Published May 4, 2025
Wake Forest baseball weekend recap
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Conor O'Neill  •  DeaconsIllustrated
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There won’t be any style points awarded but there also aren’t any losses assigned to Wake Forest’s baseball team this weekend.

The Deacons beat Gardner-Webb twice, needing to complete a postponed game from Saturday on Sunday afternoon, and then edging out the Runnin’ Bulldogs for a two-game sweep.

“Good team wins at this time of year. We’ll take them anyway we get them,” Wake Forest coach Tom Walter said via news release. “We finish exams on Wednesday, so we should be able to get some rest and get recharged and ready for a big series against Pitt.”

Wake Forest is 6-7 in one-run games this season and each of the Deacons’ last three games has been a one-run win.

Here are quick recaps of each game from this weekend:

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Wake Forest 4, Gardner-Webb 3 (10 innings)

On Saturday and then Sunday, the Deacons coughed up a lead in the late innings before the game was postponed, and then came back with a walk-off winner that didn’t require a hit.

In the bottom of the 10th, Mitchell Salvino was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and he stole second base. Matt Scannell was intentionally walked after the steal, and Austin Hawke sacrifice bunted the runners over. That led to another intentional walk, to Jimmy Keenan, and then Ryan Preisano walked on four pitches to force across the game-winning run.

Wake Forest was in that position because Tanner Thomas hit a solo home run off Josh Gunther in the seventh, and because Garrett Macias hit a two-out single to drive in a run against Griffin Green in the eighth.

Haiden Leffew (3-0) pitched the last two innings for the Deacons, allowing a leadoff double and hitting a batter in the ninth but escaping that jam, and then allowing a two-out single in the 10th and retiring the next batter.

Wake’s runs came on Keenan’s blast of a solo homer in the third inning, and on a two-out RBI single by Jack Winnay later in the inning. Scannell scored a run in the sixth on a throwing error.

Blake Morningstar pitched four innings as Wake’s starter, allowing one run on two hits and two walks. Joe Ariola and Luke Schmolke pitched one scoreless inning apiece.

The game was postponed at the start of the ninth inning on Saturday. After about 30 minutes — during which is poured rain, but at the end of which it was partially sunny again — it was announced that the game would be delayed to Sunday afternoon, and a second game would be played afterward.

Wake Forest 9, Gardner-Webb 8

On Sunday, Matt Conte hit a tie-breaking solo homer in the bottom of the eighth and Duncan Marsten finished off his three-inning stint on the mound to earn the win.

Conte was 2-for-4 and scored on the hit that tied the game, which was Hawke’s two-run homer in the sixth. That was Hawke’s second homer of the game, having hit a three-run shot in the fourth.

Hawke was 2-for-2 with five RBI; he scored three times, having walked twice. Scannell and Conte both had two-hit games.

Of the five pitchers Wake Forest sent to the mound, only two of them allowed runs. Logan Lunceford allowed four and only recorded five outs as the starter. Matt Bedford settled things down with a scoreless 1 1/3 innings.

Chris Levonas gave up four runs in his 1 1/3 innings. Both of the hits he allowed were homers.

Rhys Bowie pitched 1 2/3 scoreless, allowing one hit and striking out three. And then Marsten finished things off, entering in a tied game and allowing two baserunners. He hit the first batter he faced and induced a double play with the next batter; Marsten worked around a two-out single in the eighth