What’s more incredible in this ACC baseball stat?

I can't decide what is more incredible to me, the fact that Wake Forest hit nine home runs in a college world, not college world series game, but an NCAA super regional elimination game, or that nine home runs isn't the the flat out record for an NCAA tournament baseball game. Aaron fit D one baseball.com. Great clubhouse guy. Like, like, are you saying, how can I not be the record?

Well, it is, it's just, it's just, you know, not, not the solo record as sharing it with somebody, but yeah. I mean, and Hey, it's college baseball, right? I mean, it's, you know, over the years, the sport has kind of ebbed and flowed as far as offense goes, but we've seen, we've been through gorilla ball and we've been through, you know, peating, Caviglia in the eighties, hitting them a bajillion home runs, you know, everything like that.

The equipment has just, has just varied so much over the years that we had the dead ball, dead bat era and the early 20, 20 teens, I guess. And, and now we're, we're back to crazy offense again, and that's an offensive ballpark. And the wind was howling out yesterday and, uh, and Wake Forest and the most of those weren't cheapies, mind you.

I mean, it's not like he's a wind eight at home runs. They were a bunch of rockets against the real pitching staff that Alabama has. They were thrown out legit arms, you know, mid to high nineties guys and, uh, guys that have been successful all year long and wake just teed off on them. I mean, it's a great offense and, uh, you know, and that's the thing about Wake Forest Adam. It's a great offense. They score a lot of runs and they also don't give up very many runs, you know, which is, which is the, it's a pretty good combination, uh, in baseball. I don't know if you've heard that one, but that's the key. Yes.

Yes. I have heard if you score a lot and don't allow a lot, it's probably, it should lead to wins nine home runs yesterday. Uh, I'll, I'll get to a little bit of, um, um, look, we're trying to, we're at this point defined negatives about wake forest. The final score was 22 to five. I mean, it was 12 to five and they tacked on 10 runs combined in the top of the eighth and ninth innings.

So, I mean, it was already gross and then it just became, I mean, just comic at that point. Uh, Brock Wilkin had three of those nine home runs. He now has 30. Did, did Inka Velia have 48 for Oklahoma state his, uh, his best year? Yeah, that's the record is 48.

Uh, so that's that one. I don't think we're going to touch anytime soon, but I mean, Chris Bryant had the BD Corps era record, uh, which was 31, I believe in 2013. That was the height of the dead ball era though. Like at that point, I mean, he had more home runs than, than a lot of college teams hit, you know, all by himself.

Uh, so that to me stands a little bit different. And right now we're seeing, you know, multiple guys get to 30. So it's a little different, but I mean, but the Brock Wilkin is now the all-time ACC home run King for, for a career he's, he's, he broke, I think it was JD Drew's records yesterday. Um, and, and that was, that was cool. He's, he's a really, really likable young man.

I'll tell you. And, and, uh, it was fun to see him celebrating with his teammates out there yesterday. And he could tell you, he's a team guy and this, you know, the Omaha thing meant so much to all those.

I mean, they hadn't been to Omaha since 1955. It's unbelievable. Really. It's a, it's a big story. Ready for a fun fact.

This is, I love, I love giving out fun facts. The last time Wake Forest was at the college world series, they were actually in Wake Forest. Yeah. How about that?

They moved to Winston-Salem either the next year or the year after that, but they were playing, you know, just North Raleigh here in Wake Forest, North Carolina. Uh, okay. So they win 22 to five. Uh, they, they outscore Alabama 27 to nine in this, uh, in the super regional after outscoring the regional 48 to seven, that has to be a record that combined scores. Uh, if it's not, I mean, I can't even even imagine. Um, but should I be alarmed at all that Wake allowed three runs in the first two innings? Yeah.

That's, I mean, it's funny when you talk about nicking, picking nits here, you have to wait for us, but I mean, no, I'm obviously not. I mean, they, they, you know, like I said, it was, it was a crazy offensive weekend as far as the conditions. I mean, you're in this launching pad, this notorious launching pad of a ballpark and the wind was howling out both days. Um, and Josh Hartle gets out there, you know, their, their second ACE, um, and, and allows two homers in the first two innings. And, you know, at that point, um, you know, the game was still hanging the balance really until the third inning that Wake Forest pulled away. But, but Hartle made, you know, made a little adjustment. He found his, his cutter, you know, which is really his best pitch. He's got like five or six pitches, but the cutters his best one. And once he found it, you know, he said, Tom Walter said afterwards, he came back to the dugout after the third inning and he was like, all right, guys, we're good.

I found my cutter. Like, don't worry about it. Put up some, put up some zeros and struck out 11 and six innings. And really, I mean, to, to, to allow just four runs in six innings and strike out 11 on a day like that in that ballpark, it's a great performance. I mean, you know, again, there were 13 home runs in that game. Uh, so that's, you know, that's not easy to do. Yeah. He struck out 11 of the 25 batters he faced.

All right. In the other ACC, uh, series, it was Virginia and Duke. So it was conference on conference crime. Blue Devils won the first game. That was an exciting finish, uh, with a ball that looked like off the bat might've been a game winning home run for the Cavaliers, but they saved all their offense for the next two days. They just rocked Duke on Saturday and Sunday first about the Cavaliers getting to the college world series. This has become kind of a, is it fair to say kind of Vanderbilt light in terms of the program that they have built in Charlottesville? Oh, for sure.

Yeah. Then in Vanderbilt, I think have a lot of parallels really. I mean, you know, they faced off with the national title and back to back years in 2014 and 15, um, both their coaches got there about the same time by an O'Connor and Tim Corbin. They both started going to Omaha about the same time that 2009 ish. Uh, I think that might've been the first year for both of them. Um, and, and, you know, since then, they've both been regulars. This is Virginia's sixth trip to Omaha, uh, since 2009.

And, uh, they've, they've won at once. They've been runner up once they were here in 2021, you know, so some of these players that are on this team have, have experienced this, this setting before. Um, and I'll tell you, Adam, they're, they're built, they're built for the ballpark and they really are. It's, it's a very, you know, if you could draw it up, you want a team that has athletes all over the field, that athleticism plays on, on defense as well as an offense. I mean, you want a team that's very, very good on the infield dirt because, you know, that it's a fast track there and, um, you got to take care of the ball, you know, that's really, really important. You got to throw strikes and play good infield defense and patrol the gaps. You know, they, they got range in the outfield. Um, it's, it's a team that reminds me so much of the Arizona team that won it all in, in 20, uh, 12, you know, it's, it's a team that it's built on doubles and triples.

They drive the gaps and they patrol the gaps. That's kind of the key in that ballpark, in my opinion. Uh, and, and, you know, I think Arizona led the country in doubles and triples, uh, Virginia leaves the country doubles, you know, some line drive machine, and it's not an overwhelming pitching staff. As far as pure stuff goes, it's a bunch of, you know, veteran pitchability guides who throw strikes. And, um, you know, they're, they, they brought in transfers from Elon and coastal and an army, and that's their weekend rotation.

And none of them are going to show you 98 miles an hour. Uh, but they, they all have a pitch, you know, an out pitch that they can go to. They all compete and, and they're fourth in the country in ERA. And I, you know, I've been questioning their pitching all year long because they don't have dominant stuff. And I need to stop that because they're fourth of the nation in the RA, like it's working, right?

I mean, like give them credit where it's due. They can go there and absolutely make a run and win at all. I think, like I said, I think they're just perfectly built for that ballpark. Uh, and, uh, one final thing about the season and the run for Duke, this is three trips to the super regionals in the last five years. Uh, and included in that is an ACC championship. I mean, Chris Pollard has obviously has a formula that works.

Yeah, for sure. And this was, you know, a totally different formula than, than he's used during their other super regional teams, his third super regional and five completed seasons now, uh, for Duke, which again, it's a program that hadn't even been to a regional in 55 years or something, you know, until, until he broke that, that drought. Um, it's really incredible accomplishment, but this year, you know, they, they thought their team was going to be built around these two dominant lefties, Luke Fox and Jonathan Santucci.

They both got hurt, you know, Fox, uh, had Tommy John for the season even started. And then Santucci went down after seven starts and all of a sudden it's like, well, all right, let's just go with openers, you know, and we'll, we'll go one time through the order and then we're going to mix and match with our bullpen. Uh, and it worked. I mean, it was a top 20, you know, pitching staff in the country and ERA and the bullpen was great. Um, they had a very powerful offense, probably, I think it is a school record for home runs for them this year. So you kind of embrace the, the times as far as their style of play, they used to be more of a, you know, maybe more of a manufacturing offense kind of a, of a team and now they, you know, Hey, we can hit the long ball. Uh, and that worked for them.

And so, you know, they, I just think Chris Pollard's a really, really, really smart baseball guy who makes adjustments as well as anybody. And that's what this team did. They adjusted to the, to the climate and what they had on their roster. And they really hit the jackpot and the portal and with some small school guys that they're kind of brought some, some blue collar edge to their culture, which they thought was missing.

And it was just a really pretty special mix. It was a really fun team to be around this year and, uh, you know, hats off to those guys on a great season. Aaron fit D one baseball.com. Great clubhouse guy. Uh, if you'll allow, we'll bug you when you're out in Omaha. Yeah.

Always. Anytime. Thanks, man. I appreciate your time. All right, Adam, take care.