NC State baseball travels to Winston-Salem to take on Wake Forest Friday, April 30, to Sunday, May 2. Wake Forest is coming off a tough 3-0 series loss to Clemson.
The Wolfpack swept the Virginia Tech Hokies last weekend, making its current record 20-13 with a 12-12 conference record. While NC State is sitting on a four-game winning streak, Wake Forest (14-20, 6-17 ACC) suffered a brutal series sweep by the Clemson Tigers over the weekend.
Both the Wolfpack and the Demon Deacons played mid-week games Tuesday, with NC State beating Appalachian State in Boone and Wake Forest beating Davidson at home.
Wake Forest only has two series wins this season, one against Northeastern to open the season and one against Florida State in March. The Demon Deacons have had a few good wins this season, including a 6-2 win against then-No. 12 Georgia Tech on March 19.
Wake Forest has three batters hitting above .280: freshman infielder Lucas Costello, sophomore infielder Michael Turconi and freshman infielder/catcher Brock Wilken. All three players have at least 118 at-bats on the season. Wilken is leading the team in runs with 30 and hits with 38.
Other players to keep an eye on are junior infielder Bobby Seymour and junior outfielder Chris Lanzilli, who are both hitting above .245. Seymour leads the Deacons in RBIs with 39, but Wilken seems to be the stand-out among the players with the top slugging percentage, runs, hits, doubles, home runs and total bases.
Wake Forest has a solid lineup of starting pitchers including sophomore right-hander Ryan Cusick, freshman right-hander Rhett Lowder and junior right-hander William Fleming. Cusick has the best ERA among the three pitchers at 3.11 over 46.1 innings pitched. He also leads the team in strikeouts with 74. The other two starters have higher ERAs in the 6.50 range and have at least 46 innings pitched each with a total of 73 earned runs given up collectively.
Wake Forest defeated Davidson 17-12 in its Tuesday night game. The Demon Deacons hit a total of six home runs during the game with Turconi, Seymour, Wilken and Costello leading the charge with 11 of the 17 runs scored. Turconi and Seymour both had multi-home run games against Davidson, with two home runs each. Seymour’s second home run brought in three runs during the seventh inning. Freshman right-hander Reed Mascolo started for the Demon Deacons and threw a career-high seven strikeouts in 4.2 innings with only four earned runs.
The series against Wake Forest this weekend, running from April 30 to May 2, will be played at David F. Couch Ballpark in Winston Salem. Each game will be aired on ACC Network Extra.
