Episode 4- ACC Week 3 GT & NC State Our Sleeper Teams?!

Welcome to Episode 4 of Up the Coast with Alex & Britt

National notes: These #s were updated at the end of last week, before games this past weekend

UNC #4 in the country in team batting average- .412 (through Feb 22, 2024)
Duke #9 in the country in lowest ERA 1.02 (through Feb 22, 2024)
Duke (#8), Virginia (#13), UNC (#14) all in the top 15 for best fielding percentage across the country (Feb 22, 2024)
Georgia Tech- LEADING IN HRs after this weekend???!!!! 34

Duke-

Continues their slug fest, beat Michigan State 22-0
2 grand slams, 3 run blast…. SO much power!
14 runs in the bottom of the third of a 22-0 win over Michigan State
Jala had 14ks- career high
Run ruled Villanova 8-0
Total team right now- have it in the circle with Jala leading the way- the bats are on absolute fire
Big inning potential
4 DIFFERENT PLAYERS have hit FIVE grand slams this year

Clemson- back on track?

Florida State-

Bats continuing to come alive in big moments- a lot of power
Michaela Edenfield 2 walk off wins (back to back games)- one a come from behind 5-4 win against Nicholls and the other a run rule 8-0 win against Nicholls
Pitching still in question
Could the pitching staff be struggling more this year because they don’t have a dominant down ball pitcher? They have historically had at least one pitcher on staff that dominated the lower half of the zone- Lacey Waldrop, Meghan King, Kat Sandercock…. Now- their primary arms are more E to W and up in the zone arms

Virginia Tech-

Emma Lemley still looking good in the circle- pull #s of her game against Dartmouth??
BEAT (#3) GEORGIA on Friday, 5-4
2 RBI pinch hit from Trinity Martin
HOW BIG IS IT TO HAVE HITTERS COME OFF THE BENCH AND COME UP CLUTCH?
HOW HARD IS IT TO BE A PINCH HITTER?!
Lemley rise looked legit, one thing that I noticed..she gets ahead early, even 0-2 and then BB.
Lyndsey Grein big in the circle for VT to close out the game
Lost 5-7 against Georgia on Saturday- not a bad game against a great hitting team in UGA
Was leading the game 3-1 in the bottom of the third
UGA came back in the top of the 4th, VT tied it up in the 4th
Signs of brilliance from VT this weekend…. Should be proud of their performance
Possible X factor- Emma Mazzarone, fr pitcher. very nice change and throws 69/70mph

UNC-

Georgia Tech-

32 runs in 4 games at the Clearwater Tourney
Lost games in Clearwater but the W/L not reflective of how well GT was playing/ hitting
HR’s have come from at least 9 different hitters
Mallorie Black- an absolute killer in the box right now
Neleman- big for the GT pitching staff

NC State-

Louisville-

had two games canceled this weekend in Conway, SC
had the loss to Furman, beat Coastal and Bowling Green
Zabala did not throw against Furman, got CG w vs Coastal and got the W in 2IP 0er vs Bowling green
Concern over depth in the circle

Boston College-

playing close, low scoring games--will be beneficial heading into conf play, just learning how to win those games
Pitching staff lead by Hallie Pappion & Haley Dunning- the entire pitching staff have only giving up 1 HR in 102 IP combined

Pitt-

Loss to OSU 1-0, but played really well against one of the best teams in the country
OSU only scored on a bases loaded BB! Senior pitcher Adriana Romano gave up just 4 hits and 6.2 IP

Virginia-

Notre Dame-

Beat #20 Utah at the Mary Nutter Classic (7-1)
revenge game, ND lost to Utah in clearwater week 1.
Lost to a really good Baylor team on a walk off, had 1 run lead into bottom of 7th
ND had 4 errors that game

Syracuse-

ACC Play starts this weekend!!

Other big matchups

FSU in Eugene vs Washington, Oregon- CANCELED- FLORIDA STATE looking for games!!
Clemson at Georgia