Greensboro, NC – Three ACC series are slated to open on Thursday due to the upcoming Easter weekend … NC State at Virginia Tech, Louisville at Florida State, and Boston College at Clemson are all set for Thursday starts … Four more league series get underway Friday with Virginia at Pitt, Notre Dame at Duke, Miami at Georgia Tech, and Wake Forest at North Carolina … NC State enters the weekend at 7-2 in ACC play and holding a two-game lead in the Atlantic Division … Duke and Miami share the Coastal Division lead with 6-3 league records.
The ACC entered this week’s action with two teams ranked among the nation’s top 10 and five among the top 20 of the latest USA Today Coaches Poll … Four of those teams are from the Atlantic Division, as Florida State holds the No. 5 spot, followed by NC State at No. 9, Clemson at No. 12, Louisville at No. 18 and Duke at No. 19.
Duke has won 20 of its last 23 games, including Tuesday’s 8-0 shutout of Presbyterian … Four Blue Devil pitchers limited the Blue Hose to one hit, and Duke’s batters supported the effort with a season-high 15 hits, including four by freshman Joey Loperfido … The shutout was the third of the season for the Blue Devil pitching staff.
Clemson heads into its series against visiting Boston College averaging 5,023 fans per home date (15), the fifth-highest figure in the nation and first in the ACC … Entering 2018, the Tigers owned a top-20 national figure in average attendance 24 straight seasons and a top-15 figure 16 years in a row.
North Carolina’s 14-2 win over Charlotte on Tuesday evening marked the 1,400th career victory for head coach Mike Fox … Fox, who is in his 35th overall season and his 20th at UNC, now has 861 wins as a Tar Heel to go with 539 in 15 seasons at North Carolina Wesleyan … Fox joined ACC colleagues Mike Martin of Florida State and Jim Morris of Miami as one of three active coaches in NCAA Division I college baseball with 1,400 or more wins.
NC State’s 21-4 start to the season is the Wolfpack’s best since 2003, when it also won 21 of its first 25 games … Will Wilson has now reached base safely in 40 consecutive games, a streak that dates back to the latter stages of the 2017 season … NC State’s bullpen leads the ACC with 12 saves.
Midweek action included Notre Dame’s 2-1 win over Kent State on Wednesday night, in which Cameron Brown made his second career start and turned in the team’s best pitching performance of the season … The sophomore left-hander worked a career-high 8.0 innings with a career-best seven strikeouts while allowing four hits and walking three … Brown dealt quickly and kept the Irish defense off the field, retiring 10 straight midway through the game.
North Carolina’s Michael Busch leads the NCAA with 38 runs batted in, with Georgia Tech’s Tristan English (35) and NC State’s Brett Kinneman (34) just behind … Kinneman’s 12 home runs are tied for second-most nationally … ACC pitchers are also among the leaders with Wake Forest’s Griffin Roberts’ 61 strikeouts in 41 innings ranking second nationally … NC State senior Brian Brown’s ERA of 0.48 in 37.2 innings pitched ranks third.