ACC Baseball Tournament 2018: Wednesday Scores, Updated Bracket and Schedule

The 2018 ACC baseball tournament continued Wednesday in Durham, North Carolina, with the top two seeds in action. 

The No. 1 North Carolina Tar Heels will meet the No. 12 Pittsburgh Panthers, who defeated the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on Tuesday. The No. 2 Clemson Tigers, meanwhile, face off with the No. 11 Notre Dame Fighting Irish, who are coming off a 6-2 defeat to the Miami Hurricanes.

In Wednesday's opener, the No. 9 Wake Forest Demon Deacons and No. 5 Louisville Cardinals got their tournament underway.

Below is a recap of the day's action as well as the schedule for the remainder of the ACC tournament. An updated bracket is available on the tournament's official website.

2018 ACC Tournament Results

Wednesday, May 23

No. 5 Louisville beats No. 9 Wake Forest, 10-2

No. 2 Clemson beats No. 11 Notre Dame, 21-4

No. 12 Pitt beats No. 1 North Carolina, 5-4

2018 ACC Tournament Schedule

Thursday, May 24

No. 4 Duke vs. No. 9 Wake Forest, 11 a.m. ET

No. 3 NC State vs. No. 10 Virginia, 3 p.m. ET

No. 7 Miami vs. No. 2 Clemson, 7 p.m. ET

Friday, May 25

No. 5 Louisville vs. No. 4 Duke, 11 a.m. ET

No. 8 Georgia Tech vs. No. 1 North Carolina, 3 p.m. ET

No. 6 Florida State vs. No. 3 NC State, 7 p.m. ET

Saturday, May 26

Pool A Winner vs. Pool D Winner, 1 p.m. ET

Pool B Winner vs. Pool C Winner, 5 p.m. ET

Sunday, May 27

ACC Championship Game, 12 p.m. ET

Wednesday Recap

Louisville 10, Wake Forest 2

Louisville put together a complete performance as it soundly defeated Wake Forest, 10-2, to get Wednesday's play underway.

Junior outfielder Josh Stowers had a big game, going 3-for-4 and driving in six runs. His three-run homer in the bottom of the fourth put the Cardinals ahead 3-1, and they didn't look back from there. Stowers was also responsible for the team's final four runs, as he tripled home three in the ninth and scored on a wild pitch one batter later.

Freshman left-hander Reid Detmers also did well on the mound. He allowed one run to come home in the fourth on a double play but otherwise shut the Demon Deacons offense down. Detmers struck out five and allowed four hits over 5.2 innings.

Bryan Hoeing and Michael McAvene combined to finish out the game. Although they allowed four walks over the 3.1 innings, they also struck out six batters and limited Wake Forest to one run, which came on a fielder's choice in the eighth.

Louisville didn't get off to a great start when conference play opened in March, but D1Baseball.com's Aaron Fitt believes the Cardinals are peaking at the right time:

Louisville plays Duke on Friday in a game that could determine the winner of Pool D. The Blue Devils' first game of the tournament will be Thursday against Wake Forest.

Clemson 21, Notre Dame 4

A 17-run fourth inning powered Clemson to a 21-4 win over Notre Dame.

Twenty-five Tigers batters came to the plate in the fourth, and the half-inning lasted nearly an hour on its own:

Fox Sports South shared a replay of the three-run homer by senior first baseman Chris Williams that capped off the offensive explosion:

The Tigers' top four batters (Logan Davidson, Kyle Wilkie, Seth Beer and Williams) all finished with three hits apiece and accounted for 14 of the team's 18 RBI. Davidson had a two-run home run and a grand slam, both of which came in the fourth inning. It was the second time in less than a week the sophomore shortstop went yard from both sides of the plate in the same game. He had a pair of homers in Clemson's 16-6 win over Pittsburgh on May 17.

Given how well Clemson was hitting, Notre Dame didn't need to do anything to help its opponents, but the fact the Tigers recorded their 21 runs on 17 hits illustrated how much the Fighting Irish pitchers struggled with control.

Cameron Brown, Zack Martin, Anthony Holubecki, Brandon Knarr, Cameron Junker, Tommy Vail and Jack Sheehan combined to walk 10 batters. Only Brown and Sheehan pitched more than one-third of an inning.

Wednesday's loss eliminates Notre Dame from semifinal contention, while Clemson will play Miami to determine the winner in Pool B.

Pittsburgh 5, North Carolina 4

The nightcap of Wednesday’s slate featured plenty of drama and a head-turning upset, as the tournament’s top seed was unable to muster a late comeback in a 5-4 loss to the Pittsburgh Panthers.

It appeared as if the North Carolina Tar Heels would cruise with two quick runs in the top of the first and a 3-1 lead in the third, but an RBI double from David Yanni and RBI single from Nick Banman tied the contest for the Panthers before North Carolina pushed another across in the fifth.

That’s when Pittsburgh responded with two runs in the seventh thanks to an RBI double from Chris Cappas and squeeze play from Cole MacLaren. The two runs put the Panthers ahead for good thanks to the true star of the game, Derek West.

West was brilliant out of the bullpen and prevented any type of late North Carolina comeback with a dominant performance. He threw the final five innings and didn’t allow a single run or hit while striking out three.

He flummoxed the Tar Heels’ bats and earned the win in the process.