The Wake Forest baseball team took down the Siena Saints in another successful weekend slate. With encouraging pitching performances and offensive outbursts, it seems this Demon Deacon ballclub is starting to put everything together.
The Friday night showdown at David F. Couch Ballpark featured a packed house, warm weather and strong winds reaching up to 15 mph blowing toward the right field wall. These conditions proved helpful early on as sophomores Dalton Wentz and Luke Costello each hit home runs in the bottom of the first.
Wentz’s shot looked to be a routine flyball but continued to carry until it left the yard. Costello took his first pitch of the year and smacked a low line drive over the right field fence, giving the Demon Deacons an early 2-0 lead. For both sides, however, that was just the start of a slugfest.
After struggling last week in Puerto Rico, right-handed starter Blake Morningstar continued to falter on Friday. Despite smoothly handling his first two frames, the junior fireballer ran into a heap of trouble in the third.
Following 3 straight walks to open the inning, Morningstar allowed a grand slam to Siena third baseman Jake Sparks as well as a solo shot to designated hitter Scott Lynch. He ended his day with a total of 6 earned runs in his 4 innings of work.
With the Demons Deacons behind 4 runs heading into the bottom half of the inning, the bats were primed to explode. After the leadoff hitter, Javar Williams, reached with a double, Wentz wasted no time again by launching his second home run of the game, this one also to right field. Soon after, sophomore catcher Matt Conte hit a 2-run home run of his own to tie the game at 6 apiece.
With Morningstar now out of the ballgame, coach Tom Walter called on southpaw Rhys Bowie to keep things close. In just his second outing of the season, Bowie provided 3 innings of 1-run ball with 6 strikeouts to show for it.
“I’m really happy with the way Rhys Bowie threw the ball,” Walter said.“He found a way to get us out of the eighth inning with first and third with nobody out. He also struck out the side in the sixth.”
By the eighth inning, things were still knotted up 7-7 as the Demon Deacons continued to seek a big hit. After struggling to make solid contact all afternoon, first baseman Kade Lewis clutched up with an RBI single that ended up winning the game for Wake Forest. Soon after, sophomore reliever Troy Dressler came on to close things out in the ninth and give the Demon Deacons an 11-7 victory.
The Saturday and Sunday games, while perhaps not as exciting as the first matchup between these two squads, proved telling for the future of this Wake Forest ballclub. Following a dominant outing last Saturday, sophomore Chris Levonas upped his game by going five innings with 10 strikeouts, allowing just a single run against the Saints.
Similar to last Saturday’s game, right-hander Duncan Marsten followed Levonas in what turned out to be yet another masterful outing for the sophomore. Marsten, who is seeking to earn a promotion to the starting rotation, racked up 7 strikeouts in just over 3 innings of work while allowing 1 walk and no runs.
Senior reliever Luke Schmolke, who made his season debut on Saturday, finished things off in the ninth to hand the Deacons their fifth straight victory. While the offense did their job yet again, scoring 8 runs in Game 2, it was the pitching that impressed Coach Walter most.
“Really happy with the way that Chris Levonas and Duncan Marsten threw the ball tonight,” Walter said. “Any time our guys have that type of stuff and are pounding the zone like they did tonight, we’re certainly going to be hard to beat.”
The final game of the series was all Wake Forest. The pitching and offense were explosive. It was the perfect way to cap off a weekend series at home. Along with other impressive showings, junior transfer Jackson Miller had his best game of the year, going 3-4 with 2 runs and helping lead the Demon Deacons to a run-rule 15-1 victory.
It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for Wake Forest, however, as starting pitcher Matthew Dallas was forced to leave the ballgame with an apparent elbow injury in the fourth. According to Walter, Dallas will be evaluated for any serious damage.
Next up for Wake Forest is a mid-week matchup in Greensboro as the Demon Deacons take on the UNC Greensboro Spartans next Tuesday, March 3, at 5:00 p.m. Expect sophomore Cam Bagwell to get the start, along with previously injured players making their way into the lineup.
