Wolfpack Baseball takes a break from the conference grind this weekend and welcomes the Blue Hose of Presbyterian College to town for a three game weekend series.
Not to be confused with the Blue Hoes (we played them last week), the Presbyterian Blue Hose hails from Clinton, South Carolina and is a member of the Big South Conference.
Blue Hose is apparently a Scottish thing and refers to something worn beneath the kilt. All this time I thought part of the attraction of the kilt was going freestyle under there. But I guess in the heat of battle it’s probably better to have one’s weapons secured. Either way, I will now take the high road and not resort to anymore “Blue Hose” related smart assery (probably, at least).
We’ll get right to the Blue Hose preview and save the ACC and extraneous stuff for the bottom…
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Presbyterian College Blue Hose
23-22 (9-9, 2nd South Division, Big South)
2012: 24-31 (10-14, 9th Big South)
The Presbyterian Blue Hose have been as least somewhat of an upstart this season. Currently one game above .500 overall at 23-22, and with a .500 mark in their league (9-9), they currently sit in 2nd place of the South Division of the Big South standings, four games behind perennial power Coastal Carolina. The Blue Hose had been picked 6th in their division and 10th overall in the preseason.
With three more weeks left in the regular season, Presbyterian needs just one more win to tie their season best overall win total (24) since moving to D1 in ’08, and just one more conference win to likewise match their Big South record (10). They have 11 games remaining (@NCSU x3, @Vanderbilt, @SC), with 6 in conference (vs Longwood x3, @Gardner-Webb x3).
To say the least they have their work cut out for them in their remaining non-conference matchups, but hopefully they can score at least two more wins in conference to set season bests for overall and conference wins.
This is the first season the Big South has used a divisional format. Presbyterian’s 9-9 conference record is currently 7th best overall as compared to their 9th place non-divisional finish last season.
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At The Plate
The Blue Hose aren’t (isn’t? is it singular or plural?) particularly frightening offensively, but they aren’t exactly terrible either. Well, maybe that’s debatable, but they do have a few guys to keep an eye on. Keep in mind the competition levels when looking at these numbers, however.
On the season, they’ve been batting .258 as a team with 14 HRs, 187 runs scored (4.16 r/g) with 155 batted in, and a team slugging pct of .340. They’re not a particularly disciplined bunch at the plate, striking out 259 times (5.76 K/g) against only 131 walks (2.91 bb/g).
They’ve stolen 49 bases on the year in 67 attempts.
Brandon Paul (#14, Jr, RF/C) leads the Blue Hose with a .321 batting average. He’s also knocked in 20 (3rd) and scored 20 (4th). He hasn’t gone deep yet this season, but he has doubled 10 times (t1st). His 8 steals (11 attempts) is 3rd best on the team.
Brad Zebedis (#19, Jr, 1B) is probably their best all around offensive weapon. He bats .308, leads the team in RBIs (27), is tied for second with 24 runs scored. He also has occasional power with 3 HRs on the season (2nd) and is tied for the team lead with 10 doubles. His .419 slgpct is the second best mark on the team.
With a .302 average, Aaron Preston (#17, Sr, CF) holds his own at the plate as well. His .426 slgpct is tops on the team as are his 10 doubles (t1st) and 2 triples. He’s also gone deep twice on the year. His .400 onbase% is best on the team, and his 10 steals (11 attempts) is tied for team best as well. He has knocked in 22 runs (3rd) and scored 31 (1st) on the year. He’s drawn the most walks on the team this year (23) but has also struck out the most (46).
And then there’s Nate Chong (#12, JR, LF), who’s a feast or famine type guy. He leads the Blue Hose with 7 HRs on the year and is tied for the lead with 10 steals (13 attempts). He also has scored 24 times on the season, good enough for second best on the team. At the same time however, he bats only .215 and has walked only 16 times against 37 strikeouts. When he gets on base he’s dangerous, but he generally keeps himself off base.
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In The Field
The Presbyterian pitching staff isn’t particularly horrible, but again consider the competition levels. Their staff currently sports a 3.93 ERA. They’ve struck out 242 (5.38 K/g) while walking only 135 (3.0 bb/g). Their 1.31 WHIP isn’t abhorrent at all. They’ve given up only 16 HRs on the year, opposing batters are averaging .262 against them and they’ve given up an average of 4.62 runs per game.
The three starters the Pack is likely to face over the weekend (this is a bit of a guess at this point, but it is an educated guess. If I’m wrong then I might update this…or I might not):
Beau Dees (#11, Soph, LHP) – 5-4, 2.23 ERA, 76.2 IP, 3 HRs, .228 against avg, 50 Ks, 22 BBs
Chandler Knox (#27, Jr, RHP) – 4-4, 5.11 ERA, 68.2 IP, 3 HRs, .292 against avg, 42 Ks, 14 BBs
Bud Jeter (#31, Jr, RHP) – 5-4, 2.21 ERA, 85.2 IP, 1 HR, .241 against avg, 71 Ks, 24 BBs
The Blue Hose are solid in the field defensively overall (.972 team fldpct) though a couple of guys have had some adventures at times, including both middle infielders Hagan (SS) and Montroni (2B).
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Links
No. 5 NC State Hosts Presbyterian on ESPN3 (GoPack.com)
Presbyterian College Baseball Home (GoBlueHose.com)
College Stock Report: Week 11 (BaseballAmerica.com)
National Seeds
SECURE TEAMS: North Carolina, Vanderbilt, Louisiana State
ON THE BUBBLE (IN): Virginia, Cal State Fullerton, Oregon State, North Carolina State, Oregon
ON THE BUBBLE (OUT): South Carolina, Indiana, Florida State
No change from last week. We are being a little more cautious with our “secure teams†list, downgrading Virginia, Fullerton and Oregon State to national seed bubble status, although we still think all of those teams are on track to earn national seeds if they finish as expected. And we continue to think the winner of the series between Florida State and N.C. State in Raleigh will determine which team gets a third national seed out of the ACC. We are projecting the Wolfpack to win that May 11-13 series at home.
2013 NCAA Regional Projections (May 2nd) (CollegeBaseballDaily.com)
Raleigh Regional
- 1. NC State
- 2. *UNC-Wilmington
- 3. *Campbell
- 4. *Western Carolina
College Baseball Daily’s Ginger Poulson apparently thinks we’ll drop the FSU series at home and not garner the national seed, but she’s cute so we’ll cut her some slack for being wrong on this one 😀
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Games Schedule – Pitching Probables
- 5/3 Friday 6:30pm – Ethan Ogburn vs Beau Dees
- 5/4 Saturday 6:30pm – Anthony Tzamtzis vs Chandler Knox
- 5/5 Sunday 1pm – Carlos Rodon vs Bud Jeter
***All three games to be streamed live over ESPN3***
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ACC Update
After splitting last weekend’s rain shortened 2 game series with Carolina, the Pack moved up to #5 in the Baseball America Top 25 poll this week. As noted above, Baseball America’s Aaron Fitt is also currently projecting that State will be one of 8 national seeds for the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
Nonetheless, the Wolfpack (34-11, 15-8 ACC) is currently sitting in 2nd place in the ACC’s Atlantic Division a half game behind 1st place FSU (16-8), which took Wake (7-17, 5th Atlantic, 9gb) down three straight last weekend at home. Like the Pack, the ‘Noles take a break from conference play this weekend and will welcome UCF to town for three, while Wake will be taking the weekend off completely for exams.
Clemson (15-9) finds itself in 3rd in the Atlantic, a game behind FSU and a half game behind the 2nd place Pack. Maryland (8-16, 4th Atlantic, 8gb) travels to Clemson to face the Tiggers this weekend and can hopefully be a spoiler and provide some breathing room at the top before next weekend’s showdown between the Pack and FSU.
And then there’s BC…Holy series win, Batman.
After dropping their first 20 ACC contests of the year and looking as if they might go winless in conference for the season, the Eagles’ juggernaut (2-21) up and thumped the Hurricanes of Miami, taking two of three on the weekend and providing South Beach with yet another source of embarrassment.
Oh Miami, oh the humanity. How the mighty have fallen.
BC hosts VT this weekend for three.
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ACC Standings
| (As Of May 2) | ||||
| ATLANTIC DIVISION | ||||
| School | Conference | Pct. | Overall | Pct. |
| Florida State | 16-8 | .667 | 35-9-0 | .795 |
| NC State | 15-8 | .652 | 34-11-0 | .756 |
| Clemson | 15-9 | .625 | 30-14-0 | .682 |
| Maryland | 8-16 | .333 | 27-21-0 | .562 |
| Wake Forest | 7-17 | .292 | 26-23-0 | .531 |
| Boston College | 2-21 | .087 | 10-35-0 | .222 |
| COASTAL DIVISION | ||||
| School | Conference | Pct. | Overall | Pct. |
| North Carolina | 19-3 | .864 | 42-4-0 | .913 |
| Virginia | 17-7 | .708 | 39-8-0 | .830 |
| Georgia Tech | 12-12 | .500 | 28-16-0 | .636 |
| Miami | 11-13 | .458 | 29-18-0 | .617 |
| Virginia Tech | 11-13 | .458 | 28-18-0 | .609 |
| Duke | 9-15 | .375 | 25-22-0 | .532 |
Only two conference matchups this weekend, with everyone else playing out of conference or not at all.
Virginia Tech @ Boston College
Maryland @ Clemson
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Back to the Blue Hose for a minute…
Now I know this piece is about baseball, and I’m wandering into football (sort of) here with this. But am I the only one who thinks this looks like…well, nevermind. Maybe it’s just me.
Disclaimer: This is not technically to make fun of “Blue Hose”. Well I guess it depends on how you look at it, so to speak.
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