1955 Wake Forest baseball team
Deacons are National Champions
6/16/2020 9:00:00 AM | Baseball
This year marks the 65th anniversary of Wake Forest's 1955 College World Series Championship. GoDeacs.com will re-live that journey to the national championship by re-telling the story of each game on the corresponding date. Wake Forest won its first baseball national championship on June 16, 1955.
Wake Forest 7, Western Michigan 6
OMAHA, Neb. – "Wake Forest's Demon Deacons are the National Baseball champions," wrote Mac McDuffie in his lede in the Raleigh News and Observer.
Wake Forest's 7-6 win over Western Michigan on June 16 delivered not only Wake Forest's first team national championship but also the first NCAA title by any member of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The victory also marked the first national championship for a Big Four team.
Head coach Taylor Sanford started Bill Walsh who was staked to an early lead. The Deacons jumped in front 1-0 in the second and increased their lead to 3-0 with a pair of runs in the third.
Walsh ran into trouble in the third inning when Western Michigan tied the game with three runs, using a hit, two errors, two walks and a pair of stolen bases.
Buck Fichter came on in relief and got out of the third inning but in the fourth, he allowed WMU a hit and a pair of walks as the Broncos surged ahead with another run. That's when Sanford brought in righthander Jack McGinley with two outs and the bases loaded and the Deacons trailing 4-3. McGinley had thrown seven innings just two nights earlier in beating the Broncos 10-7. The first batter McGinley faced hit an easy ground ball in the infield but the Deacs failed to come up with it and two more runs scored to extend Western's lead to 6-3. But McGinley shut down the Broncos on three hits the rest of the game while his teammates worked to overcome the deficit.
The Deacons tied the game with a three-run fifth inning. A walk to George Miller followed by consecutive singles by Holt and Frank McRae led to one run. Second baseman Jack Bryant then doubled home Holt and McRae to tie the game 6-6.
McRae had collected just one hit in Omaha through the first five games but went five for five in the championship game with three RBIs.
In the eighth inning, Luther McKeel drew a walk and moved all the way to third base on a pair of passed balls. On a 3-2 pitch, Holt singled over second base to score McKeel and put the Deacons in front for good.
Western Michigan made a final charge in the bottom of the eighth. The Broncos put runners on first and third with two outs before McGinley forced pinch hitter Dick Erickson to pop out to short leftfield.
With two outs in the ninth, Bill Barnes made an outstanding stop on a ground ball in the hole and was able to throw out the runner at first to secure the national title for the Demon Deacons.
When the game ended, the Deacons raced out of the dugout and mobbed McGinley on the mound. They threw their gloves and has in the air and hoisted both McGinley and Sanford on their shoulders and carried them around the field. McGinley had just completed a most improbable run, winning three College World Series games and going 5-0 in NCAA Tournament games.
NOTES
Wake Forest 7, Western Michigan 6
OMAHA, Neb. – "Wake Forest's Demon Deacons are the National Baseball champions," wrote Mac McDuffie in his lede in the Raleigh News and Observer.
Wake Forest's 7-6 win over Western Michigan on June 16 delivered not only Wake Forest's first team national championship but also the first NCAA title by any member of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The victory also marked the first national championship for a Big Four team.
Head coach Taylor Sanford started Bill Walsh who was staked to an early lead. The Deacons jumped in front 1-0 in the second and increased their lead to 3-0 with a pair of runs in the third.
Walsh ran into trouble in the third inning when Western Michigan tied the game with three runs, using a hit, two errors, two walks and a pair of stolen bases.
Buck Fichter came on in relief and got out of the third inning but in the fourth, he allowed WMU a hit and a pair of walks as the Broncos surged ahead with another run. That's when Sanford brought in righthander Jack McGinley with two outs and the bases loaded and the Deacons trailing 4-3. McGinley had thrown seven innings just two nights earlier in beating the Broncos 10-7. The first batter McGinley faced hit an easy ground ball in the infield but the Deacs failed to come up with it and two more runs scored to extend Western's lead to 6-3. But McGinley shut down the Broncos on three hits the rest of the game while his teammates worked to overcome the deficit.
The Deacons tied the game with a three-run fifth inning. A walk to George Miller followed by consecutive singles by Holt and Frank McRae led to one run. Second baseman Jack Bryant then doubled home Holt and McRae to tie the game 6-6.
McRae had collected just one hit in Omaha through the first five games but went five for five in the championship game with three RBIs.
In the eighth inning, Luther McKeel drew a walk and moved all the way to third base on a pair of passed balls. On a 3-2 pitch, Holt singled over second base to score McKeel and put the Deacons in front for good.
Western Michigan made a final charge in the bottom of the eighth. The Broncos put runners on first and third with two outs before McGinley forced pinch hitter Dick Erickson to pop out to short leftfield.
With two outs in the ninth, Bill Barnes made an outstanding stop on a ground ball in the hole and was able to throw out the runner at first to secure the national title for the Demon Deacons.
When the game ended, the Deacons raced out of the dugout and mobbed McGinley on the mound. They threw their gloves and has in the air and hoisted both McGinley and Sanford on their shoulders and carried them around the field. McGinley had just completed a most improbable run, winning three College World Series games and going 5-0 in NCAA Tournament games.
NOTES
- The Demon Deacons received a jubilant welcome home from students and the Wake Forest community when they returned to campus. A crowd of 500, including President Harold Tribble and most of the faculty and students were waiting for the team. A police escort led the motorcade from Raleigh-Durham airport to a Raleigh cafeteria for a celebratory meal.
- Following Wake Forest's College World Series championship, no other ACC team took home the national title until Virginia in 2015.
- Oklahoma A&M's Tom Borland was named the CWS MVP. Borland won two games and earned a save in a third.
- Western Michigan was the only team to score against Wake Forest. The Deacons shutout Colgate, Northern Colorado and Oklahoma State. Western Michigan outscored the Deacons 22-17 over their three meetings.
- Jack McGinley tied the NCAA World Series record with three wins. Jack Bryant's four doubles tied a CWS record and Frank McRae's five hits in the championship game was also a record.
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