Welcome to Episode 4 of Up the Coast with Alex & Britt

• Duke- the only ACC team with 1 loss
• UNC, Louisville & Clemson are next with only 2 losses

National notes: These #s were updated at the end of last week, before games this past weekend 

• UNC #4 in the country in team batting average- .412 (through Feb 22, 2024)
• Duke #9 in the country in lowest ERA 1.02 (through Feb 22, 2024)
• Duke (#8), Virginia (#13), UNC (#14) all in the top 15 for best fielding percentage across the country (Feb 22, 2024)
• Georgia Tech- LEADING IN HRs after this weekend???!!!! 34

Duke-

• Continues their slug fest, beat Michigan State 22-0
• 2 grand slams, 3 run blast…. SO much power!
• 14 runs in the bottom of the third of a 22-0 win over Michigan State
• Jala had 14ks- career high
• Run ruled Villanova 8-0
• Total team right now- have it in the circle with Jala leading the way- the bats are on absolute fire
• Big inning potential
• 4 DIFFERENT PLAYERS have hit FIVE grand slams this year

Clemson- back on track?

• Exciting games
• beat Charlotte midweek
• Run rule against Ole Miss- a run rule against any SEC team feels good
• Close game- walk off win for Clemson against UCONN
• Actually 3 walk off wins?! 2 were run rule walk off’s…**do you count those?!
• Mid week at Georgia!!!

Florida State-

• Bats continuing to come alive in big moments- a lot of power
• Michaela Edenfield 2 walk off wins (back to back games)- one a come from behind 5-4 win against Nicholls and the other a run rule 8-0 win against Nicholls
• Pitching still in question
• Could the pitching staff be struggling more this year because they don’t have a dominant down ball pitcher? They have historically had at least one pitcher on staff that dominated the lower half of the zone- Lacey Waldrop, Meghan King, Kat Sandercock…. Now- their primary arms are more E to W and up in the zone arms 

Virginia Tech-

• Emma Lemley still looking good in the circle- pull #s of her game against Dartmouth??
• BEAT (#3) GEORGIA on Friday, 5-4
• 2 RBI pinch hit from Trinity Martin
• HOW BIG IS IT TO HAVE HITTERS COME OFF THE BENCH AND COME UP CLUTCH?
• HOW HARD IS IT TO BE A PINCH HITTER?!
• Lemley rise looked legit, one thing that I noticed..she gets ahead early, even 0-2 and then BB. 
• Lyndsey Grein big in the circle for VT to close out the game
• Lost 5-7 against Georgia on Saturday- not a bad game against a great hitting team in UGA
• Was leading the game 3-1 in the bottom of the third 
• UGA came back in the top of the 4th, VT tied it up in the 4th
• Signs of brilliance from VT this weekend…. Should be proud of their performance
• Possible X factor- Emma Mazzarone, fr pitcher. very nice change and throws 69/70mph

UNC-

• Nikki Harris in the circle looks great
• 13ks in her 2nd career start, true freshman, too!!
• Most K’s for a UNC pitcher in a game since 2019
• Loss to Lipscomb 1-0, solo shot in 5th 
• As a team, just 14 HR’s but have scored 101 runs,  stolen 54-59 bases, .508 OB%
• Alex Coleman- .619ba, 14-15 SB
• 6 players hitting over .400
• 3 hitting over .500
• 
  

Georgia Tech-

• 32 runs in 4 games at the Clearwater Tourney
• Lost games in Clearwater but the W/L not reflective of how well GT was playing/ hitting
• HR’s have come from at least 9 different hitters
• Mallorie Black- an absolute killer in the box right now
• Neleman- big for the GT pitching staff
• 
  

NC State-

• a sneaky/quiet 12-3 on the year
• after losing 3 games in first weekend, they have been rolling
• Keep an eye on what they are doing

Louisville-

• had two games canceled this weekend in Conway, SC
• had the loss to Furman, beat Coastal and Bowling Green
• Zabala did not throw against Furman, got CG w vs Coastal and got the W in 2IP 0er vs Bowling green
• Concern over depth in the circle

Boston College-

• playing close, low scoring games--will be beneficial heading into conf play, just learning how to win those games
• Pitching staff lead by Hallie Pappion &  Haley Dunning- the entire pitching staff have only giving up 1 HR in 102 IP combined

Pitt-

• Loss to OSU 1-0, but played really well against one of the best teams in the country
• OSU only scored on a bases loaded BB! Senior pitcher Adriana Romano gave up just 4 hits and 6.2 IP

Virginia-

• Looking solid in the circle
• Madi Harris ties the UVA career saves record with 9
• Eden Bigham sets a career high strikeouts vs Lehigh with 14
• struck out the first 12 batters straight to start the game

Notre Dame-

• Beat #20 Utah at the Mary Nutter Classic (7-1)
• revenge game, ND lost to Utah in clearwater week 1. 
• Lost to a really good Baylor team on a walk off, had 1 run lead into bottom of 7th
• ND had 4 errors that game

Syracuse- 

• went 2-3 on the weekend in Monroe, LA
• Jasso still swinging it, Hendrix good in the circle
• Hendrix is 5-0 on the season, rest of the staff combined is 3-6

ACC Play starts this weekend!!

• NC State at Clemson
• Pitt at GT
• BC at UVA
• ND at VT

Other big matchups

• FSU in Eugene vs Washington, Oregon- CANCELED- FLORIDA STATE looking for games!!
• Clemson at Georgia