Wake Forest Athletics
Wake Forest University
Winthrop
Wake Forest Baseball Rallies Past Winthrop, 7-6
4/19/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 19, 2005
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Wake Forest redshirt sophomore Brendan Enick's RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning gave the Demon Deacons a 7-6 victory over Winthrop in college baseball action from Hooks Stadium Tuesday afternoon. With the victory, Wake Forest improves to 17-21 overall, while the Eagles drop to 25-13.
While Enick gets credit for the gamewinning hit, redshirt junior Grant Achilles stole the show with his game-tying solo home run. With the Deacs trailing 6-5 in the bottom of the eighth inning and one out, Achilles smacked a 2-1 offering from Winthrop's Ray Stencel over the 375-foot sign in left field for not only his first career home run, but also first career hit. Achilles was hitless in 19 previous career at bats for the Deacs.
Winthrop threatened in the top of the ninth inning off Wake Forest freshman reliever Eric Niesen. The southpaw walked Matt Repec to lead off the inning. Alan Robbins followed with a sacrifice bunt that advanced Repec into scoring position. Ben Ehrlich, who blasted a pinch-hit three-run home run earlier in the game, blooped a single into left field, but Repec was held at third base. With runners on the corners and one out, Niesen got Chris Carrara to ground out into a 6-3 double play to end the inning. Senior Ben Ingold, who moved over to shortstop when Achilles replaced freshman Andy Goff, ranged near the second base bag for the ball, stepped on the bag and twirled before throwing a strike to nail Carrara by a step at first base.
With one out in the bottom of the ninth inning, senior J.B. Tucker walked and moved all the way to third base following senior Ryder Mathias' bloop single. With runners on the corners, Enick stepped to the plate and promptly lifted a deep fly ball over the drawn in outfield for the gamewinning single.
Niesen (2-2) picked up the victory for the Deacs. The freshman, who was charged with the loss in Sunday's disheartening 8-7 loss to NC State, tossed 1.0 inning of scoreless relief.
Stencel (0-1) was charged with the loss for Winthrop. The right-handed hurler went 1.1 innings and allowed two-earned runs on a pair of hits.
Mathias awoke from a slump of late with three hits. Hitting just .196 over his previous 15 games, Mathias went 3-for-5 with a run scored. Enick, battling through back spasms all afternoon, went 2-for-4 with two RBI. Freshman Brett Linnenkohl went 1-for-3 with his first career home run -- a two-run blast in the second inning that gave the Deacs a 4-0 lead.
The Eagles cut into the Demon Deacon 4-0 lead with a two-run fourth inning off Wake Forest starter Tim Morley. Morely, who was making his first start since Mar. 18 against Miami, held the Eagles hitless over his first three innings of work. The southpaw ran into a little trouble in the fourth after allowing back-to-back doubles to Heath Rollins and Daniel Carte to open the inning, then Kyle Roberson plated the second run of the inning with a sacrifice fly.
Morely did not allow any more damage the rest of the inning. In all, Morely went 4.0 innings and allowed two earned runs on two hits. He struckout three and walked just one. Sophomore Sean Souders, making his first outing since Davidson on Apr. 6, tossed 2.0 hitless innings of relief.
The Eagles did grab a 5-4 lead in the top of the seventh inning on Ehrlich's three-run blast off Matt Hammond, but the lead did not last long as Enick doubled in Mathias in the bottom of the seventh inning to tie the game at 5-5.
The Eagles regained the lead, 6-5, in the top of the eighth inning on Roberson's RBI single.
Wake Forest returns to action Wednesday evening at Charlotte. First-pitch at Tom & Lib Phillips Field is scheduled for 6 p.m.
-- WakeForestSports.com --
