No. 21 Wake Forest Hits the Road for Series at No. 11 Virginia Tech

Friday, April 5

Blacksburg, VA

7 p.m.

Wake Forest University

Virginia Tech

No. 21 Wake Forest Hits the Road for Series at No. 11 Virginia Tech

4/4/2024 5:49:00 PM | Baseball

Wake Forest hits the halfway point of ACC play at No. 11 Virginia Tech this weekend with Friday’s game set for a national audience on ACC Network.

BLACKSBURG, Va. - No. 21 Wake Forest begins a stretch of three of the next four ACC series on the road on Friday against No. 11 Virginia Tech.

Making the switch to Friday night last week, the Deacs will stick with Chase Burns on the opening night of the series, Josh Hartle on Saturday and Michael Massey on Sunday.

Wake took two-of-three from the Hokies last year in Winston and last won the series on the road in 2016.

Stay tuned to the Demon Deacons social media accounts (@WakeBaseball) for all in-game updates and information.

Opponent/Series History
• The Deacs and Hokies closed the regular season against one another a season ago, with Wake Forest taking the first two games of the series.
• The two teams have split the last 10 meetings evenly with five contests being decided by two runs or less.
• Sunday's matchup will mark the 100th game between the two schools, with Wake Forest leading the all-time series, 52-45, dating back to 1911.

Go Have a Seat
• Wake Forest's 332 strikeouts through 28 games currently ranks second in the ACC and sixth nationally.
• Additionally, the Deacs rank in the top five in the country with a 12.1 K/9 to this point of the 2024 campaign.
• In 2024, Wake Forest has struck out at least 10 in 19 contests and 15 or more in seven.
• The Deacs struck out a season-high 20 in the Saturday win over Duke.

Craw's Comeback
• Redshirt junior Crawford Wade was sidelined with an arm injury just seven games into the 2023 season.
• The Charlotte native underwent an initial procedure last season and was on pace to return at the start of the season this year, but suffered a setback that required another surgery in December to reroute a nerve in his throwing arm.
• Wade returned to the mound in a game for the Demon Deacons for the first time in 403 days on Tuesday against UNC-Greensboro.
• The lefty was flawless, needing just seven pitches (all strikes) to get through a scoreless fifth inning with a pair of groundouts in the frame.

The Man Just Gets on Base
• Junior first baseman Nick Kurtz ranks third in the nation with 1.36 bases on balls per game, as he has earned 30 free passes so far this season in just 22 games played.
• Kurtz has now reached base 310 total times in his career in 623 plate appearances.
• He holds a staggering .494 career on-base percentage over the course of his three seasons in a Wake Forest uniform.
• Additionally, Kurtz is one of only two players in Division-I to play more than 100 career games and have a career OBP of .490 or better.
• This season he has a team-best .467 on-base percentage, following up his sophomore campaign where Kurtz had an eye-popping .525 on-base percentage.
• Entering the weekend, only one current Division-I baseball player has more walks over the course of their career, Charlotte's Shane Taylor (143 career walks).
• Kurtz has now walked 141 times in 132 career games played (1.1 walks per game) and ranks third in program history for his career.
• The pop matches his patience, as Kurtz ranks seventh among active Division-I players with 45 home runs, and ties Bill Merrifield (1981-83) for eighth all-time in Wake Forest history.

Up Next
Wake Forest returns to The Couch for a 6 p.m. start on Tuesday, Apr. 9 against Coastal Carolina. For fans not able to attend, the game can be seen on ACCNX.

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