Wake Forest Athletics
Wake Forest University
USC
Deacs Rally to Beat No. 21 USC in Ninth
2/27/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
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Wake Forest Athletic Communications (@WakeBaseball)
LOS ANGELES -- Wake Forest capitalized on mistakes, pulling ahead in the ninth to knock off No. 21 USC, 5-4, at Dedeaux Field on Saturday afternoon.
Donnie Sellers (1-0) and Will Craig tossed 2.0 scoreless innings of relief apiece, slowing down the Trojans' (3-3) offense in the final innings.
In the top of the ninth, Jonathan Pryor started the inning for Wake Forest (5-1) with a bunt single in his first at bat of the day, and advanced to second as the toss to first was overthrown.
Johnny Aiello dropped down a sacrifice bunt, reaching first when the first baseman couldn't hang onto the throw.
As Drew Freedman pulled back a bunt on a safety squeeze, the catcher tried to pick Pryor off third, but the throw got away and Pryor scampered home for what proved to be the winning run.
The Deacs had a chance to score a sixth run, as Sellers singled to right in his first-career at bat, but Aiello was thrown out at home.
"It's a huge win. You've got to go on the road and find a way to win a tight ballgame, and that's what we did," head coach Tom Walter said. "When you play on the road you're going to deal with adversity, and USC is obviously a really good team and they kept coming at us and we kept fending them off and found a way to win."
Craig and Nate Mondou had two hits apiece, while Kevin Conway added a two-run double to lead the offense.
That double came in the third inning after singles from Joey Rodriguez and Drew Freedman, bringing them both home. Then, Mondou singled and Craig drilled an RBI single, with Stuart Fairchild hitting a sac fly as the Deacs took a 4-0 lead.
The Trojans chipped away, scoring two in the third, one in the fifth and another in the sixth to even the score at 4-4, where it stayed until the Deacs pulled ahead for good in the ninth.
"We like where the team is at. The good news is, we're still not playing well yet. We're not swinging the bats as well as we're going to," Walter added. "We know the bats are going to come, and we're going to start to heat up here soon."
Wake Forest and USC will play the rubber game of the series on Sunday at 1 p.m. PT.
