Going into his first season as Wake Forest's head baseball coach, Tom Walter doesn't have the team he wants.
But he has a team he likes. And that's a start.
"It's the group of guys that has pleased me most," Walter said. "Their work ethic and their commitment to the program, their commitment to getting better and their commitment to the future of this program have been very impressive.
"They've all bought into where we want to go with this thing."
That journey starts with today's 4 p.m. opener vs. Army, the first of an odd four-game series at Wake Forest Baseball Park that will feature two games vs. Army (also 4 p.m. Saturday) and two vs. Dayton (noon Saturday, 1 p.m. Sunday). WFU will play 13 home games before their first road trip, to Coastal Carolina, on March 9.
By the time Wake Forest opens its ACC schedule at Georgia Tech on March 12, Walter will have a better idea of what to expect. But he at least suspects it's going to take a recruiting class or two to field the team he envisions, one built on fundamentals, power bats and power arms.
Wake Forest returns five starters from a team that was 22-30 and last in the ACC's Atlantic Division with a 6-24 conference record in Rick Rembielak's fifth and final season as coach.
"The reality is our talent level isn't where we need it," Walter said. "We're not as talented one through 35 as we should be. The nine guys we put out on the field and the guy we put on the mound, I think we'll stack up. But we're not going to have the bench depth, and we're not going to have the power and the speed and the power arms. We're not going to have arms that are going to strike people out, and that's the one thing you look at the ACC. The teams that are successful can really pitch.
"It's a pitchers' league, and we need to get guys who can strike people out because that takes a lot of pressure off your defense."
Rembielak's downfall proved to be pitching. The Deacons finished last in the ACC last season with an earned-run average of 7.30, a conspicuous statistic given that league champion Virginia posted an ERA of 3.23. It's hard to make the eight-team field of the ACC Tournament while giving up four more runs a game than the opposition.
The ace of the staff is Austin Stadler, a sophomore left-hander from Midlothian, Va., who was 4-5 last season with a 4.13 ERA. He is set to start today's opener.
Freshman left-hander Tim Cooney will start Saturday against Dayton and senior right-hander right-hander Brandon Johnson (0-0, 6.06 last season) will start Sunday against Army.
Freshman left-hander Niko Spezial is scheduled to start Saturday against Dayton.
Walter said he'll probably begin the season with freshman shortstop Patrick Blair leading off followed by junior left fielder Ryan Semeniuk, junior center fielder Steven Brooks, senior catcher Mike Murray, freshman right fielder Mac Williamson, designated hitter Stadler, sophomore first baseman Carlos Lopez, sophomore third baseman Shane Kroker and sophomore second baseman Bentley Heyman.
Freshman Matt Conway could play first and bat seventh, depending on how an injured ankle responds to treatment.
"We don't have a power-hitting club yet, and that's one of the weaknesses of this ballclub," Walter said. "I think we're going to be solid defensively, and I think we'll pitch a lot better this year than we did last year. Dennis Healy, our pitching coach, has done a great job.
"But we don't have a true offensive identity yet. We don't hit for a great deal of power, and we don't steal a great deal of bases. So there's no way for us to create runs other than stringing together three or four hits.
"That's the one thing we're addressing in this recruiting class. We need to get some more power and some more speed because we've got to find ways to create offense from nothing."
dcollins@wsjournal.com
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