The ACC enters the final weekend before conference play this weekend with a couple of huge non-conference matchups which might effect the NCAA Tournament seedings come June.
The biggest series of the weekend with an ACC squad involved is between South Carolina and Clemson. The teams will play a three game set with a game on each campus and a neutral site game in Greenville on Saturday. I will be looking to see if Kevin Brady can continue his strong start to his season which sees him entering the weekend with a 2-0 record with a 0.73 ERA while striking out 19 batters in 12.1 innings.
The Miami (FL) Hurricanes will head to Gainesville this weekend to take on the number 1 ranked Florida Gators. This will be a huge test for the Hurricanes as freshman number 1 starter Bryan Radziewski hasn’t pitched a road game in his college career yet. He does sport a 1-0 record with a 0.82 ERA in his two career starts. The Florida pitching staff has been solid all year with Brian Johnson having a stretch of his first two starts getting out 27 straight batters. He leads the Gators pitching staff with a 2-0 record and an ERA of 0.00 in 12 innings.
The other key non-conference series is the Florida State Seminoles heading north to Athens, Georgia to visit the Georgia Bulldogs for a three game set. The Noles are a heavy favorite this weekend as they have a record of 8-0 coming off a 5-3 victory over Florida on Tuesday. James Ramsey is leading the offensive attack with a .481 batting average with a homer and ten RBI. He should have an easy time of it this weekend against the struggling Georgia Bulldogs who sport a team ERA of 5.56 this year. The Bulldogs enter the weekend with a 2-6 overall record.
The one series that might fly under the radar this weekend in the ACC is between Rutgers and Georgia Tech. The Scarlet Knights have played some good baseball over the first two weekends of the season as they have a 4-2 record after losing two out of three games to Miami before sweeping Michigan in a three game set. The interesting part will be to see if the Scarlet Knights can take one of the first two games of the weekend from Jed Bradley or Mark Pope.
Other ACC Series to Watch
Cornell (2), Rider (2) at Virginia
Stony Brook at UNC
Boston College vs Bethune-Cookman, SIU-Edwardsville, Michigan State
Bryant at Virginia Tech
Canisius at Maryland
Fordham, Towson, Radford at Wake Forest
LaSalle at Duke
Penn State at NC State
Predictions
Brian Foley
Florida sweeps
Clemson takes 2 out of 3
FSU Sweeps
Virginia takes all four games
UNC wins 2 out of 3
GT takes two out of three
VT Sweeps
Maryland Sweeps
BC wins 2 out of 3
Wake Forest wins 2 out of 3
Duke Sweeps
NC State Sweeps
