Deacons drop first two games this week, but win first ACC series on road
The first two losses of the season for Wake Forest’s baseball team shared a common theme — errors — but the Deacons also picked up a pair of wins this weekend, meaning a series win at Duke.
Wake Forest committed seven errors and allowed seven hits in a 13-11 loss at Coastal Carolina on Tuesday, halting the Deacons’ unbeaten start at 13 games.
In two wins over Duke — Friday night and the second game of a Saturday doubleheader — the Deacons only committed one error. Those were a couple of two-run wins in which things tightened up late, with Wake Forest holding on.
Wake Forest lost the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader in blowout fashion, committing five errors in the process.
It’s the first time since 2018 that Wake Forest (15-2, 2-1 ACC) has won its ACC-opening series.
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Here is a quick recap of each game this weekend:
Wake Forest 8, Duke 6
On Friday, Brock Wilken broke a tie in the seventh inning with a three-run home run to finish off Wake’s comeback from an early 4-0 deficit.
Duke (10-6, 1-2) scored the game’s first four runs, all in the first three innings, against Rhett Lowder.
Adam Cecere cut the early deficit in half with a two-run homer in the fourth. Nick Kurtz and Justin Johnson hit RBI singles in the fifth to tie the game.
Wilken’s blast came after Pierce Bennett led off the inning with a single and Kurtz walked. It was the 12th homer of the season for Wilken, putting him into the national lead after he entered the weekend tied with Florida’s Jac Caglianone.
Bennett Lee added a sac fly in the seventh for an insurance run.
That wound up providing some breathing room for Wake’s bullpen. Lowder made it through five innings, allowing those four early runs and eight hits and two walks.
Michael Massey (2-0) pitched scoreless innings in the sixth and seventh and retired the first two batters of the eighth, but Duke’s Devin Obee hit a two-run homer to narrow the gap. Cole Roland notched the final out of the eighth before giving way to closer Camden Minacci, who picked up his third save with a scoreless ninth.
Duke 8, Wake Forest 1 (Game 1)
In Saturday’s first game, Duke scored four earned runs and four unearned runs and Wake Forest committed five errors.
Compounding the lopsided loss was the Deacons going hitless until the seventh. Wake Forest avoided the shutout with two outs in the ninth, when Wilken singled and Cecere drove him in with a double.
Duke only scored one run in the first four innings, a homer by Andrew Fischer, before taking control with a three-run fifth. Obee scored on a wild pitch, and then on the same play, Alex Mooney scored on a throwing error. Jay Beshears added an RBI double.
The Blue Devils tacked on two more runs in each of the seventh and eighth innings.
Wake Forest 5, Duke 3 (Game 2)
In Saturday’s second game, Wake Forest scored all five of its runs in the first three innings and that proved enough for lefty Josh Hartle.
Wake’s first two runs scored on plays with errors, with Cecere scoring in the second and Tommy Hawke in the third. Also in the third, Cecere doubled in two runs — giving him 26 this season, trailing only Wilken’s 31 for the Deacons — and Johnson doubled in Cecere.
Hartle (4-0) pitched 5 2/3 innings, allowing a two-run homer by Obee in the fifth. The sophomore lefty had nine strikeouts and only allowed three hits and two walks.
William Ray recorded the final out of the sixth, and Roland notched 1-2-3 innings in the seventh and eighth. Minacci picked up his second save, though he allowed three hits and a run on another Obee RBI.
