Wake Forest falls flat at Elon

ELON – If you were looking for one way to encapsulate how Wake Forest’s baseball team looked Tuesday night at Elon, the final pitch plays the part.

With the bases loaded, a rowdy crowd on edge, Wake’s Javar Williams tried to check his swing on a low 1-2 pitch.

He failed, his offer of a swing doing just enough to register the appearance of a swing without actually looking like one. That was the end of Wake Forest’s 3-0 loss to the Phoenix at Latham Park.

If that visual doesn’t encapsulate enough, you could just take coach Tom Walter’s post-game comments as the descriptor:

“As disappointing a loss as I’ve had in my time here and I’m embarrassed for our program right now,” he told Deacons Illustrated.

Wake Forest (26-14) had nine hits and stranded 10 runners. The Deacons sent only three batters to the plate in four of the first five innings, didn’t have an extra-base hit, only took two walks and — to paraphrase their coach — seemed genuinely disinterested in this one.

“It’s unacceptable,” Walter said. “This team has post-season aspirations and if you’re going to have post-season aspirations, you can’t come out here and lay an egg. That’s what we did.”

It’s the second straight Tuesday loss for Wake Forest, having lost 8-5 to UNC Wilmington in Durham last week. The Deacons are 6-4 in mid-week games this season; they were a combined 23-4 in mid-week games for the past two seasons.

Wake Forest beat Elon 9-0 in its final non-conference weekend of the season, back in early March.

The Phoenix returning the favor of a shutout meant it was the Deacons’ first time going scoreless this season; in other words, it was the first time they didn’t score in a game since Paul Skenes was on the mound.

“Just didn’t compete. For the second straight Tuesday, we didn’t even show up. I don’t know how you get shut out on a Tuesday in this ballpark,” Walter said. “… Not willing to walk, not willing to stay low, not willing to get on the backside, not willing to grind at-bats, not willing to compete.”

Pitching and defense weren’t really the issue for Wake Forest — though, there were gaffes in those departments; they just didn’t translate to much damage on the scoreboard.

Starter Ben Shenosky pitched into the fourth inning, which was where Elon (17-23) got all of its runs, all charged to the sophomore righty. Catcher Alex Duffey hit a two-run homer, and the Phoenix added a run with two outs on a double by former Deacon James Broderick, who was awarded a second chance when batter’s interference on a stolen base attempt was overturned after the three umpires convened.

“If you told me we were going to give up three runs today, I would’ve said we would’ve found a way to score at least four,” Walter said. “Only had five runners — until the ninth inning, we only had three guys in scoring position.”

Running through those situations:

- Wake Forest had two runners on with two outs in the second, and Tate Ballestero flied out to right field on the second pitch after Elon pulled starter Kolby Pascarelli for freshman pitcher Carson Wehner.

- In the sixth, Adam Tellier singled and Nick Kurtz walked, both with two outs, and Jack Winnay popped out to second base.

- In the seventh, Austin Hawke and Antonio Morales had two-out singles to put runners on the corners, and then Cam Nelson grounded out to the pitcher on the first pitch.

“Our at-bats were the difference in the game,” Walter said. “Obviously always give credit to the other team and they played a good, clean ballgame, give credit to them.

“But we didn’t force them to make any plays, we didn’t force them to make big pitches. We didn’t force them to do anything, we just kind of rolled the bats and balls out there and rolled over.”

The Deacons’ hope now shifts into this not rolling over into the weekend. They rebounded nicely from last week’s mid-week blunder to win two of three against Florida State; they’re on the road this weekend against a Notre Dame team that has the worst league record in the ACC’s Atlantic Division (5-16), but is coming off a sweep of Boston College and has lost five one-run games in ACC play.

“We need a good start out of Chase Burns” on Friday, Walter said. “Notre Dame swept Boston College and Notre Dame has played a ton of one-run games in the league, they’re an RPI in the top 40.

“If we had played Notre Dame today, we’d have gotten beat by 20.”

Extra bases: Kurtz landed awkwardly while warming up in the field before the bottom of the seventh and was examined by medical personnel on the field. He remained in the game. … Hawke was 3-for-4 and started at second base, part of the infield shifting that occurred with Marek Houston only available as a pinch-hitter in the ninth. Hawke had been 3-for-26 across the last five weeks. … The middle of Wake’s lineup, Kurtz, Winnay and Jake Reinisch in the 3-4-5 spots, respectively, was a combined 0-for-11.