This weekend, Stanford baseball will welcome the Wake Forest Demon Deacons to Sunken Diamond. Stanford comes in at 20-17 overall and 6-15 in the ACC while Wake Forest comes in at 27-15 overall and 10-11 in the ACC. Game one will be on Friday at 6:05 PM PT on ACCNX. Game two will be on Saturday at 2:05 PM PT on ACCNX. Game three will be on Sunday at 1:05 PM PT on ACCNX.
Last time out: Stanford defeated UC Davis 11-1 in seven innings on Monday.
RECAP: Stanford BSB dominates UC Davis
Probable pitchers: For Friday, the probable starting matchup on the mound is Stanford righty Joey Volchko(2-3, 7.60 ERA) vs. Wake Forest righty Logan Lunceford (5-4, 4.23 ERA). On Saturday, the probable matchup is Stanford righty Matt Scott (5-2, 6.27 ERA) vs. Wake Forest righty Blake Morningstar (4-1, 2.45 ERA). On Sunday, the probable matchup is Wake Forest righty Chris Levonas (2-1, 5.57 ERA) vs. TBD. With Christian Lim out for the season, Stanford will have to go a different direction for Sunday.
On Wake Forest: The Demon Deacons have a strong program but are having a down year with a losing record in the ACC. Most recently, they dropped two out of three at home against Boston College. Fortunately for them, Stanford has been struggling even more, so they should be eying an opportunity this weekend.
The top contact and power hitter for the Demon Deacons is sophomore infielder Kade Lewis, who is batting .428 for 11 home runs, 48 RBIs, a .731 slugging percentage, and a .532 on base percentage. Junior infielder Marek Houston and junior infielder Jack Winnay have 10 home runs, doing a good job of bringing the power as well.
As a team, the Demon Deacons are batting .306 for 358 runs, 72 home runs, 346 RBIs, a .532 slugging percentage, and a .430 on base percentage. Their opponents are batting .216 for 215 runs, 27 home runs, 184 RBIs, a .315 slugging percentage, and a .341 on base percentage. As for pitching, they have a 4.45 ERA while their opponents have an 8.69 ERA.
Keys to the series: For Stanford, the first thing they need to do is not give up the long ball. The Demon Deacons have guys who can go yard. If Stanford keeps the ball in the park and doesn’t allow Wake Forest to jack balls over the fence, they’ll have a chance to win this series.
Secondly, Stanford needs to find the long ball on their end as well. They got some power hitters like Rintaro Sasaki, Trevor Haskins, and Brady Reynolds. If Stanford can hit some home runs this weekend, maybe they make this series interesting.
Finally, Stanford needs to put it all together. When they hit well, they don’t pitch well. When they pitch well, they don’t hit well. That seems to be a common problem for Stanford. They must figure out ways to put it all together and play complete baseball in all facets of the game.
Prediction: I gotta roll with Wake Forest. The only question is will it be another sweep. History tells us that it will be, so I’ll pick the Demon Deacons to take all three games. Stanford hasn’t earned the right for me to not pick a sweep, but maybe they’ll finally buck that trend this weekend.
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