Gold Rush Feature: Moving Up
7/5/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
July 5, 2011
This article was originally published in the June 11 edition of Gold Rush.
By Sam Walker
Wake Forest baseball is still nowhere near the ACC powerhouse it was in the late 90s and early 2000s, but head Tom Walter can point to improvements and reasons to believe the Deacons will return to relevance in the ACC and on the national level given a little more time and a little more talent.
This year's team was "bitten by the injury bug" with several student-athletes either missing long stretches or were lost for the season.
"I think we just need to get healthier," said Walter, who just completed his second year. "Losing Michael Lubanski for the season and having just one catcher hurt us. Mark Rhine and Matt Conway had injury problems, and that hurt our chances, and losing Chris Wilson for the season with a back injury really hurt us," Walter said. "We're just not deep enough as a team yet to be able to withstand a lot of injuries and expect to make the NCAA Tournament. We're just not there yet, but hopefully in a year we will be."
Walter began the season by donating one of his kidneys to a signed player who had never played a game for Wake Forest -- Kevin Jordan -- and said for him the decision was "a no-brainer." But long before Walter ever showed that kind of compassion for Jordan, he had been building the culture of his team based upon a family atmosphere and one where players make sacrifices for each other to achieve success.
A year ago, Wake Forest closed the 2010 season with an 18-37 overall record and 8-22 mark in the ACC. This season the team finished 25-31 overall and 15-15 in the league. The team almost doubled its ACC win total. Following spring exams, the team had to play its way into the ACC Tournament as the eighth-place team and did that by winning eight of their last 10.
"We played pretty well after exams," Walter said. "We won our first two series of the year on the road at that time. Up until then, we hadn't won a road series in the league, and we were able to take two of three from Duke and sweep Maryland, so winning on the road is always one of your goals and obviously making the ACC Tournament and having that experience is a goal every year. I'm disappointed in the way we played once we got there, but we took a good first step.
"At the ACC Tournament (against Virginia), we had a big error early and got down 4-1, and from that moment forward that kind of took the wind out of their sails. The kids were in that tournament thinking they could win the tournament, but then we got behind to Virginia and with their pitching as good as it is... We didn't give up, certainly because that's not within the makeup of our club, but that was a big blow to us falling behind in that game.
"The only team we got swept by this year was Miami, and all three of those games were close and could have gone either way. So we feel really we were only four wins short of being in the NCAA Tournament.
"There are plenty of games where we make one big hit, one pitch, one play, and we're get a win -- the Miami games, the Georgia Tech extra inning game, the game at Winthrop, the UNC-Charlotte game and the game against Radford. All those games were out there, not that we expect to win all those, but I can think of eight games out there that if we win them, then we're playing in the NCAA Tournament.
"Steven Brooks, although statistically didn't have the year that he expected him to have, and we expected him to have, he still had a great year. He just hit a lot of balls right at people, which is a little unlucky, and his leadership will be missed for sure. But Mac Williamson, Matt Conway, Carlos Lopez and Pat Blair -- I feel like we've got a bunch of returnees who can be full-time contributors, so I feel like we're in pretty good shape. Having Tim Cooney back and Brian Holmes back is big. We have a recruiting class coming in we're pretty excited about about. We've added a couple of power arms and a third baseman, and then obviously getting a healthy Kevin Jordan this year -- that would have made a huge difference. So getting him back is big. We're not that far away. With our recruits and everybody healthy, I think we're pretty much where we need to be right now."
As far as the talent level at Wake Forest, Walter feels that his recruiting classes are improving.
"The reality is the 2010 recruiting class, we were pretty late getting in after we got the job until those kids were on campus," he said. "A lot of the high-profile recruits were committed six months to year when we came in. In 2011, we were a little more on time, so with the 2012 class I think we're going to be in the door early, and that's when I think you'll see a difference. But I do like our 2011 recruiting class.
"The big question mark for next year will be catching. We're a little unsure about what's going to happen there. Brett Armour - it was tough to ask him to catch every game. He's a converted infielder who just started catching about a year ago, so it was difficult to ask him to do. But to Brett's credit, he didn't complain or shirk away from that responsibility. He just went out and did what we needed him to do. We know we need to do a better job there, so we're still considering going out and getting a catcher, but we're just not sure about what we're going to do with that."
By the spring of 2012, Walter hopes his team will be settled in their positions, better prepared to handle injuries through depth and have better talent. He fully expects to make another step forward in ACC play but remains humble and reasonable when it comes to setting goals. He knows building a program takes time, but progress -- at least incrementally -- is expected.
"Hopefully we'll be a couple steps up in the pecking order," Walter said. "I don't think we'll be in the top four of the league, but I think we could sneak into the top six. That's a reasonable goal. I know we were just one win short of being in seventh this year, so I feel like if we can get into that five/six spot we'll be doing pretty good.
"This year's club was certainly better than last year's and we feel like next year's will be better than this one. I'm proud of our guys, especially down the stretch I think they played with a lot of passion, and I think the feeling around the team is that they can't wait to start next season, and that's a good feeling. In the past, I think Wake Forest teams might have looked forward to the summer break but not this one. We've got our guys playing all over this summer -- a couple at the Cape (Cape Cod League), some guys in the New England leagues, the Northwoods League, the Coastal Plain League so we've got them all over. That's how you get better -- go out there and play."
