Deacs' Rallying Falls Short Against Buzzing Yellow Jackets
The Wake Forest Demon Deacons (28-17, 11-13 ACC) went to Atlanta, Georgia, to face off against the No. 3 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (36-7, 19-5 ACC) in a weekend series. Down one in the opening game, the Demon Deacons put a man on in the top of the ninth, but couldn't complete the rally, falling 6–5.
The story for the rest of the weekend was much the same; the Deacs were valiantly close, but left Metro Georgia winless. Here's how the latter two games unfolded...
How it Happened
Game 2: 14–11 Loss
There were a handful of coincidences that spawned from the weekend, and one was Kade Lewis smashing a 3-run home run in back-to-back games (Friday and Saturday) to get the scoring started.
By the end of the first inning, the Deacs held a commanding 6–0 lead: Matt Conte went deep, and Blake Schaaf and Jackson Miller both drove in RBIs. In the second inning, Luke Costello hit a home run, and so did Lewis—his second of the outing. To round out the scoring in the first two frames, JD Stein drove in two runners on a single to right-center field. All told, Wake Forest led Georgia Tech 10–0.
The Yellow Jackets made it 10–3 after the bottom of the second inning, but Dalton Wentz sent one over the fence in the third to make it 11–3. However, the Demon Deacons saw an abrupt ending to their hot start; they were shut out after the third inning. The Deacs were also held to just one hit the remainder of the game.
Yellow Jacket reliever Cooper Underwood got the win after pitching 5.0 scoreless and hitless innings to close the game; he allowed just 2 walks and struck out 7 batters. Offensively, a 4-run sixth inning and a 5-run seventh inning marked Georgia Tech's tremendous comeback.
Game 3: 6–5 Loss
While it wasn't yet another 3-run blast, Kade Lewis did get the Deacs on the board first with an RBI fielder's choice. Georgia Tech reclaimed the lead in the bottom half of the first, but Lewis launched another home run to tie things up. Kade Lewis finished the series going 6-for-13 with 4 home runs, 9 RBIs, and 4 runs.
After the fifth inning, Wake Forest had 5 hits and held a 5–4 edge, thanks to home runs by Boston Torres and Luke Costello, as well as a sacrifice fly RBI by Javar Williams. In the final four innings, the Deacs mustered just two hits and stranded both runners.
As a result, the Yellow Jackets were able to gather the momentum and take down Wake Forest 6–5.
What's Next for Wake Forest Baseball?
On Tuesday, April 28, the Demon Deacons head to Keeter Stadium in Shelby, NC, for a neutral-site battle with the Appalachian State Mountaineers. Previously, Wake Forest defeated Appalachian State 9–8 on March 4. For the weekend, it is back to Winston-Salem, with the Louisville Cardinals coming to the Couch.
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Blake is a Sophomore at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. When not living on campus, he resides in West Virginia, where he was born and raised. He is studying communication and is invested in all things related to sports media. In his Freshman year, he completed an internship with the National Sports Media Association, and also worked as a sports editor at Wake Forest's student-run newspaper, the Old Gold & Black. Currently, Blake does play-by-play broadcasting for Wake Forest Club Ice Hockey and holds a job at Learfield, working as a studio host. In a perfect world, he would spend his free time road tripping and attending concerts all across the United States.
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