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Not Too Late: WFU has chance to salvage once-disappointing season with run in ACC Tournament
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Published: May 19, 2008
Pitcher Charlie Mellies of Wake Forest pointed out last week that it's never good for a team to peak too early.
Not that the Deacons could be accused of that.
"It's better to peak now," Mellies said. "Hopefully the other teams in the tournament peaked early."
To even reach the tournament, in this case the eight-team ACC Tournament scheduled for Wednesday through Saturday in Jacksonville, Fla., the Deacons had to stage a dramatic rally for the second season in a row.
A year ago, they fell to 8-13 in ACC play after getting swept at Boston College, but saved their season by winning six of their final nine conference games. They played well enough in the tournament -- where they beat Clemson and Miami before losing the championship game to North Carolina -- to get invited to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in Rick Rembielak's three years as coach.
This season, with the core of that team returning, bigger things were expected. Instead the Deacons, hitting poorly and pitching even worse, lost 15 of 16 games from March 18 to April 12 to fall to 12-21 and 5-11 inside the conference.
"What affected us during that stretch was, in the midweek games, we were getting hammered," Rembielak said. "We weren't pitching well and I think it was affecting the offense.
"I think it snowballed on the shoulders of the offense. We were down four, five and six runs in the first two innings."
But everything is relative, and the Deacons were fortunate enough to have a number of other ACC teams -- Duke, Virginia Tech, Boston College, Maryland and even Clemson -- struggling as bad or worse. And then the Deacons reeled off six straight conference wins and clinched a tournament berth on Thursday at Boston College.
This is far from a vintage Wake Forest team. The Deacons rank last in the ACC with an unsightly earned-run average of 7.86 and 10th with only 332 runs scored.
But they are still alive.
"We've done this the last couple of years," Mellies said. "It just seems once we have nothing to lose, and our backs are up against the wall, we play a lot better.
"Why? I don't know. I wish we could start and play well all the way through the season. But it shows the character of this team that when we really have to, we dig down deep and figure out a way to win the games."
Rembielak suspects that one turning point came on April 22 during a 19-10 loss at Elon. With the Deacons trailing 14-2 in the rain, Rembielak cleared the dugout and ordered his players to watch the remainder of the game from the bullpen.
The Deacons beat Coastal Carolina the next day, lost two in a row at Georgia Tech, and then reeled off a six-game winning streak.
"It got to the point where it had to happen," Rembielak said. "I know for a fact they responded. It was something that they knew they deserved.
"We were very lackadaisical. We weren't concentrating. There were a lot of times before that during the season, I think, that warranted that. And for whatever reason, I didn't do anything.
"But it got to me where we started throwing at-bats away, and we weren't competing. It was too far into the season to let that go anymore."
Trivia: Counted out too early
Single: What team won the NL East in 2007 despite trailing by seven games on Sept. 12?
Double: What team won the NL West in 1993 despite trailing by nine games on Aug. 11?
Triple: What team won the World Series in 1978 despite trailing its division by 14 games on July 19?
Homer: What team won the AL West in 1995 despite trailing by 11½ games on Aug. 9?
Around and about
Although he's a junior, Allan Dykstra is probably not long for Wake Forest. Dykstra, a power-hitting first baseman from San Diego, is expected to be drafted in the early rounds of next month's draft, and may even go in the first round. His problem is that this season's crop of first basemen is deep and talented.
Yonder Alonzo of Miami, Justin Smoak of South Carolina, Ike Davis and Brett Wallace of Arizona State and David Cooper of California are all considered among the top prospects coming out of college…. Matt Antonelli has been slow to get started this season. Antonelli, a former Wake Forest star who was the first-round pick of the San Diego Padres in 2006, was hitting only .179 through 123 at-bats for the Portland Beavers of the Class AAA Pacific Coast League. As of Friday night, Antonelli was playing second base and batting eighth in the Beavers' order....
After making quite a freshman splash last season, Dustin Ackley of North Carolina is proving that the performance was no fluke. Ackley is hitting .392 with 63 runs scored and 40 RBIs. Ackley, whose father, John, played for the Winston-Salem Red Sox in 1981, '82 and '83, is from Walnut Cove and played at North Forsyth High School.
Trivia answers
Single: Philadelphia Phillies.
Double: Atlanta Braves.
Triple: New York Yankees.
Homer: Seattle Mariners.
■ Dan Collins can be reached at 727-7323 or at dcollins@wsjournal.com.
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