WINSTON-SALEM – Which of the following sounds like the worst part of a baseball game?

- Giving up seven runs on three hits.

- Issuing 10 walks and tacking on two hit-by-pitches, two wild pitches and two balks.

- Surrendering a bizarre catcher’s balk, in which a runner stealing home was safe and the batter was awarded first base.

- Having one hit, a single, in a span of 21 batters.

A dealer’s choice, if you will, of how to lose a baseball game — as Wake Forest did, 7-2, against Boston College on Friday night at David F. Couch Ballpark.

“I’m still trying to figure out how you give up seven runs on three hits,” coach Tom Walter said, launching into the start of a revealing press conference. “In the inning they scored four, they got one hit. In the inning they scored three, they got one hit.”

Those were the fifth and seventh innings, respectively. The Deacons (26-14, 10-10 ACC) made things easy for the Eagles — in turn, hard on themselves — in dropping the middle game of a three-game series.

“It’s a disappointing day and I’ve got to do more to help this team. We just don’t play from behind very well,” Walter said. “We haven’t done that all year and that’s on me. I’ve got to prepare these guys better and we’ve got to get tougher and be able to play from behind.

“I feel like that’s the difference between us being really good and us fighting for our life.”

Wake Forest was still leading when the play that swung the game occurred.

With two outs and the bases loaded in the top of the fifth, BC (18-20, 8-12) had already scored one unearned run because of a two-out error.

Josiah Ragsdale took off from third base against left-handed reliever Joe Ariola, and catcher Jimmy Keenan stood quickly and moved toward the plate to apply a tag.

Here was the play in question:

And here was Walter’s explanation of what he was told by umpire Jon Merry:

“He called a catcher’s balk, said he left the catcher’s box early,” Walter said.

The result was a game-tying run and the batter (Kyle Wolff) going to first base. Ariola walked the next two batters to give BC a two-run lead.

“That whole play happened at home plate and Joe was rattled after that,” Walter said. “There were some close pitches that we’ll see when we look at the TrackMan, but Joe got rattled and just didn’t throw strikes.”

Wake Forest had two chances in its next two turns at the plate when the deficit was two runs. The Deacons put the leadoff hitter aboard both times — a double play groundout in the fifth and Austin Hawke being picked off in the sixth took the wind out of the their comeback attempt.

Plus, as Walter noted, a season-long inability to battle back from behind.

“I’ve got to find the right combination of guys to get in there where we have a team that can play from behind,” he said. “We have not done that all year and it’s … something we need to figure out.

“If we’re going to make the NCAA tournament, we need to figure out how to do that.”

Wake Forest had five hits but that was a bit of a hollow number — two of them were one-out singles in the ninth. That was the first time Wake Forest moved a runner past first base since the third inning.

Which brings us to one of the bullet points missing from the top of this story.

A leadoff double and walk to start the third, in the middle of Wake’s lineup, had the Deacons positioned to pad their lead.

But Jack Winnay — who had laced a double on the first pitch he saw in the second inning — bunted to the right side of the infield and was retired, moving the runners up to second and third.

It wasn’t a call from Wake’s dugout.

“He was bunting for a hit there. It surprised everybody,” Walter said. “Jack’s a junior, we certainly trust him. He had doubled in his first at-bat, that guy’s a really good matchup for Jack.

“So, I didn’t necessarily agree with the ball. But I certainly trust Jack Winnay to make that decision.”

Matters were made worse when the next two batters struck out and flew out, stranding two runners and ending what turned out to be Wake’s best scoring chance of the last seven innings.

Here is a quick summary of Thursday night’s victory against BC:

Kade Lewis hit a tiebreaking home run in the bottom of the eighth inning, which paired nicely with reliever Haiden Leffew retiring all seven batters he faced.

Lewis’ homer led off the inning and was his 11th of the season. It capped a 2-for-4 night for him, which amounted to one-third of the Deacons’ total hits.

Wake’s other scoring all came in the second inning. Keenan had a sacrifice fly and Luke Costello scored on a wild pitch, and then Cameron Nelson hit a two-run triple.

BC narrowed the gap in the third with a two-run homer by Jack Toomey, and then tied the game in the seventh with Adam Magpoc’s RBI single. The Eagles’ first three runs — they opened the scoring with a run in the second — came against freshman Chris Levonas, and Luke Schmolke gave up the game-tying run (it was unearned).

Schmolke gave way to Leffew (2-0), who recorded a strikeout to strand two runners and end the seventh. The left-handed Leffew struck out two batters in each the eighth and ninth, with a couple of flyouts representing his other outs.

Costello also had two hits for the Deacons. Hawke accounted for two of the Deacons’ three walks at the plate.