[Update] – Miami Downs Wake:  The Miami Hurricanes overcame another adventure from their bullpen tonight to down Wake Forest, 6-3.  Let’s take a look at what that Miami win does to our Pool B “needs”….

• Wake (Eliminated from contention)
• Carolina (Eliminated from contention)
• Miami: Must hope for a Carolina win tomorrow.
• State: Must beat Carolina tomorrow.

Yup.  For the Pack, tomorrow’s game is for a berth in Sunday’s championship game.  For Carolina, the best they can do will be to keep the Pack out.  They should still have incentive to play well and win, however.  A Wolfpack victory over the Heels, especially if that victory is followed up with a championship win on Sunday, could very well allow State to slide into the national seed slot which Carolina now holds on most bracketologists’ current sheets.

That being said, with the conference championship no longer a possibility for them, and with their head coach watching on TV tomorrow, it will be interesting to see what kind of showing the Heels have.   Miami, which lost to State on Wednesday with a bases loaded walk, will now have a fate worse than death (IMHO).  They must now become Carolina fans.

Game time for tomorrow’s tilt with Carolina is 7pm.

 

The Madness that is Pool A

Florida State will not win the 2012 ACC Championship.

The top seeded Seminoles had their hearts broken today by Clemson.  The Tigers entered the bottom of the 9th trailing FSU 7-6, but a walk off 3 run HR gave them the shocking come from behind victory and keeps their own hopes alive to beat the odds and emerge from Pool A to Sunday’s championship game.  FSU, now 0-fer in their two games in Greensboro, is eliminated from contention.

Conversely, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets continue to surprise.  Earlier today, the Jackets took Virginia behind the woodshed, beating the Cavs up 17-5 and invoking the mercy rule by scoring five runs in the bottom of the 7th for the 12 run final margin of victory.  The win gives the Jackets 2 wins in as many tries in Greensboro, and they are the only team remaining in Pool A which controls its own fate.  Should Tech do away with Clemson tomorrow, they will advance to Sunday.  Below is the Pool A situation.

• Florida State (Eliminated from contention)
• Georgia Tech – Win Saturday vs Clemson.
• Clemson – Win Saturday vs GT, hope for a Florida State win over UVa.
• Virginia – Hope for a Clemson win over GT, Win Saturday vs FSU (In this scenario, UVa, Clemson and GT all finish tied at 2-1  -  UVa takes it based on reg. season win %…at least that’s the way I read the tiebreaker for the three way tie).

So, the Wolfpack takes the field (and lefty Carlos Rodon takes the hill) at 7pm tomorrow night to take on Carolina with a championship game appearance on the line.  Despite not playing their best, the Pack is in a position to take the ACC crown (and quite possibly a national seed for the upcoming NCAA Tournament) with two straight wins.  But the bats will need to come alive one way or another, and that’s asking a lot considering Carolina’s extremely strong pitching staff.  Despite what I said in the earlier thread, I’m extremely pleased that Carlos Rodon will be going for the Pack on Saturday (Monday Morning Quarterback, etc., etc.).

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So, 8th seeded GT completes the Pool A sweep with a win over Clemson.  They advance to face the Pool B winner, either NC State or Miami.  If the Pack wins, they’re in…otherwise the ‘Canes slide in.

The remaining schedule for this year’s tournament is:

• Saturday, 11am – Georgia Tech  vs  Clemson (GT wins 5-1, advances to Sunday to face either NC State  or  Miami)
• Saturday, 3pm – Florida State  vs  Virginia
• Saturday, 7pm – NC State  vs  N.Carolina
• Sunday, 12noon – GEORGIA TECH  vs  Pool B Winner

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Original Entry:

Wolfpack Baseball finds itself with one win and one loss after two days of the 2012 ACC Baseball tournament, after falling to Wake Forest last night, 7-3.

GoPack.com – Pack Falls 7-3 in Second ACC Tournament Contest

GREENSBORO, N.C. – NC State dropped a 7-3 decision to Wake Forest Thursday night at NewBridge Bank Park on the second day of play at the 2012 ACC Tournament.

Trea Turner’s solo homer on the first pitch of the game gave NC State (39-16) a 1-0 lead, but Wake Forest (33-23) tied the game in the second. The Pack climbed ahead for the second time at 2-1, before the Deacons took control with three runs in the third. Two more in the fifth and another in the eighth set the margin at 7-2. State scored one in the ninth to narrow the final score to 7-3.

Box Score

So far in the tournament, Wolfpack bats have largely been on the snooze setting. After doing just barely enough to beat Miami by a score of 3-2 on Wednesday (and let’s not kid ourselves…it took some major help from Miami’s pen even still), it looked like things might take a turn on Thursday against Wake Forest when Trea Turner led off the game by turning around the first pitch he saw and depositing it on the other side of the left field wall.

At the time, it seemed as if maybe the demons had been exorcised from the Pack’s bats, but it wasn’t to be. The offense seemed to become bogged down again, just as it had the day before. Without stellar pitching to keep things close like it had gotten a day earlier from Ethan Ogburn and Vance Williams versus Miami, Wake pulled away and the Pack went down in ugly fashion. Without taking anything away from Wake (they did what they needed to do to win), State essentially handed the game over, once again with control problems on the mound and little or no offensive punch.

Word has it that Elliott Avent has sent out for a live chicken.

 

Looking Ahead

In other Pool B games affecting the Pack from Wednesday and Thursday, Carolina mashed Wake on day one, but then dropped one to Miami yesterday.  For those that don’t wish to do the math in word problems, that means all the teams in Pool B (including our beloved Pack) are 1-1 after their first two games.

This brings up an interesting situation where all four teams are still alive at this point in time. Wake and Miami will face off tonight (go ‘Canes), State and Carolina tomorrow night. Below shows what each team needs from each of those games to move on to face the Pool A winner on Sunday (which ain’t gonna be FSU, btw) for the conference championship.

• Wake: Must win tonight, must hope for a State win tomorrow.
• Miami: Must win tonight, must hope for a Carolina win tomorrow.
• Carolina: Must hope for a Wake win tonight, must beat State tomorrow.
• State: Must hope for a Miami win tonight, must beat Carolina tomorrow.

So even though State and Carolina don’t play today, each has a lot riding on the prime time game tonight. When Miami takes on Wake tonight, each school will have extra fans by proxy, no doubt. Furthermore, based upon tonight’s Miami/Wake result, either State or Carolina will go into tomorrow’s game knowing that at best they can play spoiler to the other’s championship hopes. (lets go Miami…put it to the Deacs)

On the opposite side of the tournament, the results from Pool A haven’t followed the anticipated script either.  Right now, the tournament’s #8 seed Georgia Tech controls it’s own destiny having won both of its two games thus far.  Top seeded FSU on the other hand, by virtue of having lost only moments ago in the bottom of the 9th on a Clemson walk off 3 run HR, is eliminated.  We’ll talk more about Pool A a little later tonight.

As a side note, Carolina will be without their skipper tomorrow night against the Wolfpack. After the Heels fell to Miami yesterday afternoon, Mike Fox received a “post event ejection” after continuing to argue with the umpiring crew even after repeated warnings, resulting in an automatic one game suspension.

Wake takes on Miami tonight at 7pm.

State and Carolina go tomorrow at 7pm.

Almost forgot…

Go Hurricanes!!

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