Starting the NCAA tournament in an eight-run hole is about as bad as it gets.

Wake Forest’s baseball team fell behind by that much and lost 11-6 to Cincinnati in the first game of the Knoxville regional on Friday at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

The Deacons (36-21) are one loss away from their season ending. They’ll play the loser of tonight’s Miami (Ohio)-Tennessee game at noon Saturday.

And they’ll hope for a better beginning to the game.

Blake Morningstar’s first start in two weeks began with a three-pitch strikeout and a groundout. But he walked the next three batters of the first inning, and a 0-2 pitch to Derrick Pitts was bounced through the left side of the infield for a two-run single.

That paled in comparison to the damage that came in the second.

After two singles, a balk and a walk, Cincinnati scored another couple of runs on sacrifice flies to make it a four-run lead. That doubled because of two-run homers by Quinton Coats, and then Pitts. Six of Cincinnati’s first eight runs were scored with two outs.

Morningstar (6-2) settled in with scoreless third and fourth innings. Wake Forest got leadoff homers by Dalton Wentz in both the second and third, and the Deacons scored two more in the second. After Wentz’s second homer, the Deacons’ deficit was 8-4.

But the Bearcats pushed the lead back out with a rocket of a two-run homer hit by Donovan Ford in the fifth. Morningstar gave up a bunt single to the next batter and that ended the 6-4, 225-pounder’s day on the mound.

The final tally against Morningstar was 10 runs on nine hits and six walks. He struck out seven and threw a season-high 111 pitches.

Morningstar’s previous season-high for runs allowed was five, and that came in a win at Stanford. The number of hits, homers and walks were also season-highs against him.

Wake Forest actually out-homered Cincinnati, 4-3. But all four by the Deacons — those two leadoff homers by Wentz, plus shots by Jack Winnay and Marek Houston in the fifth and seventh, respectively — were all solo homers. Each of the Bearcats’ homers was a two-run homer with two outs.

After Cincinnati’s two-run first, Wake’s first two batters in the bottom of the inning reached. That threat ended with Winnay grounding into a double play.

In the second, after the Deacons scored three runs, Kade Lewis walked to load the bases but Winnay struck out to end the inning. Wake’s other chance to apply some game pressure was in the eighth, when Matt Conte and Matt Scannell reached with two outs. Houston popped up to end that inning.

The only run the Deacons allowed after Morningstar’s exit was an unearned run charged to Luke Schmolke. It was an inherited runner who scored when left-handed reliever Rhys Bowie threw an errant pickoff to first base, and then second baseman Austin Hawke threw the ball over Houston’s head at second base, allowing Charlie Niehaus to score from first.

EXTRA BASES: That run against Bowie was the 53rd unearned run Wake Forest has allowed this season, in 57 games. … Wentz was 3-for-5. Houston was 2-for-4, the only other multi-hit game for the Deacons. … Cincinnati got six innings out of Nathan Taylor (7-2) on the mound. The Bearcats only used two other pitchers, Michael Conte (34 pitches) and Adam Buczkowski (12 pitches).