No. 1 Wake Forest continued to start its season with a showcase of heaping talent at the mound, defeating Illinois 5-2 on Saturday.
The Demon Deacons nearly completed a shutout behind junior starting pitcher Chase Burns’ debut. The recent transfer from Tennessee clocked in some pitches north of 100mph in his first trip to the mound for the Demon Deacons — holding Illinois to six scoreless innings while recording 10 strikeouts.
“Obviously, we were really excited about the way … Burns threw the ball today, but he was electric,” Head Coach Tom Walter said postgame. “I am very pleased with how he has developed during his time here. [Burns] has turned himself into not just a thrower but a pitcher.”
Wake Forest looked poised to complete the shutout led by Burns until the top of the ninth inning. A series of wild pitches from graduate pitcher David Falco Jr. gave Illinois the opportunity to steal some bases — including home. Falco eventually recorded two strikeouts to top the last-minute rally from the Fighting Illini.
On offense, Walter felt that his team underperformed on Saturday afternoon. Both teams went scoreless until the bottom of the fourth inning when sophomore infielder Austin Hawke’s grand slam surged Wake Forest to a 4-0 lead.
“Offensively, we didn’t have a great day, but we did manage to string some at bats together there,” Walter noted. “Then there was the big blow by … Hawke and the insurance run by Nick Kurtz.”
Hawke, another transfer from North Carolina, batted with three other Wake Forest runners that had all been walked to load the bases in the bottom of the fourth and just one out with his own homer. Hawke’s 4 RBI performance came just one day after another home run on Friday against Fordham, when Fordham’s highlight-worthy three errors on a single play let Hawke bat in three runs for Wake Forest.
Later on, star first baseman Nick Kurtz extended the Demon Deacons’ lead with a home run to right-center field.
Despite some unavailability on Wake Forest’s impressive pitching staff at the moment, the Demon Deacons appear sure to return as one of the nation’s best pitching teams. Wake Forest will look to follow up last season’s dominant pitching campaign, in which they led the NCAA with a 2.83 ERA en route to a College World Series.
The Demon Deacons will compete in their first mid-week game of the season at UNC Greensboro. They take on the Spartans at UNCG Baseball Stadium, with the first pitch slated for 4 p.m.
