ankle injury suffered at Minnesota two weeks ago... after missing the next four games, Johnson is attempting to play through the pain and oddly enough, is hitting .389 since hurting the ankle, with two home runs and seven RBI in five games.

Wake Forest Athletics