Wake Forest Baseball Park

Looks great.

I'll bet Midlo Son would have preferred they left those outfield walls at 24 ft vs. the new 8 ft configuration.

Very nice digs. It will, as you say, be much better when the black and gold seats are installed. I wouldn't be crazy about that 320' down the line, or that magic door in center field!! Work from the knees down Daniel!!

So long as our guys get their fair share!

As Al Davis would say (if he owned a baseball team), don't worry about the ERA, just win baby!

Last night's season opener was a fun one, 11-2 win!

Hope folks will turn out today for the 2:30 and 6:00 games, admission is free and the weather is supposed to be warmer!

For those that don't beleive that football programs help improve facilities, there is living proof.

Nice digs for sure.

If we can keep winning, maybe we can put some more fannies in those seats as well. This weekend sure was a fun opener, even if on the cold side.

Hopefully we can keep rolling Tuesday. 6:00 starting time vs. App. State.

It's free, people, come on out! (But bring your blankets.)

Just curious but I read that Clemson had 5,000 in attendance for a game this weekend. Is the weather that much better in South Carolina or do they recieve that much better fan support? (Maybe nothing else for the locals to do in that town.)

igball,
The attendance you see recorded for Clemson is based on pre season ticket sales, mostly full season tickets bought by alumni and boosters, staff, etc. you'll find this at other programs as well.
I heard it was very cold this weekend and many seats were not occupied.
Come warmer weather it becomes standing room only and outside the fence as well. Clemson fans travel well to away games, always lots of orange in the stadium. Conference games usually bring a full house and South Carolina series they are hanging from the rafters, rain or shine.
And yes, there isn't much doing in the small Hamlet of Clemson so all sports draw a large crowd.

Hopefully we can put some old gold & black in the Clemson stands when the time comes.

But first things first!

Wow!!! Quite an auspicious start for the freshmen White, Stadler, Marrs, and Dimmock as they have eaten half the innings in stellar fashion.
http://wakeforestsports.cstv.c...8-2009/teamcume.html

Right now it looks like we got just enough in the freshman class to plug the holes we had. Our seniors have really been leading the way, but it's nice to have production from all 9 slots in the batting order.

Our senior starting pitcher threw a dominant game vs. ODU, and our three senior offensive starters are all tearing the cover off the ball. Our three freshman offensive starters (Stadler, Kroker and Lopez) have had outstanding starts that pale only by comparison to those of the seniors. We have another freshman (Heyman) who has reached base every time up, coming off the bench.

But the innings from the freshman pitchers so far have been encouraging. I just hope that continues as we now enter the ACC season. First we get UNCW Wed. night, and they are 7-0 and ranked in PG's top 50, too.

Young teams tend to have their ups and downs, but maybe, just maybe, we have enough veterans to hold it all together.

In the meantime, I think if you asked the freshmen how they feel about it, they would say they are happy to have had the opportunity to play. At so many other schools, they would've spent their first six games just watching.

quote:

Originally posted by Midlo Dad:
http://wakeforestsports.cstv.c...c-rel/021209aae.html

Check out the new digs for the Demon Deacons of the diamond! Major upgrades for the players as well as the fans.

When the new black & gold seats come in and the trees from Hook get transplanted behind the outfield wall, it's really going to come together as a playing venue.

I hope all those kids coming to junior days are suitably impressed!

Sorry I missed you last week at Wake --- but glad to hear Daniel was healthy and pitching in their regular rotation. Will be following you during the season. As I mentioned before, the coaches at Wake are a "class act"

Well, the 'hoos put a whuppin' on us last weekend, that's for sure. Daniel himself did OK, but believe me that didn't leave him feeling good about what happened.

It did put him in the weekend starting rotation, though, starting this Saturday at Clemson.

You know what they say -- "Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it!"

I will say, we had really nice crowds at the games. 900+ on Friday and 1300+ each on Sat & Sun. And that's with the students gone on spring break. Hopefully we'll win enough that they'll come back to see when we play NCSU in 2 1/2 weeks.

Spoke too soon -- he tweaked something on Tuesday and is now being held out of this weekend. Rats!

Hopefully it will not be a "tweak" that my kid had that has sidelined him for 20+ months. Plan is for him to begin pitching regularly in about three weeks. ----

quote:

Originally posted by Midlo Dad:
When the new black & gold seats come in....

So they're going to remove the red and blue ones they've already installed?

The minor league team that was there had a red & blue motif. The seats are not bad at all, but a bit faded and just not very school spirited.

Well, the season went to Hades in the proverbial handbasket. Just about every front line pitcher we had went down with some injury or other, and the games got ugly over and over again.

And now the verdict: The whole coaching staff has been let go.

I guess we probably won't know a whole heck of a lot about candidates until after the NCAA's, since just about everyone likely to be looked at is probably with a team heading for the tournament with their current team.

Was the whole coaching staff let go or just the head coach? What about Palmieri?

Everyone.

WF Season Stats:
- Last in Team Batting Conference Statistics
- Last in Team Pitching Conference Statistics
- 11th in Team Fielding

2009 ACC StandingsConference Statistics

And might be the reason for the last place
in the top D1 Conference and the house cleaning!

Sorry

Last in pitching was largely due to a rash of injuries. Pretty much our entire ACC series rotation went down, and then some.

Last in fielding was largely due to starting a lot of freshmen, some out of position. Coach seemed to put bats on the field even if it stressed the defense. It did cost us, no doubt.

Batting was doing OK -- not top of the conference, but competitive -- until the team's morale collapsed down the stretch.

It was really for that that the head got fired. The assistants I think got let go more just to let the new head select his own staff.

There is a decent amount of talent there and more coming in the fall. I don't think anyone says the team is ready to challenge for the top, but it should make the playoffs. The AD basically said that last place was unacceptable, and I guess you can at least take heart in knowing that the AD cares about baseball.

New head coach announced yesterday, Tom Walter from the University of New Orleans, previously at George Washington University. Successful program turnarounds at both places on his resume.

http://www.unoprivateers.com/V...883724&Q_SEASON=2008

how is daniel doing? do you think he will be ready by opening day.

On track for that or better, just hoping for no more bumps in the road.

we hope so, look forward to seeing him throw again

Thanks, me too!

I guess Wake was lucky to have released Palmeria before the recent arrest occurred. Our dealings with him were very impressive and totally professional. Extremely out of character -- I hope he is able to rebound ---

We had a great relationship with Coach P and were sad to see him go back in June. I'm hoping there's some explanation for this, but it looks bleak. My jaw is still scraping the ground.

If it's all proved in court, I don't see how he could possibly rebound. There would be mandatory years in prison, followed by life as a registered s e x offender. Baseball would fall far into his rear view mirror, I would think. My heart is broken over this, not the least for his wife and young child.

quote:

Originally posted by Midlo Dad:
We had a great relationship with Coach P and were sad to see him go back in June. I'm hoping there's some explanation for this, but it looks bleak. My jaw is still scraping the ground.

If it's all proved in court, I don't see how he could possibly rebound. There would be mandatory years in prison, followed by life as a registered s e x offender. Baseball would fall far into his rear view mirror, I would think. My heart is broken over this, not the least for his wife and young child.

Totally concur -- He was a total gentleman and class act --- I pray that it was entrapment --- I really want to give him the "benefit of doubt" because he deserves it.

Field renovations are nearing completion:

http://oxblue.com/pro/open/car...reencorp/allprojects

Click on the photo at the upper left to enlarge it for viewing.

Midlo, Saw the field and the drawings of the plan the day before the turf showed up during an unofficial visit with my Son. Great layout, it's going to be an incredible place to play.

Wow ! Midlo thanks for the link. Great photo. My son is going down for camp in Nov and I can't wait to hear if it plays as fast as it looks.

Midlodad - my son and hubby just got back from the camp at Wake, they were very impressed! (I know they would be). Campus looks great as always and that baseball facility is fantastic. Camp was well run, and it was a motivating / encouraging weekend for my 2013 boy. They also did the info session and tour in admissions on Friday, that's a good motivator on the academic side to keep the grades up!

Thanks for the info a while back. Sorry they didn't get to see your son pitch, there was no game sat night.

I went down to visit Friday and actually saw a camp group on a tour on the quad Saturday. It was a beautiful weekend to see WFU at its best, that's for sure.

I'm kind of a purist to be honest, but there's no question that the field looks great, and the players seem to really like the surface, so I'm keeping an open mind. One thing I'm sure they like is the fact that they no longer have to stay 30 minutes after practice raking and such!

They moved Sat's game to Friday and cancelled Sunday. The dry weather led to no rainouts this fall so they did some quick math and discovered they had to stop as of Friday due to hitting their max on fall sessions. I think everyone was pretty much ready for a breather anyway, especially with exams lurking right around the corner!

The team looks very much stronger than in recent years, so we're hoping to move up the standings this spring, but you never know until you get there. Keeping our fingers crossed on all that.