Baseball Opens Black & Gold World Series Tuesday
10/4/2004 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Oct. 4, 2004
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - First-year head coach Rick Rembielak and the Wake Forest baseball team continues its preparation for the 2005 season with its annual Black & Gold World Series this week at Hooks Stadium. The five-game series begins Tuesday afternoon and runs through Sunday with Saturday being an off-day. First-pitch for each game is scheduled for approximately 4 p.m with the except of Sunday's game which will get underway at 1 p.m.
"The Black & Gold World Series is a great tradition that I have looked forward too since coming to Wake Forest," Rembielak said. "We have had a great fall and this week is a great chance for our staff to sit back and evaluate our players. It also is a great ground to measure how much improvement we have made as a team. As always, our players are excited about the last week of fall ball because of the Black & Gold Series."
The Demon Deacons have been participating in a rigorous condition program throughout the fall and officially began its fall practice on the diamond last month. The Black & Gold World Series concludes the fall practice season.
Rembielak takes over the Diamond Deacs after an 11-year stint with Kent State of the Mid-American Conference (MAC). He is the all-time winningest coach of any sport in Golden Flashes history with a career record of 373-251-1 (.597). Against other MAC teams, Rembielak sports an even more impressive record of 200-100 (.667). He won four Mid-American Conference regular season championships and three MAC tournament titles, including this past season's 2004 Mid-American Conference Tournament. The Golden Flashes have made 12 consecutive appearances in the MAC Tournament. Dating back to 1992, when postseason play was reinstated, Kent State is the only MAC team to appear in every tournament.
Wake Forest returns 21 letterwinners and five starters from last year's squad, including sophomore third basemen Matt Antonelli (.305, 2 HR, 37 RBI), senior shortstop Ben Ingold (.361, 3 HR, 43 RBI), senior centerfielder Matt Miller (.264, 3 HR, 24 RBI) and senior J.B. Tucker (.252, 5 HR, 34 RBI). Ingold, a three-year starter and native of Durham, N.C., led the Deacons with a .361 batting average, 14 doubles and a .419 on-base percentage. Ingold's 43 RBI ranked second on the team and his 12 stolen bases were third. Ingold became the 11th Wake Forest shortstop to be named to the All-ACC teams since the inception of the conference in 1954.
The Demon Deacons return 10 members from its 2004 pitching staff. Seniors' Justin Keadle and Tim Morley, as well as junior Kyle Young all return from a year ago. Keadle led Wake Forest in innings pitched (88.1), strikeouts (69) and tied for the team-lead in starts (13). Keadle was the Friday starter for the Demon Deacons in every ACC series except Clemson. Morley and Young were second and third on the squad in innings pitched with 67.2 and 63.0 innings logged respectively.
Rembielak welcomes 10 newcomers for the 2005 season, including Andy Goff (SS/Pittsburgh, Pa.), Matt Hammond (RHP/Tucson, Ariz.), Brett Linnenkohl (UT/Olympia, Wa.), Brian Murphy (RHP/OF/San Diego, Calif), Eric Niesen (LHP/New Boston, Mich.), Dan Rosaia (C/San Francisco, Calif.), Tom Stack-Babich (OF/Scituate, Mass.), Nathan Frazier (INF/Little Rock, Ark.), Drew O'Neil (RHP/Roswell, Ga.) and Weldon Woodall (C/Highland Park, Tex.).
The Demon Deacons use the Gold & Black World Series intra-squad event to evaluate the players in game-like situations.
2OO5 WAKE FOREST BLACK & GOLD WORLD SERIES SCHEDULE
GAME DAY/DATE LOCATION TIMEGame 1: Tues./Oct. 5 Hooks Stadium 4 p.m.Game 2: Wed./Oct. 6 Hooks Stadium 4 p.m.Game 3: Thu./Oct. 7 Hooks Stadium 4 p.m.Game 4: Fri./Oct. 8 Hooks Stadium 4 p.m.Game 5: Sun./Oct. 10 Hooks Stadium 4 p.m.
-- WakeForestSports.com --
