Wake Forest University
9-0
Mount St. Mary's
5-3
Hartle’s Career Outing Highlights No. 4 Wake Forest’s Second-Straight Weekend Sweep
2/26/2023 6:24:00 PM | Baseball
Wake Forest has outscored their opponents 122-14 to open the new campaign. The Demon Deacons are batting .370 as a team and hold a team ERA of just 1.25 with 126 strikeouts and 20 walks in nine games.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The No. 4 Wake Forest baseball team moved to 9-0 on the new season with a 15-1 win against Mount St. Mary's on Sunday afternoon at David F. Couch Ballpark.
With its fourth victory of the weekend, the Deacs moved to 9-0 for the second-straight season. The 2022 and 2023 Deacs are the only teams since 2000 and just the seventh team in program history to win its first nine games. Additionally, this is the first time in program history that teams have started 9-0 or better in back-to-back seasons.
Additionally, Wake Forest is 34-4 against non-ACC competition over the last two seasons, outscoring opponents 383-129 in those games.
The Deacs continued to use all-around team performances to fuel its perfect start. Coming into the second weekend of the season, the Demon Deacon pitching staff led the ACC and ranked in the top-12 nationally in strikeouts-per-nine innings, strikeout-walk ratio, WHIP, ERA and hits-per-nine innings.
At the plate, Wake Forest was the conference's leader in home runs (second in the nation) and walks (third in the nation), while sitting in second in slugging percentage, hits and on-base percentage.
Wake Forest has outscored their opponents 122-14 to open the new campaign. The Demon Deacons are batting .370 as a team and hold a team ERA of just 1.25 with 126 strikeouts and 20 walks in nine games.
The Deacs continued to dominate on the mound as Josh Hartle earned the second win of his sophomore campaign with a career outing. The King, N.C. native fanned a career-high 11 batters in six innings while allowing no earned runs and no walks.
Hartle struckout multiple batters in his last four innings, highlighted by a trio of punchouts in the fourth and sixth.
Derek Crum, Joe Ariola and Cole Roland each tossed a scoreless inning in relief. The trio of arms allowed zero hits and zero walks while combining for four strikeouts, led by Roland with two in the ninth.
The quartet's 15 strikeouts marked the seventh game this season Wake Forest has fanned double-digit batters in a game as well as the fifth game the Deacs have held an opponent to one run or less. Overall as a staff, the Deacs have averaged 14 strikeouts per game this season.
Over the weekend, Wake Forest starting pitchers combined to throw 25 innings, allowing just one earned run and one walk with 37 strikeouts.
Offensively, Wake Forest found the scoreboard in seven innings, including 14 runs over the opening six frames of the game. 12 of those runs came with two outs.
Brock Wilken went 2-for-4 with a two-run home run to open the scoring in the first inning. Pierce Bennett also notched a pair of base hits, highlighted by his two-run round-tripper in the second.
Bennett Lee and Justin Johnson also added multi hits on Sunday. Lee hit his first home run in a Wake Forest uniform in the bottom of the third as Wake Forest went yard in three-consecutive frames.
Wake Forest's 15 hits on Sunday marked the seventh time in nine games the Deacs have tallied double-digit base knocks.
How It Happened
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Mount St. Mary's used a pair of singles and a sacrifice bunt to find the scoreboard in the top of the first.
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The Mountaineers placed the opening batters on base with a single, passed ball and single. A sacrifice bunt scored the opening run of the game.
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Josh Hartle fanned the next batter for the second out before Marek Houston made an outstanding play on a grounder up the middle to end the frame.
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The Deacs took a 3-1 lead after the first full inning thanks to three hits and a walk.
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Tommy Hawke opened the game with a five-pitch walk, extending his on-base streak to 39 games.
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After a fly out, Brock Wilken sent a towering shot off the scoreboard to score Hawke and give the Deacs a one-run lead. This marked Wilken's sixth HR of the season and the 46th of his career, which moved him into seventh all-time in program history.
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Justin Johnson singled through the left side after a Demon Deacon strikeout before scoring on a double to left from Danny Corona.
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Hartle responded with a shutdown inning in the second, highlighted by a 5-4-3 inning-ending double play.
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A leadoff single and sacrifice bunt put a Mountaineer in scoring position with one out. Another base hit placed runners on the corners before Hartle induced the grounder to Wilken at third base to turn the double play.
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A two-run shot from Pierce Bennett increased Wake Forest's lead to 5-1 at the conclusion of the second inning.
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After Hawke pushed the ball through the middle with two outs before Bennett launched his second homer of the season over the left field wall.
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Back-to-back strikeouts for the second and third outs of the inning highlighted another scoreless frame from Hartle as Wake Forest held onto its 5-1 lead.
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The King, N.C. native fielded a high grounder for the opening out before working around a one-out single with two punchouts.
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An RBI-single courtesy of Chris Katz and a two-run home run from Bennett Lee, his first as a Deac, gave Wake Forest a 8-1 lead after three full frames.
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Hartle tallied a trio of punchouts in the top of the fourth inning, increasing his game total to six.
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Wake Forest found the scoreboard for the fourth-straight inning to open the game, expanding its lead to 10-1.
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Cecere tallied his 17th RBI of the season on an RBI-groundout, scoring Bennett (single).
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Wilken came around to score on a passed ball following a hard-hit double to the left center field gap.
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Hartle continued to deal as the sophomore went a perfect three-up, three-down to open the fifth frame. Hartle fanned the first two batters of the inning before forcing a groundout to Johnson at second.
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The Deacs plated four runs in the bottom of the sixth thanks to a passed ball, wild pitch, another RBI-base knock from Cecere and a walk by Jack Winnay with the bases loaded to extend its lead to 14-1.
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Hartle fanned the side in his final frame of work as the left hander increased his game total to 11 punchouts, a new career high.
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After Wake Forest was kept off the scoreboard for the first time of the game to end the sixth, Derek Crum produced Wake Forest's sixth-straight scoreless inning on the mound with a flyout, groundout and strikeout.
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The Deacs loaded the bases in the seventh and tacked on one run thanks to a sacrifice fly from Katz, taking a 15-1 lead.
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Joye was hit by a pitch with one out before a throwing error on a fielder's choice helped Johnson reach safely.
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Joe Ariola took over to open the eighth as the freshman fanned the first batter he faced before inducing back-to-back groundouts to get out of the inning unscatched.
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After a scoreless bottom half of eighth, Cole Roland slammed the door in the ninth with a pair of strikeouts to clinch the Sunday victory.
Words From Walter
"Another good win for us. Josh Hartle threw the ball really well. 11 strikeouts with no walks. Those first two innings, they were on time with his fastball and cutter and I thought he made a really good adjustment, starting in the third, to go with the breaking ball. He's usually more cutter than breaking ball, but he was able to go more breaking balls today. That was a great adjustment by him and Coach Muscara that really made a big difference in today's game.
"Brock Wilken. Pierce Bennett. It was good to see Bennett Lee get going. Offensively, we did some really good things. Our bullpen as well. I was really happy to see Derek Crum go out there and throw the ball well. Joe Ariola was really good today. If we can get that version of Joe Ariola moving forward then we're kind of in business. We got a good Wilmington team coming here on Tuesday. Good news is we have a rested pitching staff. Reed Mascolo will start for us and we will have all our bullpen pieces up on the board for Tuesday. I'm looking forward to getting back on the field."
Standout Stat
With the 15-1 win, the Deacs moved to 9-0 for the second-straight season. The 2022 and 2023 Deacs are the only team since 2000 and just the seventh team in program history to win its first nine games to open a campaign. Additionally, this is the first time in program history that teams have started 9-0 or better in back-to-back seasons.
Best Starts in Program History:
- 9-0: 2023, 2022, 1964, 1961, 1949, 1937, 1913
- 10-0: 2022, 1964, 1961, 1949, 1913
- 11-0: 2022, 1961, 1949
- 12-0: 1949
- 13-0: 1949
- 14-0: 1949
- 15-0: 1949
Coming into the weekend, Wake Forest was just one of three Power-5 schools to have won five games already in 2023 (South Carolina and Alabama).
Over the last two seasons, Wake Forest is now 34-4 against non-ACC competition. The Deacs have outscored opponents 383-129 in those games.
Over the weekend, Wake Forest starting pitching rotation of Sean Sullivan, Rhett Lowder, Seth Keener and Josh Hartle combined to throw 25 innings, allowing just one earned run and one walk with 37 strikeouts.
In The Spotlight
After setting career highs in hits (69). home runs (23), RBIs (77) and doubles (13) in 2022, Brock Wilken looks to cement himself as one of the best hitters in Wake Forest history this season.
With his two-run home run on Sunday, Wilken has launched a long fly in four of Wake Forest's last five games. After hitting the most home runs by a Demon Deacon in their first two seasons ever, Wilken has hit 46 home runs in his career, the seventh most by a Demon Deacon ever.
Wake Forest Career Home Runs
1. Jamie D'Antona 2001-03 58
2. Jake Austin 1989-92 55
3. Allan Dykstra 2006-08 49
4. Chris Kowilcik 1989-92 47
Kevin Bunn 1981-84 47
Brick Smith 1978-81 47
7. Brock Wilken 2021-Pres. 46
8. Bill Merrifield 1981-83 45
9. Dave Lardieri 1994-97 42
Josh Hartle earned the second win of his sophomore year in the final game of the weekend against Mount St. Mary's on Sunday with a career outing. The King, N.C. native fanned a career-high 11 batters in six innings while allowing no earned runs and no walks.
Hartle struckout multiple batters in his last four innings, highlighted by a trio of punchouts in the fourth and sixth.
The outing marked the fifth time in his last eight starts the lefthander has allowed one run or less.
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Feb. 26 vs. Mount St. Mary's - 6IP, 0ER, 11Ks and 0BBs
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Feb. 19 vs. Illinois - 5 IP, 1ER, 8Ks and 0BBs
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June 6, 2022 vs. Long Island (NCAA Regional) - 7IP, 1ER, 5Ks and 2BBs
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May 20, 2022 vs. NC State - 5IP, 1ER, 0Ks and 2BBs
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April 30, 2022 vs. Longwood - 4IP, 1ER, 5Ks and 0BBs
In his first start of the season a week ago, the King, N.C. native struckout a then-career high-tying eight batters in five innings while allowing just one run. In his last six outings, the lefthander has allowed one run or less five times.
Hartle became just the second pitcher in Wake Forest history to make 14 starts as a freshman in 2022 as well as the sixth Deac in program history to earn seven victories of the season (second most on the 2022 squad).
After leading the team with the fourth-highest batting average by a freshman in program history (.380) last year, Tommy Hawke has continued to be impactful at the top of Wake Forest's lineup. Through nine games, Hawke leads the Deacs with a .528 batting average with a team-best 19 hits.
Dating back to last season, Tommy Hawke holds a 20-game hit streak and a 39-game reached base streak after going 2-for-5 with one walk today against the Mountaineers.
On Deck
The Deacs return to the diamond on Tuesday, Feb. 28 against UNC Wilmington in its first home midweek contest of the year. First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m.
Deacon Nation and college baseball fans across the state of North Carolina will have the opportunity to select from various season-ticket packages that include general admission options, reserved chairback seating, as well as multiple premium season ticket options to catch all 33 home contests inside David F. Couch Ballpark. Click here for all the exciting season ticket opportunities.
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Hartle, Josh (2-0)
L: HUFF,D (0-1)
Batting:
2B: SEEKER,S 1
RBI: STIRPE,D 1
SH: STIRPE,D 1 ; LANDWEHR,J 1
Base Running:
RUNS: LONG,T 1
HBP: AGAR,J 1
Batting:
2B: Wilken, Brock 1 ; Johnson, Justin 1 ; Corona, Danny 1
HR: Bennett, Pierce 1 ; Wilken, Brock 1 ; Lee, Bennett 1
RBI: Bennett, Pierce 2 ; Wilken, Brock 2 ; Cecere, Adam 2 ; Corona, Danny 1 ; Winnay, Jack 1 ; Katz, Chris 2 ; Lee, Bennett 2
SF: Katz, Chris 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Hawke, Tommy 3 ; Bennett, Pierce 3 ; Wilken, Brock 3 ; Joye, Kyle 1 ; Johnson, Justin 2 ; Katz, Chris 1 ; Lee, Bennett 2
SB: Hawke, Tommy 1
HBP: Joye, Kyle 1 ; Johnson, Justin 1
