Wake Forest baseball weekend recap

Wake Forest won four games by a combined score of 57-4 this weekend and that was the obvious positive in a bittersweet weekend.

The Deacons have likely lost reliever Crawford Wade for the season, coach Tom Walter said after Sunday’s weekend-closing bashing of Mount St. Mary’s. Wade is a third-year lefty who made 26 appearances last year and had a 3.13 ERA. He suffered an arm injury during Friday night’s game against Binghamton.

“He’s kind of considering his options right now,” Walter said of Wade. “But it looks like we’ve lost Crawford for the season, so certainly a bittersweet day.”

Wake Forest is also awaiting news on weekend starter Teddy McGraw, a projected first-round pick who hasn’t pitched this season. The junior righty is getting a second opinion after experiencing tightness and fatigue in the days leading up to the opening weekend.

Things look bleak. McGraw’s appointment for the second opinion is scheduled for March 7 in Texas with Dr. Keith Meister.

“Still a ways out before we’ll know for sure,” Walter said. “If we’ll have him back this year, which is looking less and less likely, it won’t be for a while.”

Wake Forest also was without Nick Kurtz (wrist) and Jake Reinisch (knee) this weekend, two middle-of-the-order bats who have minor injuries. Walter said they could play Tuesday against UNC Wilmington, and that if they don’t return for that game, they’ll return to the Deacons’ lineup for next weekend’s three-game series (against IPFW, Ball State and Cornell).

There’s a silver lining in there, further layering the bittersweet nature of this weekend.

“Chris Katz and Kyle Joye and some of those guys had to step up and they did a good job with that,” Walter said.

Katz was 6-for-14 with seven RBI, four walks and three doubles this weekend; Joye was 4-for-11 with two RBI and four runs.

It all spells out Wake’s second straight 9-0 start to a season; the Deacons reached 11-0 last year before their first loss, and that was the best start to a season since 1961.

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Here is a quick recap of each game this weekend:

On Friday, reigning ACC pitcher of the week Sean Sullivan pitched six hitless innings, facing one batter more than the minimum, and Wake Forest scored in each of the first five innings to jump start the weekend.

Sullivan, making his first start after pitching four innings of relief last weekend, retired the first 16 batters he faced before hitting a batter. He finished with 11 strikeouts, giving him 21 in his first 10 innings as a Deacon (he transferred from Northwestern).

Brock Wilken’s two-run home run started the Deacons’ scoring, and Justin Johnson followed suit with a two-run homer later in the inning.

That was part of Johnson’s 3-for-5, four runs and four RBI performance in this game; behind him in the lineup was Danny Corona, starting at first base for Kurtz, going 2-for-6 with five RBI. Corona had homers in the 5th and 7th innings.

Later Friday, Rhett Lowder one-upped Sullivan in innings, pitching seven and allowing one hit and one walk, while striking out eight.

Lowder recorded an immaculate inning — nine pitches, three strikeouts — in the 5th, which came in a stretch of him retiring 16 straight batters.

Wilken and Johnson were again responsible for Wake Forest jumping out to an early lead, with Wilken hitting a two-run homer in the 1st and Johnson driving in Adam Cecere later in the inning with a single (after Cecere doubled).

That was the outburst in an otherwise subpar offensive showing, with the Deacons only getting six hits and stranding 11 runners in the next seven at-bats. Cecere had a two-run double in the fourth and Joye had a two-out RBI single in the 6th.

On Saturday, for the third straight game, Wilken and Johnson drove in first-inning runs — Wilken with a double, Johnson with a groundout — to get the Deacons started early.

Wake Forest scored in each of the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th innings. Katz had four RBI in a 3-for-5 day, Cecere was 3-for-5 with two RBI and scored four times, and Tommy Hawke went 5-for-7 in the leadoff spot.

Seth Keener kept things rolling on the mound for the Deacons, pitching six innings and allowing one run on five hits. He had seven strikeouts and didn’t walk a batter.

Michael Massey pitched two innings and closer Camden Minacci finished the game, striking out five and three batters, respectively.

On Sunday, it was another two-touchdown win and another 1st inning with Wilken supplying early fireworks.

Wilken launched his sixth homer of the season, moving into a tie with Cecere for the team lead, off the scoreboard in right field. That was a two-run homer that represented the only lead change of the weekend, as Mount St. Mary’s scored an early run against Josh Hartle.

The Deacons scored in each of the first five innings, adding an RBI double in the 1st by Corona and getting two-run homers by Pierce Bennett and Bennett Lee in the 2nd and 3rd innings, respectively.

Hawke, Bennett and Wilken, the 1-2-3 batters in the lineup, each scored three runs and had two hits.

After allowing the first-inning run, Hartle settled in with six innings and only needed 69 pitches to do so. He had 11 strikeouts and didn’t issue a walk.

Derek Crum, Joe Ariola and Cole Roland pitched one inning apiece to close out the weekend.