No. 12 Wake Forest Downs Liberty, 7-6

Tuesday, March 26

Lynchburg, VA

4 p.m.

Wake Forest University

17-7

Liberty

10-14

Wake Forest

Liberty

3/26/2024 8:34:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Sophomore Marek Houston collected a career-high four hits in addition to two runs scored in the victory.

LYNCHBURG, Va. – Behind a four-run seventh inning, the No. 12-ranked Wake Forest baseball team defeated Liberty, 7-6, at Worthington Field At Liberty Baseball Stadium in Lynchburg, Va. Tuesday night.

Sophomore right-handed pitcher Ben Shenosky made his third-consecutive midweek start for the Demon Deacons and allowed just one run in 3.2 innings of work. Freshman left-hander Haiden Leffew pitched 1.2 scoreless innings of relief and grabbed his second victory of the season.

Junior William Ray earned his second save of the campaign after he escaped a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the eighth and retired the side in the bottom of the ninth, including a pair of strikeouts to end the game.

Offensively, the Demon Deacons were led by sophomore Marek Houston. The shortstop finished the contest with a career-high four hits, two runs scored, an RBI and a walk. His infield single in the bottom of the seventh knocked in what proved to be the winning run. Of note, this was his third multi-hit performance in the last four games and marked his seventh multi-hit game of the season in 18 appearances.

Junior Seaver King also posted a multi-hit outing as he went 2-for-5 at the plate with a team-high two RBIs. King is now the fourth Demon Deacon with 25 or more RBIs this season, joining Adam Tellier (29 RBI), Jack Winnay (26 RBI) and Jake Reinisch (25 RBI). All four are averaging over an RBI per game played this season.

Fellow junior Nick Kurtz tied a career-high with four free passes Tuesday night. It marked his third four-walk performance of the season and now holds a team-best .500 on-base percentage. Additionally, Kurtz is the only player in Division-I to play more than 100 career games and have a career OBP of .500 or better.

Despite missing the last six games, Kurtz now ranks second in the conference and top 10 nationally in walks this season with 28.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Wake Forest put a pair of runners on in the top of the first but were unable to scratch a run across to start the contest.
Liberty took an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning.
Sophomore Ben Shenosky fanned a pair of batters and put up a scoreless frame in the bottom of the second.
The Deacs knocked across two runs to take the lead in the top of the third inning.
- Shortstop Marek Houston reached base first in the third inning with a double down the right field line.
- Third baseman Adam Tellier and designated hitter Nick Kurtz reached on walks to load the bases for Seaver King.
- King hit an RBI single as the Deacs went station-to-station to set up Jake Reinsich for another RBI single to give Wake Forest the lead.

Shenosky put up another scoreless inning to keep the lead in the bottom of the third inning with a pair of groundouts and a lineout.
Liberty tied the game after a hit by pitch and three wild pitches in the bottom of the fourth.
Houston collected his third hit of the afternoon to leadoff the top of the fifth and came home on the second RBI single of the day from King.
- For King, it marked his eighth multi-RBI effort of the year, tying him for the team lead in that category.
The Flames tied the game 3-3 with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fifth inning.
After a leadoff single and stolen base put the go-ahead run in scoring position for Liberty, right fielder Jake Reinisch gunned down the runner at the plate to keep things tied at 3-3 going into the seventh.
The throw by Reinisch and a flyout to left completed a strong 1.2 innings of scoreless relief from freshman Haiden Leffew.
The Deacs took a decisive 7-3 lead with four runs in the top of the seventh inning.
- Kurtz, Reinisch and Winnay reached on walks to set up Williams tallied an RBI and reached on an error to load the bases.
- Freshman Cam Nelson walked, which scored Reinisch and kept the bases loaded with two outs.
- Winnay scored on a wild pitch that put runners in scoring position for Houston.
- For the first time in his Wake Forest career, Houston collected his fourth hit of the day on an infield single to push the Wake advantage to four.
Liberty added one run in the bottom of the seventh inning to make the score 7-4.
The Flames cut the lead to 7-6 with a pair of bases loaded walks in the eighth.
Wake Forest defeated Liberty, 7-6.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

After being reinserted into the lineup from an injury, sophomore infielder Marek Houston picked up where he left off, posting four hits and reaching base five times in the leadoff spot for the Deacs.
- His four hits marked a career-high and tied for the most by any Demon Deacon this season along with Jake Reinisch against Georgetown on March 5th and Adam Tellier against Virginia on March 17.
- This was his third multi-hit performance in the last four games and marked his seventh multi-hit game of the season in 18 appearances this year.
  - Houston had 10 multi-hit games as a freshman in 64 games played last season.

STAGGERING STATISTICS

Wake Forest improves to 26-9-2 all-time against the Liberty Flames.
- The Demon Deacons have now won the last five games in the series, dating back to the 2021 season.
Junior infielder Nick Kurtz walked a career-high tying four times Tuesday night at Liberty.
- This marked the third time this season he has had four walks with four walks in wins over Dayton on Feb. 24 and North Carolina A&T on Feb. 27.
- Reaching four times in five trips this afternoon, Kurtz has now reached base 300 total times in his career in 598 plate appearances.
  - He now has a staggering .502 career on-base base percentage over the course of his three seasons in a Wake Forest uniform.
    - Additionally, Kurtz is the only player in Division-I to play more than 100 career games and have a career OBP of .500 or better.
  - This season he has a team-best .500 on-base percentage, following up his sophomore campaign where Kurtz had an eye-popping .525 on-base percentage.
- Entering Tuesday's game, only one current Division-I baseball player has more walks over the course of their career, Charlotte's Shane Taylor (141 career walks).
  - Kurtz has now walked 138 times in 127 career games played (1.1 walks per game) and ranks third in program history for his career:

Rank	Player	Career Walks
1.	Pat Blair 2010-13	180
2.	Allan Dykstra 2006-08	170
3.	Nick Kurtz (2022-Pres.)	138
4.	Matt Antonelli 2004-06	128
5.	Brock Wilken 2021-23	126

FROM COACH WALTER
"That was a really gritty win, I'm proud of our team today. They battled through some adverse conditions. We hit into four double plays, we hit about nine or ten balls right on the screws that found gloves and didn't cash in on a couple opportunities in the middle but did enough to win.

Ben Shenosky gave us a good start. But we walked a guy to lead off the game, made an error and had a passed ball. Their first three runs came off one hit. We have to clean up the free 90s. I'm proud of the way our pitchers battled and Will Ray at the end. He found a way to get five huge outs with the game on the line and gave us a good team win." - head coach Tom Walter

UP NEXT
Wake Forest will return home for a three-game series against No. 14 North Carolina beginning on Friday, Mar. 29 at 6 p.m. For those unable to attend, the game can be streamed on ACC Network Extra.

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