DURHAM – The pitching was more horrendous than the offense could overcome.

Though, the latter wasn’t blameless in Wake Forest’s 14-12 loss to California in the second round of the ACC tournament on Wednesday at Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

“We’ve got to be better than that,” coach Tom Walter said. “We had the right guys on the mound in the right situations. We just couldn’t get shut-down innings.”

The totals on the mound were grotesque. Wake’s eight-man pitching effort combined to allow 12 hits, 10 walks, three hit batters and two wild pitches. Seven of the eight walked at least one batter; the exception was Rhys Bowie, who only faced two batters.

And yet, the Deacons brought the game-winning run to the plate in a ninth-inning rally.

Wake Forest (36-20) scored four runs in the ninth, all of which came after a double play. Javar Williams’ two-run single through first baseman Dominic Smaldino put runners at the corners and brought Matt Scannell to the plate.

Scannell grounded out to second base to end the theatrics — and this slog of a 4-hour, 10-minute game.

“It was a little crazy at the end,” Cal coach Mike Neu said. “I thought our guys did a really good job just continuing to score.”

The 16th-seeded Golden Bears (24-30) — who will face No. 1 seed Georgia Tech on Thursday in a quarterfinal game — didn’t have much of a choice.

Cal’s pitching wasn’t much better than Wake’s. The Golden Bears had six pitchers allow 12 hits, 13 walks and four hit batters.

Helping Cal were the 16 runners stranded by the Deacons — including leaving the bases loaded in the second, third and fifth innings.

“I thought we were a little overly aggressive, especially there in the middle of the game,” Walter said.

Wake Forest started from a six-run hole and never led.

Logan Lunceford (5-5) cruised through a three-up, three-down first inning. He didn’t retire any of the five batters he faced in the second — two singles, a double, a hit batter and a walk — and was pulled for Joe Ariola.

Lunceford gave up two runs before his exit and all three inherited runners scored. Ariola hit a batter and walked one; he looked like he’d get out of the inning with a four-run hole but a cueball into shallow left field scored a couple of runs with two outs.

Walter said starting Lunceford instead of first-team All-ACC pick Blake Morningstar was not something he was second-guessing.

“We came here to win the tournament, we didn’t come here to win one game,” Walter said. “And starting Logan gave us the best chance to win the tournament.”

The Deacons got three runs back in the bottom of the second, on the first of Dalton Wentz’s two home runs and then a two-run single by Marek Houston.

Wake’s bullpen got zeroes on the scoreboard for the next three innings. Ariola got the first two outs of the third, Josh Gunther entered and navigated through trouble in the fourth, and Luke Schmolke came in with a scoreless fifth.

The problem for the Deacons was only scoring one run in those three innings, despite loading the bases twice.

In the third, with one out and after walks sandwiched Austin Hawke’s double, Williams grounded out and Scannell lined out to first base.

In the fifth, with two outs, Scannell singled to load the bases. After a pitching change, Houston walked; Kade Lewis struck out looking, frozen after fouling off a few pitches in two-strike counts.

The sixth inning was a seesaw — Cal scoring three runs in the top half and Wake Forest answering with Wentz’s two-run homer and Jimmy Keenan’s solo shot off the bull sign in left field.

Cal hammering out another four runs in the seventh was when some distance was created. That made it a 13-7 lead; both teams scored one in the eighth.

Schmolke was charged with allowing three runs and Zach Johnston gave up four. Haiden Leffew gave up Cal’s eighth-inning run.

A lack of significant postseason experience is a common thread between most of Wake’s pitchers in this game.

While it doesn’t totally excuse the game, it’s a silver lining that Wake Forest still has an NCAA tournament bid seemingly locked up and those pitchers got tastes of pressure situations in this game.

“When I think of the guys that threw today and who’s thrown in the postseason before, a lot of those guys really haven’t,” Walter said. “Logan hadn’t, Schmolke that’s his first time, Griffin Green, that’s his first time. Maybe it was a little postseason jitters, for sure.”