Wake Forest Athletics
Baseball Game Notes - Wake Forest vs. North Carolina
3/10/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 10, 2011
Wake Forest will face its first ACC opponent of the season this Friday - Sunday when nationally-ranked North Carolina visits Gene Hooks Field at Wake Forest Baseball Park.
The Demon Deacons will be looking to snap a four-game losing streak, while the Tar Heels are looking to extend their current seven-game winning streak.
Wake Forest hopes that its late success in conference play from last season will carry over to ACC play this year. The Deacs won its last two conference games of 2010 and four of its last six.
The Demon Deacons have lost their last two ACC opening games but won the four ACC openers prior to that. Their last win to begin conference play was a 13-11 victory over Clemson at home on March 8, 2008. Wake would go on to win two of three games in the series.
The last time that Wake Forest and North Carolina opened up conference play against each other was in 2006. The Demon Deacons took Game 1 of that series 6-5 in Winston-Salem.
Wake Forest has relied heavily on sophomore first baseman Matt Conway for run production this season. Conway leads the Deacons with a .349 batting average and is tied for third in the ACC with a team-high 17 RBIs.
R-Sophomore Mac Williamson and freshman James Harris have also helped the offense with 13 hits and 12 hits on the season, respectively. Williamson is hitting .295 with four doubles and nine RBIs, while Harris is third on the team with a .293 batting average.
Sophomore LHP Tim Cooney will get the start for Wake Forest on Saturday. Cooney is coming off one of the most impressive performances in school history when he fanned 14 batters in six innings of work against Radford on Sunday. His strikeout total is tied for the second-most in a game in WFU history.
On the year, Cooney has 21 strikeouts and has posted a 2.25 ERA in 20.0 innings of work while only walking three batters.
Junior Austin Stadler will be looking to put together a quality start on Friday night. Stadler has a 6.60 ERA in three starts and has struck out 16 batters in 15 innings.
Junior Michael Dimock has been solid out of the bullpen and has two of Wake's four wins (2-0) with a 2.53 ERA.
Next Up...
The Demon Deacons will play one midweek game next week when they travel to Charlotte on Tuesday at 6 p.m. Wake Forest will then welcome its second straight ACC opponent to Winston-Salem on March 18-20 when Miami comes to town.
