Stanford traveled nearly 2,800 miles for its first-ever ACC series. It was a rousing success. The Cardinal took two of three from previously undefeated North Carolina, finishing off the series with an emphatic 7-0 win on Sunday afternoon.
Stanford’s starting pitchers struggled in the first two games — Matt Scott and Christian Lim combined to give up 10 earned runs, and neither got out of the fourth inning — but Joey Volchko was outstanding on Sunday, allowing no runs and only three hits in 5.1 innings.
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The Cardinal, who missed postseason play last season after making three straight trips to the College World Series, are 12-3 overall and look to be legitimate contenders in the ACC.
About 200 miles to the north, Boston College opened its ACC schedule with a series win at Virginia, the preseason league favorite. Boston College sandwiched wins of 7-4 on Friday and 6-3 on Sunday around a 22-16 loss on Saturday.
The Cavs, ranked No. 3 in The Athletic’s preseason Top 25, are 9-5 overall.
Elsewhere in the first weekend of ACC play, Georgia Tech took two of three at Virginia Tech, Duke rallied from a loss to Cal on Friday to win the series and Wake Forest swept Notre Dame in Winston-Salem by a combined score of 36-11.
Wake Forest shortstop Marek Houston, known more for his defense earlier in his career, drove in 10 runs in Friday’s 19-5 win. The junior is slashing .415/.518/.831 and has seven home runs and 34 RBIs.
Around the horn
Tennessee’s power surge continues. The Vols hit 11 home runs in a weekend sweep of St. Bonaventure and lead the nation with 49 homers in 16 games, including a staggering eight grand slams.
Second baseman Gavin Kilen, a transfer from Louisville, leads the way with eight HRs after hitting only nine in 54 games last season with the Cardinals. Three other players have six: freshman DH Levi Clark, sophomore shortstop Dean Curley and junior third baseman Andrew Fischer.
Tennessee (16-0) and Florida State (15-0) are the last two undefeated teams in the nation.
Three grand slams in one game matches an NCAA record and the Vols now have seven(!) on the year. Tennessee hit 12 last season, tied for the second-most in NCAA history. They’re already halfway to Arizona State’s record (14, 2003) in just 12 games. https://t.co/XBqFxI8dBD
— Bradley Smart (@fridaystarters) March 5, 2025
Arkansas was in desperate need of an offensive spark after ranking near the bottom of the SEC in several key offensive statistics in 2024.
The Aloy brothers have delivered.
Sophomore DH Kuhio Aloy, a first-year transfer from BYU, is hitting .468 with a 1.533 OPS and has six home runs and 29 RBIs. Wehiwa Aloy, a junior shortstop who is in his second season with the Hogs after transferring from Sacramento State, is hitting .433 and is tied with his brother and third baseman Brent Iredale for the team lead with six home runs.
Arkansas has won 11 in a row and is 15-1.
No school is more proficient at one thing relative to the rest of the country than VMI is at stealing bases. The Keydets lead the nation with 98 stolen bases in 15 games. Next up is Wofford at 49.
VMI has four of the top 12 base stealers in the country, including the leader, junior utilityman Owen Prince, who has 27.
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For some context, Prince has more stolen bases than 244 Division I teams.
VMI is 12-3 after splitting a four-game weekend series with Holy Cross.
East Carolina’s Ethan Norby delivered arguably the finest pitching performance of the season’s first month on Friday night in Greenville, N.C.
The sophomore left-hander allowed no runs and only three hits in 7.1 innings of a 7-0 win over Coastal Carolina. Oh, he also struck out 19 of the 25 batters he faced and did not walk anyone!
Norby set an American Athletic Conference record and came one strikeout shy of the school record, set in 1970 by Hal Baird, who later served as the head coach at ECU and Auburn.
𝐀 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫.⚾️ @norby_ethan
IP: 7.1
K: 19
H: 3
ER: 0 pic.twitter.com/2PiYCOiKNv— ECU Baseball (@ECUBaseball) March 8, 2025
Speaking of dominant lefties, few have been better than Michigan State junior Joseph Dzierwa. The Ohio native is 4-0 with a 0.70 ERA and 0.584 WHIP after four starts. In 25.2 innings, he has allowed nine hits and has 41 strikeouts and only six walks.
Dzierwa transferred to Vanderbilt after the 2024 season but had a change of heart and returned to East Lansing for what is almost assuredly his final season of college baseball.
Michigan State, which hasn’t played in a Regional since 2012, is 12-3.
George Mason set a Division I record by scoring 23 runs in the bottom of the second inning of a 26-6 win over Holy Cross on Tuesday afternoon. The previous record of 21 runs was set in 1983 by Penn State and equaled by Wichita State in 1984.
The record-setting inning featured:
- Six singles (including three that never left the infield)
- Five doubles
- Eight walks
- Five batters hit by pitch
- Three errors
- Five pitchers
George Mason is 11-4.
North Dakota State technically has played the most difficult schedule in the country, according to WarrenNolan.com, but it’s hard to find a coach who has challenged his team more than Xavier’s Billy O’Conner. Check out the Muskeeters’ first four weeks of the season:
- Two games vs. Oregon State and one vs. Indiana and UNLV at the Sanderson Ford College Baseball Classic in Arizona (2-2)
- A midweek game at Louisville (cancelled due to weather)
- A three-game series at Liberty (2-1)
- A midweek game at Indiana (1-0)
- A four-game game series at Stanford (2-2)
- A midweek game at Tennessee (0-1)
- Three games at Vanderbilt (0-3)
Xavier next travels to Louisiana for a midweek game at LSU before a weekend series at Tulane. Then, finally, the Musketeers will return to Cincinnati for their first home game when Ball State comes to Hayden Field for a weekend series.
Big Ten play opened for 14 of the league’s 17 baseball-playing members (let’s go, Wisconsin!), and six of the seven series were won by road teams.
Oregon made the biggest statement, sweeping USC on the road in a battle of former Pac-12 rivals. The Ducks opened the season with 13 home games (winning 11) before hitting the road for the first time.
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Penn State continued its hot start in Year 2 under Mike Gambino, taking two of three from Indiana in State College. The Nittany Lions are 11-2 overall.
Big Ten newcomers UCLA and Washington both won series on the road, winning two of three over Maryland and Nebraska, respectively.
Elsewhere, Purdue took two of three at Minnesota, Michigan won two of three at Illinois and Iowa won two of three at Rutgers.
And finally
• UCF beat Florida 13-3 on Tuesday night at John Euliano Park in Orlando before a crowd of 4,204, the second-biggest in program history. The Knights have won six straight over the Gators, three in Orlando and three in Gainesville.
• Nebraska lost staff ace Mason McConnaughey to a season-ending arm injury. The junior right-hander was a preseason All-American and the first player from Nebraska since 2016 named to the preseason Golden Spikes Award watch list. Last season, McConnaughey went 9-3 with a 3.45 ERA and had 91 strikeouts in 73 innings.
• Charlotte’s Blake Gillespie tossed a no-hitter on Friday night as the 49ers blanked James Madison 5-0. The junior right-hander, who began his career at Georgia, struck out 11 and walked just one en route to the second no-hitter in program history.
• Alabama shortstop Justin Lebron leads the nation with 11 home runs. The sophomore is slashing .394/.506/1.000 for the 16-1 Crimson Tide.
• The schedule has been soft, but Kansas is 14-1 after a four-game sweep of Milwaukee. The Jayhawks head to Minnesota for two midweek games before hosting Baylor to start Big 12 play next weekend.
• West Virginia, also 14-1, has already won 11 true road games — the most in the nation.
• Texas Tech dropped to 3-11 after getting swept at Grand Canyon. The Red Raiders open Big 12 play with a trip to Houston this weekend.
• Three Vanderbilt relievers allowed a combined one hit and no runs in 9.2 innings of work in the Commodores’ weekend sweep of Xavier.
(Photo of Brandon Larson courtesy of Stanford Athletics)
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