Series Preview: Boston College Baseball at #2 Wake Forest

After a few cancelled midweek games to start off the month of May, Boston College Baseball will get an ACC series underway once again this weekend when they travel down to Winston-Salem to face the #2 Wake Forest Demon Deacons.

When: Friday May 5th at 8pm ET, Saturday May 6th at 4pm ET, and Sunday May 7th at 1pm ET

Where: Winston-Salem, NC

How to Watch: Friday’s game will be broadcasted live on the ACC Network, while Saturday and Sunday’s games will be streamed on ACCNX.

Birdball has been on a bit of a rollercoaster ever since they shot up the national rankings this season. After reaching a ranking as high as #9 in the nation, BC has seen some tough losses (like when they were swept by Louisville and lost a home series to Duke) as well as some inspiring wins (like their sweep of #16 UNC and their exciting Beanpot wins over UMass and Harvard). Most recently, Boston College hosted Clemson in Brighton and lost 2 of 3 close games. The Eagles’ pitching did a good job for most of the weekend, but their offense cooled off and could only muster 13 runs over 3 games, which is less than their usual big output. Those few weeks of mixed results have dropped the Eagles in the rankings to #19, which is still very good but not at the elite level it looked like they could be approaching.

Wake Forest will be BC’s biggest test yet. Wake is sitting atop the ACC standings having only lost 4 total conference games to this point and having not lost a single series. That has led them to a 37-6 overall record and a #2 national ranking, behind only #1 LSU. Wake’s pitching is the absolute best in the nation by a wide margin with a team ERA of 2.40. Only Tennessee even comes with 1 run of that ERA with their 3.38 team ERA, and all other NCAA programs pitch a 3.49 or above. Wake’s offense is no joke either, as the Demon Deacons are one of the best teams in the country at getting on base and they score at the 5th-best rate in Division 1.

The key for Boston College will be putting out Wake Forest runners when they inevitably get on base. Wake Forest isn’t a particularly fast team and they don’t get around the bases very quickly compared to their offensive peers. To drive in runs, when they’re not hitting home runs, Wake Forest relies mostly on getting multiple runners on base each inning and hitting enough singles to push them home. Boston College’s fielding percentage is one of the best in the conference, so they have a path to victory if they force Wake to put the ball in play in the infield and get force outs and double plays as much as possible.

BC is built well to execute this strategy more than other conference foes, but it’s still a tall task nonetheless. There aren’t any teams that have been able to take more than one game off of the Demon Deacons, so that’s really most of what Eagles fans should be hoping for. An inconsistent offense could have a rough weekend against the best pitching team in the nation.