By Nicholas Dioli
Final: UNC-Greensboro 4 - Wake Forest 3
Welp, but it's not like anyone is going to go 58-0 this year. That Includes the #1 team in the land. Now, dropping a midweek game should not be concerning right? Especially when you're starting a true freshman pitcher. But the inexperienced pitcher was actually not the reason why Wake Forest lost. In fact, Haiden Leffew was the reason why Wake was in the game and gave the Deacs more than a chance to win.
Leffew's slash line ended up being:
4 IP | 2 H |1 ER | 8 K | 66 TP
Getting that from a true freshman should make every team in the nation worried with how Wake has reloaded via the transfer portal and recruiting when it comes to pitching.
Admittingly, the bats have been a problem. Look, Nick Kurtz is a stud. He'll probably go top two in the 2024 MLB Draft. But what about the other bats surrounding Kurtz? Those bats have had five or less hits in three of the first four games. We knew that the power would decline following the departures of Brock Wilken, Justin Johnson, Pierce Bennet, Lucas Costello, and Danny Corona. When you have a guy breaking home run records and a second baseman closing in on twenty home runs in a season, that is very hard to replace. The power isn't the concern though, as they have hit some home runs. It has just been difficult to generate hits. They'll need to look at guys like Chris Katz, Jake Reinisch, and transfers Seaver King and Adam Tellier to produce runs.
Should we be concerned? I don't think so. My gut says no. It's a new team with new faces all over the field. If you're a Wake fan, realize that a little early humbling never hurt anybody. They now know what the problem is. Many other top teams have already lost in their first four games. Florida, Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, NC State, and Texas have all dropped at least one.
This won't be the Wake Forest team of last year with all the power, that seems to be more what Duke is right now so far in the early part of the season. Wake is going to need to figure out how to generate runs because they will not win games if they can't score come ACC play.
*****
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