June 3, 2005 WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Wake Forest baseball will send many of its players to summer baseball leagues all across the country in the next week. The Demon Deacons, who went 17-33 overall and 4-20 in the ACC last year, finished this past season with a 28-30 overall record and 12-18 in the league. As the eight seed in the 2005 ACC Tournament, Wake Forest eliminated Duke, Maryland and North Carolina. The Deacs were the last remaining team from the state of North Carolina in the tournament. Sophomore third baseman Matt Antonelli will open his second season with the Falmouth Commodores in the Cape Cod League. Sophomore Josh Ellis and freshman Andy Goff will join Antonelli on the Cape this summer. Ellis will play with the Brewster Whitecaps, while Goff will join the Bourne Braves. Casey Sterk recently participated in a Cape try-out and was offered a contract by the Orleans Cardinals. During the last three summers, no school in America has placed more players in the prestigious Cape Cod League than Wake Forest. Since 2000, 24 Demon Deacons have played on the Cape and they have been quite successful. The Deacons have garnered eight All-Star appearances -- two by Adam Bourassa, two by Dave Bush, one by Adam Hanson, one by Kyle Sleeth and one by Justin Keadle and Antonelli. Nearly one-third of all current major leaguers that played college baseball performed on the Cape. In fact, 197 former players from the Cape are currently on MLB rosters, including such stars as Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Darin Erstad, Nomar Garciaparra, Jeff Kent, Tino Martinez, Todd Helton, Javy Lopez, Mike Lowell, Matt Morris, Ben Sheets and Mark Teixeira. The freshman trio of Matt Hammond, Brett Linnenkohl and Eric Niesen will all play for the Anchorage Bucs of the Alaska Baseball League. Current MLB players to suit up with Anchorage include Keith Foulke, Jeff Francis, Matt Ginter, Geoff Jenkins, Jeff Kent and Mark Redman. The following is a complete listing of the Demon Deacon players that will be participating in summer baseball leagues and the web sites to track their progress throughout the summer:
Matt Antonelli, So., 3B Josh Ellis, So., RHP Nathan Frazier, Fr., INF Andy Goff, Fr., INF Matt Hammond, Fr., RHP Brett Linnenkohl, Fr., OF Kyle Young, Jr., RHP Charlie Mellies, So., RHP Eric Niesen, Fr., LHP Brian Shust, So., OF Sean Souders, So., LHP
Casey Sterk, Jr., OF -- WakeForestSports.com --
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