Wake Forest University
Duke
Wake Forest Beats Duke Behind Pirro's Gem
5/14/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Final Stats | Final Stats (PDF) 
By Erika Carrubba, Wake Forest Athletic Communications (@WakeBaseball)
DURHAM, N.C. - Wake Forest posted a 3-1 victory in the series opener against Duke on Thursday at Jack Coombs Field.
Wake Forest (27-24, 12-16 ACC) got a gem from senior Matt Pirro on the mound to beat the Blue Devils (29-22, 8-19). Pirro earned his first win since March 27 at Clemson and improved to 7-4 on the season.
The Demon Deacons grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Jonathan Pryor led off the game with a single and came around to score when Joey Rodriguez doubled to the right centerfield gap.
Duke quickly tied the game in the bottom half of the inning. Andy Perez led off with a single, stole two bases and scored on a sacrifice fly.
Both starting pitchers settled in for the next four innings. Wake Forest broke through in the top of the sixth and chased Duke starter Andrew Istler from the game. Nate Mondou led off the inning with a single up the middle, followed by Will Craig's second walk of the game. Ben Breazeale laid down a sacrifice bunt to get both runners in scoring position and Stuart Fairchild singled up the middle to score them both. Fairchild's RBI single signaled the end of Istler's night. Sarkis Ohanian came out of the bullpen and ended the inning without further damage.
In the bottom of the seventh Pirro walked Cris Perez with two outs and the Demon Deacons went to the bullpen. Parker Dunshee entered the game and got the first batter he faced to strike out swinging to end the threat. Pirro allowed one run on four hits in 6-2/3 innings. He posted seven strikeouts and walked seven batters.
Dunshee tossed 2-1/3 scoreless innings of relief to earn his fourth save of the season. He allowed two hits with three strikeouts. He did not walk a batter.
Wake Forest will go for the series win on Friday at 6 p.m. With the top 10 in the standings qualifying for the ACC Baseball Championship, the Demon Deacons are now a half game behind Virginia Tech (12-15) and a full game behind Georgia Tech (13-15) but hold the tie breaker with both teams. After defeating UNC on Thursday, Virginia (13-15) is one game ahead of Wake Forest and has the tie breaker over the Deacs.
