Another ACC sweep keeps Wake Forest on best start since 1949

Published Apr. 3, 2023 3:48 p.m. ET

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Wake Forest's baseball season keeps getting better.

The Demon Deacons (23-3, 10-2) won three games at Clemson over the weekend and have swept back-to-back Atlantic Coast Conference opponents for the first time in 21 years. They're out to their best start since 1949 and can make an argument for being the most complete team in the nation.

That Wake Forest is winning is no surprise. The Deacons won 41 games last season, made the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017 and brought back ACC pitcher of the year Rhett Lowder and key pieces from a prolific everyday lineup.

Wake Forest has built off that and won in dominant fashion. The weekend rotation of Lowder, Sean Sullivan and Josh Hartle are a combined 16-2 with a 1.61 ERA, with 181 strikeouts and 23 walks in 122 2/3 innings.

The staff leads the nation in ERA (2.18) and per-nine-inning averages in strikeouts (12.97) and hits allowed (6.15), and their four shutouts rank fifth.

Offensively, the Deacons' 9.7 runs per game lead the ACC and they're ninth nationally with 55 homers. Tommy Hawke is batting a team-leading .411 and Brock Wilken has hit an ACC-best 14 homers with 42 RBIs.

Sweeps of Miami and Clemson are included in an eight-game win streak in which the Deacons have outscored opponents 68-16.

IN THE POLLS

The top three remain the same in the D1Baseball.com poll — LSU (24-4), Wake Forest and Florida (24-5).

The Baseball America rankings are unchanged, with Florida second and Wake Forest third behind LSU.

Vanderbilt (23-5), on a nation-leading 11-game win streak, is No. 2 behind LSU in the Collegiate Baseball newspaper poll, and South Carolina (26-3) is third.

SURPRISING BC

Boston College set a record for runs in a 24-12 victory over Georgia Tech on Sunday and has reached 20 wins at the earliest point in a season in program history. The Eagles are 8-4 in the ACC and have opened conference play with four straight series wins for the first time since they joined the league in 2005.

JUST DUCKY

Oregon has the third-longest active win streak at nine games following a sweep of Arizona. Saturday's 13-11 win marked the biggest comeback since the Ducks re-started their program in 2009.

The Ducks trailed 10-0 after two innings and took their first lead in the ninth. Their previous biggest deficit overcome in a win was seven runs against Washington State last year.

THAT'S JUST GRAND

When it comes to home runs, there are no-doubters — and then there are the kind Matt Shaw hit Friday at Iowa's Duane Banks Field.

Shaw's grand slam in the sixth inning traveled 507 feet and left his bat at 110 mph, according to Trackman technology. Shaw homered again in the eighth inning as the Terrapins won 10-9.

AROUND THE HORN

Defending national champion Mississippi (16-11) has lost eight of its first nine SEC games for its worst start in conference play since the 1996 team opened 1-17 under Don Kessinger. ... Stanford’s 16-5 victory over Oklahoma on Saturday was coach David Esquer’s 200th as the Cardinal coach. ... Long Beach State’s two walk-off wins in a row against Cal Poly extended its win streak to eight games. ... Florida Gulf Coast’s Joe Kinker hit two homers against Jacksonville on Sunday, giving him 52 for his career. He’s two behind Wake Forest’s Wilken, the active career leader.

___

AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

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