WASHINGTON – The Georgetown University baseball team travels to Winston-Salem, North Carolina this weekend to open the 2019 season at the Wake Forest Invitational. The Hoyas will begin the weekend on Friday afternoon against Illinois with first pitch scheduled for noon. Saturday will see the Blue & Gray play Sacred Heart at noon before closing the weekend against the host Demon Deacons on Sunday at 2 p.m. Live stats for all three games will be available at GUHoyas.com.
 
Georgetown is coming off a 2018 season that saw it finish with an overall record of 25-30, going 25-20 after dropping the first 10 games of the year to earn the program's fourth-consecutive 25-win season and the fifth in the past six years. The Hoyas went 8-9 in BIG EAST play, qualifying for their first conference tournament since 2015 and just the second since 1986.
 
The Hoyas return 19 letterwinners from a year ago, including four starting position players and all three weekend starters, and also bring in 13 newcomers with 12 freshmen and one graduate transfer.
 
A pair of Hoyas – junior left-handed pitcher Brent Killam (Nokomis, Fla. / Venice) and junior righty Nick Morreale (Lake Elmo, Minn. / St. Thomas Academy / IMG Academy) were both named to D1Baseball.com's Top 350 College Prospects list. Morreale was ranked as the 108th prospect, while Killam made the list at 297.
 
Illinois went 33-20 last season and brings back most of its production both offensively and on the mound. The Illini open the season ranked No. 29 in the nation by Perfect Game, No. 34 by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and were picked to finish third in the Big Ten. The team is led by preseason All-American Michael Massey, last year's ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove winner as the best defensive second baseman in the nation.
 
Sacred Heart finished the 2018 season with a 17-35 overall record and went 12-16 in Northeast Conference (NEC) play, failing to reach the postseason for the first time in 10 years. The Pioneers were selected to finish fifth in the NEC in 2018 and will look to be led by Jake Frasca, who was second on the team with 55 hits and a .307 batting average last season.
 
Wake Forest went 25-32 last year, but is ranked No. 20 in the preseason D1Baseball.com poll. The Demon Deacons return eight of their nine starters on offense, including five who were true freshmen last year. Wake Forest also returns two-thirds of its weekend rotation in Colin Peluse and Morgan McSweeney.
 
Probably Pitching Matchups
Friday (noon)
Georgetown - RHP Jeremiah Burke (2018: 3-2, 3.89 ERA, 39.1 IP, 23 K)
Illinois - RHP Quinn Snarskis (2018: 6-1, 2.84 ERA, 73.0 IP, 34 K)
 
Saturday (noon)
Georgetown - RHP Nick Morreale (2018: 2-5, 4.69 ERA, 48.0 IP, 59 K)
Sacred Heart - RHP Cooper Thompson (2018: 4-5, 4.66 ERA, 46.1 IP, 40 K)
 
Sunday (2 p.m.)
Georgetown - LHP Brent Killam (2018: 6-4, 3.06 ERA, 82.1 IP, 97 K)
Wake Forest – LHP Jared Schuster (2018: 0-3, 7.41 ERA, 34.0 IP, 32 K)
 
Following this weekend's games, the Hoyas will return to North Carolina for a three-game series at Campbell University, Feb. 22-24. First pitch in Friday's series opener is scheduled for 5 p.m., while Saturday and Sunday's contests are slated to begin at 3 p.m. and 1 p.m., respectively.