Wake Forest went into the ninth inning Friday at Louisville leading by the same score it took into the ninth of Thursday night’s series opener.

The Deacons didn’t need a nine-run ninth to close out the series’ middle game, winning 5-4 to clinch a series win at Patterson Stadium.

Wake Forest (36-18, 16-13 ACC) got another big home run from Matt Scannell in the seventh. He teed off on a three-run homer to make it a 5-3 lead; on Thursday night, his two-run homer in the seventh put the Deacons up one.

Louisville (34-20, 14-15) got one of those runs back in the bottom of the seventh on an RBI groundout, but stranded the game-tying run at third base.

Luke Schmolke, who entered in the seventh, recorded a 1-2-3 eighth inning to preserve Wake’s lead. Haiden Leffew picked up his fourth save of the season by pitching the ninth, navigating around a leadoff double by going flyout-strikeout-groundout, with a two-out intentional walk issued in the heart of Louisville’s lineup.

It’s the first home series Louisville has lost this season. Wake Forest has won six of 10 ACC series this season; if the Deacons win Saturday’s series finale, it’ll be the third sweep of the season — and first since the first two series of the season.

Louisville started the scoring with a sacrifice fly in the first inning. Luke Costello and Austin Hawke hit solo homers in the second. The Cardinals scored a run in each the third and fourth innings to take the one-run lead they had before Scannell’s pivotal blast.

Jimmy Keenan and Javar Williams singled before Scannell’s homer. Marek Houston, Kade Lewis, Williams and Hawke each had two-hit games.

Griffin Green (2-1) picked up the win for pitching 1 1/3 scoreless innings in relief of Matthew Dallas, who went 4 2/3 innings in the start.