Friday, March 22
Winston-Salem, NC
12 p.m.
Wake Forest University
16-6, 4-4
5
vs
1
Louisville
14-9, 1-4
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Louisville
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
1
3
2
Wake Forest
0
0
0
0
0
1
3
1
X
5
6
0
No. 16 Deacs Take Series with 5-1 Victory Over Louisville
3/22/2024 3:55:00 PM | Baseball
Junior righthander Chase Burns dazzles again while backstop Cameron Gill delivers the clutch, late-inning hit to clinch the series victory for the No. 16 Wake Forest baseball team.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Behind another dominant performance from junior righthander Chase Burns and a clutch, late-inning surge from the offense, the No. 16 Wake Forest baseball team secured the series victory over Louisville, winning 5-1 Friday afternoon at David F. Couch Ballpark.
Burns fanned 12 of the 23 batters he faced Friday which is tied for the 15th-highest single-game strikeout total in program history. In total, 14 of the 27 outs Wake Forest (16-6, 4-4 ACC) recorded came via the strikeout with the bullpen arms of Zach Johnston and Will Ray combined to strike out two Cardinals (14-9, 1-4 ACC) batters over their combined 2.0 innings of work.
Burns became the first player in program history to have 12 or more strikeouts in back-to-back-to-back games as he had a career-high 14 strikeouts in a victory over No. 12 Duke two weeks ago and 13 strikeouts in a win over No. 17 Virginia last Saturday.
In addition to his 12 strikeouts, Burns allowed just one run on three hits over a career-high matching 7.0 innings. In his first six appearances this season, Burns holds a perfect mark of 5-0 with 68 strikeouts in 37.1 innings of work and a 1.93 ERA. Additionally, Wake Forest is a perfect 6-0 this season when Burns takes the mound.
The Wake Forest bats came alive in the late innings. With the score tied 1-1 in the bottom of the seventh, the Deacs came up with clutch two-out hits to take the lead for good.
With freshman Cam Nelson on second, catcher Cameron Gill delivered a single up the middle, putting the Demon Deacons in front for the first time in the game. Wake Forest was not done yet as they pushed across two more in the inning to take a 4-1 lead into the eighth.
The Deacs tacked on an insurance run in the eighth with Nelson delivering the RBI to score sophomore Jack Winnay from third.
Wake Forest continues its winning ways at home over the last three seasons. The Demon Deacons improved to 69-12-1 at David F. Couch Ballpark since the start of the 2022 season.
HOW IT HAPPENED
STAGGERING STATISTICS
FROM COACH WALTER
"Chase Burns was clearly the story today. I just couldn't be more impressed with his outing today. He threw 109 pitches six days ago and he was sick all week, he wasn't even at practice for a couple of days. He didn't have his good fast ball today and struckout 12, didn't walk anyone and gave up three hits. I'm just so impressed with his outing today. He wanted to go back out there in the eighth but there was no way we were going to let that happen coming off of short rest.
I'm really happy with Zach Johnston's performance today. Some things went against him. We missed a called third strike, didn't turn a double play ball and missed another called third strike but Zach just kept going at them. He kept throwing his fastball, slider and his change-up in there and got us five big outs. Then obviously, Will Ray had the last out which was much needed to save his pitch count.
Offensively, Webster did a good job. He stoned us for five innings. His outing today was very impressive and he is a great college pitcher. He had us guessing and sitting in between his fastball and change-up. We didn't make the adjustments we needed to make. But we did enough offensively to get it done. We had some big two-out hits from Jack Winnay and Seaver King. Tellier had the ball up the middle that scored another run, but we did just enough offensively to win." - head coach Tom Walter
UP NEXT
The Deacs close the three-game set against Louisville looking for the sweep of the Cardinals tomorrow on ACC Network Extra at 1 p.m.
Follow The Deacs:
GoDeacs.com | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Burns fanned 12 of the 23 batters he faced Friday which is tied for the 15th-highest single-game strikeout total in program history. In total, 14 of the 27 outs Wake Forest (16-6, 4-4 ACC) recorded came via the strikeout with the bullpen arms of Zach Johnston and Will Ray combined to strike out two Cardinals (14-9, 1-4 ACC) batters over their combined 2.0 innings of work.
Burns became the first player in program history to have 12 or more strikeouts in back-to-back-to-back games as he had a career-high 14 strikeouts in a victory over No. 12 Duke two weeks ago and 13 strikeouts in a win over No. 17 Virginia last Saturday.
In addition to his 12 strikeouts, Burns allowed just one run on three hits over a career-high matching 7.0 innings. In his first six appearances this season, Burns holds a perfect mark of 5-0 with 68 strikeouts in 37.1 innings of work and a 1.93 ERA. Additionally, Wake Forest is a perfect 6-0 this season when Burns takes the mound.
The Wake Forest bats came alive in the late innings. With the score tied 1-1 in the bottom of the seventh, the Deacs came up with clutch two-out hits to take the lead for good.
With freshman Cam Nelson on second, catcher Cameron Gill delivered a single up the middle, putting the Demon Deacons in front for the first time in the game. Wake Forest was not done yet as they pushed across two more in the inning to take a 4-1 lead into the eighth.
The Deacs tacked on an insurance run in the eighth with Nelson delivering the RBI to score sophomore Jack Winnay from third.
Wake Forest continues its winning ways at home over the last three seasons. The Demon Deacons improved to 69-12-1 at David F. Couch Ballpark since the start of the 2022 season.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Starter Chase Burns picked up a pair of strikeouts in a three-up three-down top of the first.
- The righty picked up another punchout in a clean top of the second.
- A one-out triple for Louisville put Burns into the stretch for the first time in the top of the third. The Hendersonville, Tenn. native got a groundout back to him and a popup to short to end the threat.
- Wake Forest picked up their first hit of the ballgame on a one-out double off the wall by catcher Cameron Gill but were unable to bring him home.
- Burns continued to get stronger as the game continued with strikeouts four, five and six in the top of the fourth.
- Six-straight strikeouts ran Burns total to nine on the day as the game remained scoreless through five and a half innings.
- Louisville took the lead on a solo home run in the top of the sixth.
- Wake Forest tied the game with a run of their own in the bottom half of the frame.
- Freshman Javar Williams drew a leadoff walk to start Wake's half of the sixth and moved into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt from third baseman Adam Tellier. Representing the tying run, Williams moved to third on a groundout.
- First baseman Jack Winnay came through with a laser that forced the Cardinal third baseman into a dive for an RBI single.
- In the top of the seventh, shortstop Seaver King kept the leadoff hitter off the base paths with a ridiculous diving play deep in the 5-6 hole and fired a rocket to first to beat the runner.
- Another strikeout from Burns and a pick-off of a runner at first sent the Deacs back into the dugout tied at 1-1.
- The two Camerons on the Deacs roster came through in the bottom of the seventh to give the Deacs the 2-1 lead.
- Freshman Cam Nelson laced a double down the line to put the go-ahead run in scoring position with one away in the bottom of the seventh.
- With two strikes and two outs, Catcher Cameron Gill delivered the go-ahead run with a seeing eye single back up the middle.
- In total, Wake Forest scored three runs in the seventh to take a 4-1 lead.
- Wake Forest would tally its fifth and final run in the eighth inning, as Winnay came around to score.
- The combo of Zach Johnson and Will Ray worked the final two innings on the mound, securing the victory for the Deacs.
- The No. 9 hole continues to produce during the series against Louisville as Cameron Gill and Mitchell Salvino have now combined to go 5-of-7 (.714) with five runs scored and five RBIs.
- Salvino finished Thursday night with a game and season-high in hits (3), runs scored (4) and RBIs (4) including the Deacs lone home run of the series in the eighth.
- Friday, Gill delivered a single up the middle, putting the Demon Deacons in front for the first time in the game in the seventh and would later come around to score to provide a key insurance run for the Deacs.
- Gill ended the afternoon 2-of-3 including a double off the left field wall while also having a stolen base in the seventh.
STAGGERING STATISTICS
- In 189.2 career innings pitched, Chase Burns has now struckout 285 career batters. The righty finished last season ranked third nationally with 14.3 K/9 and currently sits at 16.4 K/9 through his first six outings.
- For the 10th time in his career and the fourth consecutive outing, the junior struck out 10 or more as he fanned 12 Cardinals on Friday afternoon.
- Burns became the first player in program history to have 12 or more strikeouts in back-to-back-to-back games as he had a career-high 14 strikeouts in a victory over No. 12 Duke two weeks ago and 13 strikeouts in a win over No. 17 Virginia last Saturday.
- For the 10th time in his career and the fourth consecutive outing, the junior struck out 10 or more as he fanned 12 Cardinals on Friday afternoon.
- Wake Forest continues its winning ways at home over the last three seasons. The Demon Deacons improved to 69-12-1 at David F. Couch Ballpark since the start of the 2022 season.
FROM COACH WALTER
"Chase Burns was clearly the story today. I just couldn't be more impressed with his outing today. He threw 109 pitches six days ago and he was sick all week, he wasn't even at practice for a couple of days. He didn't have his good fast ball today and struckout 12, didn't walk anyone and gave up three hits. I'm just so impressed with his outing today. He wanted to go back out there in the eighth but there was no way we were going to let that happen coming off of short rest.
I'm really happy with Zach Johnston's performance today. Some things went against him. We missed a called third strike, didn't turn a double play ball and missed another called third strike but Zach just kept going at them. He kept throwing his fastball, slider and his change-up in there and got us five big outs. Then obviously, Will Ray had the last out which was much needed to save his pitch count.
Offensively, Webster did a good job. He stoned us for five innings. His outing today was very impressive and he is a great college pitcher. He had us guessing and sitting in between his fastball and change-up. We didn't make the adjustments we needed to make. But we did enough offensively to get it done. We had some big two-out hits from Jack Winnay and Seaver King. Tellier had the ball up the middle that scored another run, but we did just enough offensively to win." - head coach Tom Walter
UP NEXT
The Deacs close the three-game set against Louisville looking for the sweep of the Cardinals tomorrow on ACC Network Extra at 1 p.m.
Follow The Deacs:
GoDeacs.com | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Burns, Chase (5-0)
L: Will Koger (1-1)
Batting:
3B: Ryan McCoy 1
HR: Zion Rose 1
RBI: Zion Rose 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Zion Rose 1
HBP: Ryan McCoy 1
PO: JT Benson 1
Batting:
2B: Nelson, Cam 1 ; Gill, Cameron 1
RBI: Tellier, Adam 1 ; King, Seaver 1 ; Winnay, Jack 1 ; Nelson, Cam 1 ; Gill, Cameron 1
SH: Tellier, Adam 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Williams, Javar 2 ; Winnay, Jack 1 ; Nelson, Cam 1 ; Gill, Cameron 1
SB: Williams, Javar 1 ; Gill, Cameron 1
PO: King, Seaver 1
Game Leaders
AB
3
R
1
H
2
RBI
1
AB
2
R
0
H
1
RBI
1
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
1
AB
3
R
1
H
1
RBI
1
Players Mentioned
RHP
/ BaseballC
/ Baseball
LHP
/ BaseballUTL
/ Baseball
OF/LHP
/ Baseball
OF
/ BaseballINF
/ Baseball
OF
/ BaseballINF
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