Clemson baseball: On Deck – Wake Forest Demon Deacons

I had the good fortune of having to work a few days in the upstate which happened to coincide with a Clemson baseball game at Fluor Field.  I stayed in downtown Greenville and having moved away from there in 2017, I had no idea just how much the downtown area had changed for the better.  What a great town and a great time.

As luck would have it, I was able to attend the mid-week game versus USC Upstate and got to watch our Tigers as they got a much needed victory against a solid opponent.

I walked out of Fluor Field feeling fulfilled.  The team pitched great, from Barlow to Tallent to Hoffman to Grice.  They hit the ball well all night.  It feels like Grice is starting to turn a corner as he hits EVERYTHING hard.  Max Wagner has had a great month plus as well.

While in the upstate, I had an opportunity to listen to Associate Head Coach Bradley Lecroy on WCCP-FM in the morning with Mickey Plyler and was excited to hear about the progress of Will Taylor (may see him in a week or so, at least at the DH position).  He also mentioned that the Tigers will be mixing up their starting rotation for the weekend.  More on that in a bit.

I say all of that word salad to say, as I was walking back to my hotel after the game I checked the schedule and saw the next four games.  Three games at Wake Forest and home versus Georgia…

The Wake Forest Demon Deacons come into the weekend series with the Tigers sitting at 26 wins to only 7 defeats.  They are 9-6 in ACC play, the winners of 5 straight and are 19-4 in the comfy confines of David F. Couch Ballpark.

The Deacons are led by skipper Tom Walter, who is in his 13th year at the helm in Winston-Salem.  Walter has recently won his 350th game as the head man there.  Always a solid program, he’s led a squad who has hosted a regional the last two seasons.

https://twitter.com/deacsnews/status/1513263864674193409?s=20&t=BmrSsnUpAikWgiJ-MPR2cg

As stated earlier, the Deacons are sitting at 26-7, and Baseball America has them ranked 23rd this week.  Seemingly in the “Others Receiving Votes” for the other major publications, this is a good Wake team.

Wake Forest has victories against: Lafayette, Georgetown, VCU, UNC Greensboro (x2), New Jersey Tech (x4), Elon (x2), UMass Lowell, Central Michigan, George Mason, Florida State, Western Carolina, Georgia Tech (x2), Liberty, Virginia, Coastal Carolina, Boston College (x2), and Duke (x3).

Wake’s losses are to: Coastal Carolina, Florida State (x2), Georgia Tech, Virginia (x2) and Boston College.

Those of you that have been loyal to this bi-weekly (meaning twice a week in this instance) column know that I love to talk about the age of the Tigers’ opponents.  Wasn’t the intention when I originally requested to do this self-serving preview, but here we are.

I stated in the North Carolina State preview that I thought they were the youngest team in the nation.  Now I realize that college baseball tends to skew younger as a lot of 3rd year/Juniors/RS Sophomores leave school early to pursue a professional career.  But NC State jumped off the page with their youth.  Wake Forest is almost as youthful as the Wolfpack and really are led by a bunch of Freshman and Sophomores.

The Wake Forest Demon Deacons are a very good offensive team that likes to hit the long ball.  As a team they have 58 homeruns through 33 games, or nearly 2 per game.  Wow!

https://twitter.com/WakeBaseball/status/1514013276325105671?s=20&t=BmrSsnUpAikWgiJ-MPR2cg

The leader in home runs is Redshirt Junior catcher Brendan Tinsman with 12 and 36 RBIs, with a slugging percentage of .707 and an OPS of 1.101.  Oh yeah, Tinsman is also hitting .350 on the season.  Sophomore Third baseman Brock Wilken may be the hottest hitter for the Deacons coming into the weekend.  Having some early season struggles, but seemingly has found his way, and has added 10 home funs and 41 RBIs.  The average is a solid .288, but it was nearly .400 over the past month.

The rest of the (really impressive) offensive lineup will be as follows (BA/OPS, with notable stats in parentheses):

Redshirt Sophomore – Right fielder – Pierce Bennett – .356 BA/.911 OPS (5 2bs, 2 HRs)

Freshman – First Baseman – Nick Kurtz – .354/1.100 (8 HRs, 34 RBI)

Sophomore – Designated Hitter – Jake Reinisch – .347/1.036 (9 2bs, 3 HRs, 29 RBIs)

Redshirt Junior – Shortstop – Michael Turconi – .341/1.044 (6 2bs, 4 3bs, 6 HRs, 37 RBIs)

Redshirt Sophomore – Left Fielder – Adam Cecere – .304/.908 (4 2bs, 1 3b, 6 HRs, 32 RBIs)

Freshman Second Baseman – Danny Corona – .225/.713 (4 2bs, 1 3b, 5 HRs, 29 RBIs)

Freshman Center Fielder – Tommy Hawke – .364/.919 (2 2bs, 1 HR)

Wow, this team can mash.

Normally on Thursdays before the weekend series the Tigers opponent puts out game notes which usually say the starters, so I don’t have to guess like I do with the mid-week opponents.  Well, neither Clemson nor Wake Forest has put them out as of the time of this writing, so I am going on a lot of research here (and what I heard Bradley Lecroy say this morning for the Tigers)

On the mound, the Tigers may be facing their toughest test of the year on Friday night (7 PM start on the ACC Network) as Wake Forest will send Sophomore Rhett Lowder to the hill to face Mack Anglin for the Tigers.  Lowder is 7-1 (the only pitcher in the ACC with 7 victories).  Lowder touts a 2.30 ERA through 47 Innings pitched and 50 Ks to only 16 BBs, and opponents are hitting a paltry .236 against the 6’2” Sophomore righty.

For game two of the weekend, presumably on Saturday, Wake Forest is going to likely send Freshman left-hander Josh Hartle to battle against Freshman Jay Dill for the Tigers.  Hartle is 4-3 on the season with a 5.35 ERA across 37 innings with 27 Ks with opponents hitting .263 against him.

Game 3 Sunday is apparently TBA vs. TBA, however, I do not like to do that in these preview sections, so I am going to make some probable predictions based on what Wake has done during the course of the season already, and (once again) what Bradley Lecroy said on that radio show Thursday morning.

Based on actual research (subject to change), Wake Forest will likely send Sophomore Teddy McGraw, a 6’2’ Right Hander who is 3-1 with a 4.70 ERA across 30.2 innings with 30 Ks and 19 BBs.  Opponents are batting .200 against him.

Opposing McGraw, based on Lecroy’s comments, even though it’ll say TBA will be Freshman Right hander Billy Barlow.  The true freshman has compiled back-to-back impressive outings during mid-week outings and was had his pitches limited on Tuesday night in Greenville and will be on full rest to get the ball on Sunday.

I really like what Monte and the staff are doing here with the weekend rotation.  Wake Forest is full of big bashers, so it’ll be nice for them to see two guys who they likely do not have a ton of scouting on to see if the Tigers can steal a few victories over the weekend.

Clemson is currently last in the Atlantic Division of the ACC with a 2-9 record, and are looking for another great outing by Anglin versus a tough matchup of aces Friday.  If they can steal game one, they will be in great shape to win two games in this series.  However, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me…

Prediction: Wake Forest takes the series 2 games to 1.