Wake Forest’s Offensive Explosion Signals Season Reset

The Wake Forest Demon Deacons showed just what they're capable of in their dominant series win over the NC State Wolfpack.

Luke Costello celebrates as he crosses home plate in Wake Forest's win over Coastal Carolina on April 14. | Wake Forest Athletics

Describing the baseball season as a never-ending roller coaster probably wouldn’t be doing it justice. Some weeks, a team can feel like it’s on top of the world, while others are capable of sending an entire squad spiraling into the abyss like the Balrog in The Lord of the Rings. In other words, the whole thing is chaos wrapped up into nine innings of glorious baseball.

For the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, the 2026 campaign needed a reset. After beginning the year 15-1, the Deacs had consistently found themselves on the losing end of games. As a result, it appeared that the team’s hopes of competing for a national title were dead and gone. But then came last week. It was one of those weeks of baseball that was so good that even the most pessimistic fans had to acknowledge that it was amazing.

What in the world could have possibly occurred that would have sent this much of a spark through the Wake Forest baseball program? Three wins — one of which was against No. 7 Coastal Carolina and the other two in dominant fashion over in-state rival NC State — did the trick.

An Exceptional Weekend at the Couch

Wake Forest second baseman Blake Schaaf (7) flips the ball to Demon Deacon shortstop JD Stein (3) to try and turn a double play. | Courtesy of Wake Forest Athletics

There’s no better place to start than Wake Forest’s series victory over NC State. Despite losing 6-5 in the finale on Sunday, the Demon Deacons left the weekend on top of the world.

Wake Forest won 22-1 on Friday and 18-7 on Saturday, two mercy-rule wins that completely altered some people’s perceptions of what this team’s offense can look like on a game-to-game basis. Sure, the Deacs had hit the ball well in the past, but nothing like this. The team collected 16 hits on both Friday and Saturday, with Blake Schaaf and Luke Costello emerging as the heavy hitters (pun absolutely intended). It was an offensive performance that was much needed, especially after the lackluster efforts the Demon Deacons had put out over the course of the last couple of ACC series.

In total, Wake Forest outscored NC State 45-14 throughout the weekend. There’s no certainty that this will translate into success over the course of the rest of the regular season, but it sure must have felt nice for the lineup to produce at such a high level during a series that many — including the editorial staff at Wake Forest On SI — dubbed a “must-win.”

What Lies Ahead for Wake Forest?

Now that Wake Forest has successfully won the “must-win” series, what are the next steps? Well, a crucial four-game stretch is now on the horizon, with a midweek game versus UNC Greensboro kicking it off on Tuesday. Then comes perhaps the most challenging three-game set of the entire season, when the Demon Deacons travel to Atlanta to face No. 2 Georgia Tech. On paper, the Yellow Jackets are going to run through Wake Forest like a knife through hot butter. But after this past weekend, how certain is that exactly? If the offense can score runs in bunches like it did against NC State, then maybe — just maybe — Wake Forest will have a shot against Georgia Tech.

But it’s not exactly the outcome of the Georgia Tech series that this past weekend helps illuminate — it’s the rest of the season as a whole. There are a ton of games left on the schedule that the Demon Deacons could, and possibly will, win if they produce runs at the level they did against the Wolfpack. Even if Georgia Tech handles business, there’s still no telling what sort of momentum the beatdown Wake Forest put on NC State in Winston-Salem will carry into the rest of the year. That might be projecting a bit too much, but it feels like enough of a possibility.

In short, Wake Forest’s performance didn’t just win a series — it cracked something back open. The offense looked alive again. The confidence looked real again. And with that, the rest of the season suddenly feels a whole lot less predictable. Now it’s just a matter of whether the Demon Deacons build on it or let it slip away.