Wake Forest University
Tennessee Tech
Deacons Blast Tennessee Tech, 18-5, At Baseball Regional
5/26/2001 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 26, 2001
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Wake Forest gained a measure of revenge and earned a spot in the championship round of the NCAA Baseball Regional here Saturday night with a 18-5 victory over Tennessee Tech.
The Deacons were paced by red-hot freshman Jamie D'Antona, who belted three towering home runs to give him a remarkable five homers in three NCAA Tournament games.
Just over 24 hours earlier the Golden Eagles upset the top-seeded Demon Deacons, 9-7, sending the ACC Tournament champions to the loser's bracket. Tonight's victory gives Wake Forest a spot in Sunday's regional finals against host and nationally-ranked Tennessee. If the Deacons win the 1 p.m. game against the Volunteers, a second, winner-take-all game will be played at 7 p.m. The winner of the Knoxville sub-regional advances to next week's super regional against the winner of the Wilson (NC) regional.
The Deacons, 43-17, put up eye-popping numbers tonight in the win over Tech. Wake scored 18 runs, including 11 runs in the first three innings, and the Deacons pounded out 19 base hits.
D'Antona, the ACC Rookie of the Year, highlighted the offensive explosion with a pair of two-run home runs in the first and third innings and a solo shot in the sixth frame. He is the first Deacon to hit three home runs in one game since March 28, 1997 when Josh Itzoe hit three against Clemson. D'Antona is just the fifth player in NCAA Tournament history to hit three or more home runs in a game.
Just as he did earlier in the day in a win over Middle Tennessee, D'Antona got Wake Forest on the board early with a two-run, first-inning home run. D'Antona blasted a Jim Warden fastball over the right-field wall to give the Deacons a 2-0 lead.
Right-hander Kyle Sleeth (10-3) earned the victory after quietly pitching a solid game. He gave up five runs (three earned runs) on 11 hits and struck out nine Tech batters.
The Deacons took a 6-0 lead in the top half of the sixth inning with a four-run, four-hit frame, highlighted by Cory Sullivan's 100th career hit. Sullivan's single scored Jason Aquilante and made Sullivan only the second player in Wake Forest history to have back-to-back 100-hit seasons.
In the third inning, D'Antona erased any hopes of a Tennessee Tech comeback when he ripped his second home run of the day - another two-run blast over the right-field wall to give Wake Forest an 11-0 lead. His sixth-inning home run gave the Deacons a 13-1 advantage.
