Wake Forest University
Louisville
Wake Forest Falls to No. 3 Louisville, 9-5
5/25/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Final Stats | Final Stats (PDF) 
Wake Forest Athletic Communications (@WakeBaseball)
DURHAM, N.C. -- Tenth-seeded Wake Forest jumped out to an early lead, but No. 3-ranked and second-seeded Louisville battled back with four home runs to claim the opening game of pool play in the ACC Tournament at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park on Wednesday night.
For the second straight day, the Demon Deacons (33-24) struck first, scoring a pair of early runs. However, the Cardinals (47-10) scored the game's next eight runs on their way to the victory.
Will Smith hit a pair of homers, Blake Tiberi hit one, and Nick Solak hit another before being robbed of a second on a highlight-reel play from Stuart Fairchild in the eighth.
Joey Rodriguez led the Deacon offense, reaching base three times on two singles and a walk.
Cardinals pitchers combined to strike out 17 Deacons, including 11 by starter Kade McClure (12-0) in 6.0 innings, four from Sam Bordner and two from Zack Burdi.
After Jonathan Pryor led off the game with a single and advanced to second on a wild pitch, he was brought home by Fairchild on an opposite field double to open the scoring. One batter later, Will Craig laced an RBI single to center to score Fairchild and spot the Deacs an early 2-0 advantage.
However, the Cardinals answered in the bottom of the inning thanks to center fielder Corey Ray, who led off the inning with a single, stole second, took third on a groundout, and scored on a sacrifice fly.
Wake Forest starter John McCarren (7-3) held the Louisville offense in check until the fourth, Tiberi hit a two-run home run that just cleared the right field fence and put the Cardinals up 3-2 after four innings.
The Cardinals added four more in the fifth, courtesy of back-to-back home runs from Smith and Solak to give the Deacs a 7-2 deficit after five.
While the Cardinals tacked on another run in the sixth, Wake Forest mounted a rally in the eighth, scoring three runs on a two-run single from Ben Breazeale and RBI knock from Johnny Aiello. Rodriguez stepped to the plate as the tying run and singled to left, but a perfect throw from Ray was enough to nab Breazeale at the plate and end the Demon Deacon rally.
Louisville stretched its lead again in the bottom of the frame, when Smith hit his second homer of the night. Solak nearly made it back-to-back but Fairchild had other ideas, racing to the center field wall and timing his jump perfectly to bring back a sure home run.
After a day off on Thursday, Wake Forest takes on seventh-ranked Virginia on Friday at 3 p.m. and 12th-ranked Clemson on Saturday at 11 a.m.
