Wake Forest University
8-7, 0-1
Notre Dame
5-7, 1-0
Irish Rally Past Deacs in Opener, 7-4
3/9/2019 3:18:00 PM | Baseball
Shane Muntz hit a pair of home runs to lead the Demon Deacon offense.
Due to rain on Saturday evening, the Demon Deacons (8-7, 0-1 ACC) and Fighting Irish (5-7, 1-0 ACC) will now play a doubleheader Sunday beginning at 1 p.m.
Despite sub-40 degree temperatures, the back-and-forth game featured five total home runs including two from Muntz and another from Chris Lanzilli. But the one which turned the tide was a three-run shot from Niko Kavadas in the top of the eighth which turned a 4-3 deficit into a 6-4 lead for Notre Dame.
Colin Peluse was solid on the mound for Wake Forest, allowing two runs (one earned) on five hits and no walks over 6.0 innings with four strikeouts.
The Deacs were able to get to Notre Dame starter Tommy Sheehan for four runs, but the Irish bullpen kept the Deacs off the board the final 3.1 innings.
Daniel Jung started the scoring for the Irish with a solo homer in the top of the fourth. Wake Forest answered back with a two-run homer from Muntz in the bottom of the fourth and a Lanzilli solo shot in the fifth to take a 3-1 lead.
Spencer Myers reached on a bunt single in the sixth and an overthrow allowed Ethan Copeland to score from second to cut the margin to 3-2. Myers later reached third base with one out and tried to tag up on a deep fly to left, but Lanzilli threw a dart to home for the third out of the inning.
Muntz led off the bottom of the sixth with a 436-foot blast over the left-field wall to give the Deacs an insurance run and make the score 4-2.
The Irish once again answered back quickly, with Eric Gilgenbach leading off the seventh with a double and scoring on back-to-back sacrifice bunts, cutting the deficit to 4-3.
In the eighth, Jung and Carter Putz started the Irish inning with back-to-back seeing-eye singles, followed by Kavadas' three-run homer to right. Myers added an RBI double in the ninth to score the final run of the game.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Shane Combs (1-0)
L: Menendez, Antonio (1-1)
S: Cole Kmet (2)
Batting:
2B: Spencer Myers 1 ; Eric Gilgenbach 1 ; Jared Miller 1
HR: Daniel Jung 1 ; Niko Kavadas 1
RBI: Spencer Myers 1 ; Daniel Jung 1 ; Niko Kavadas 3 ; Jared Miller 1
SH: Ryan Cole 1 ; Jared Miller 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Daniel Jung 2 ; Carter Putz 1 ; Niko Kavadas 1 ; Eric Gilgenbach 1 ; Jared Miller 1 ; Ethan Copeland 1
SB: David LaManna 1
Batting:
2B: Lanzilli, Chris 1
HR: Lanzilli, Chris 1 ; Muntz, Shane 2
RBI: Lanzilli, Chris 1 ; Muntz, Shane 3
Base Running:
RUNS: Lanzilli, Chris 1 ; Seymour, Bobby 1 ; Muntz, Shane 2
