Saturday, March 9
Winston-Salem, NC
7 p.m.
Wake Forest University
12-2, 1-1
6
vs
3
Duke
12-2, 1-1
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3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Duke
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
2
3
5
1
Wake Forest
2
0
4
0
0
0
0
0
X
6
7
0
No. 1 Wake Forest Evens Series, Defeating No. 12 Duke, 6-3
3/9/2024 10:38:00 PM | Baseball
Junior righthander Chase Burns' dominant pitching performance on the mound with 14 strikeouts in 6.0 innings of work paces the Deacs to a crucial win to even the series with No. 12 Duke.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Behind a historic strikeout performance from junior right-handed pitcher Chase Burns, the No. 1 Wake Forest baseball team evened the series against No. 12 Duke as the Deacs grabbed a 6-3 victory Saturday night at David F. Couch Ballpark.
Burns fanned 14 of the 22 batters he faced Saturday night which is tied for the second-highest single-game strikeout total in program history. In total, 20 of the 27 outs Wake Forest recorded came via the strikeout with the bullpen arms of Will Ray, Josh Gunther and David Falco combined to strike out six Blue Devil batters over their combined 3.0 innings of work.
In addition to his career-high 14 strikeouts, Burns allowed just one run on two hits over 6.0 innings. In his first four appearances this season, Burns holds a perfect mark of 3-0 with 43 strikeouts in 23.1 innings of work and a 2.31 ERA. Additionally, Wake Forest is a perfect 4-0 this season when Burns takes the mound.
The Deacs gave Burns early run support as sophomore outfielder Jack Winnay doubled in the bottom of the first to score a pair. From that point, Wake Forest had the lead for the remainder of the game.
Thanks to a pair of two-out, two-run home runs in the third from senior outfielder Jake Reinisch and sophomore infielder Austin Hawke, the Demon Deacons extended their lead out to 6-1 and it would be all the run support the pitching staff needed to get the victory.
Winnay and Hawke led the team with a pair of hits while junior infielder Nick Kurtz also reached base twice with a pair of walks. Kurtz now has recorded 19 walks in the last 10 games and his 131 career walks now ranks third in program history.
HOW IT HAPPENED
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
STAGGERING STATISTICS
FROM COACH WALTER
"Obviously it starts with Chase Burns. I don't know how you can throw better than he did tonight. I was so impressed with him and so proud of his effort. He was throwing three pitches for strikes, pounding his pitches in the zone and playing very well. He punched out the side with 10 pitches in the second and then punched out two in the fourth for two big shutdown innings.
Will Ray in behind him was really good, he has emerged as a special piece of our bullpen. I was really happy for Will. Then Gunther and David pieced together the ninth, so I'm happy with that.
Offensively, runs are tough to come by against Duke. They have a really good pitching staff and thankfully we were able to get some two-out RBIs. We had a two-out double by Winnay, a two-out homer by Reinisch and a two-out homer by Hawke. In the situation right after Duke scored, we came in and scored four with two outs and nobody on, which was a testament to our ball club. That was a really great win and I'm looking forward to tomorrow's ball game with two great teams battling it out." - head coach Tom Walter
UP NEXT
The Deacs close the seven-game homestand at 4 p.m. on Sunday for the series finale with the Blue Devils. For fans not in attendance at The Couch on Sunday, the game can be seen on ACC Network Extra.
Follow The Deacs:
GoDeacs.com | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Burns fanned 14 of the 22 batters he faced Saturday night which is tied for the second-highest single-game strikeout total in program history. In total, 20 of the 27 outs Wake Forest recorded came via the strikeout with the bullpen arms of Will Ray, Josh Gunther and David Falco combined to strike out six Blue Devil batters over their combined 3.0 innings of work.
In addition to his career-high 14 strikeouts, Burns allowed just one run on two hits over 6.0 innings. In his first four appearances this season, Burns holds a perfect mark of 3-0 with 43 strikeouts in 23.1 innings of work and a 2.31 ERA. Additionally, Wake Forest is a perfect 4-0 this season when Burns takes the mound.
The Deacs gave Burns early run support as sophomore outfielder Jack Winnay doubled in the bottom of the first to score a pair. From that point, Wake Forest had the lead for the remainder of the game.
Thanks to a pair of two-out, two-run home runs in the third from senior outfielder Jake Reinisch and sophomore infielder Austin Hawke, the Demon Deacons extended their lead out to 6-1 and it would be all the run support the pitching staff needed to get the victory.
Winnay and Hawke led the team with a pair of hits while junior infielder Nick Kurtz also reached base twice with a pair of walks. Kurtz now has recorded 19 walks in the last 10 games and his 131 career walks now ranks third in program history.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- After giving up a leadoff single, Burns settled in, striking out the next three Blue Devils to close the top of the first.
- Showing patience at the plate, Wake Forest used three walks to load the bases with one away. Winnay came through with a clutch double to left field to put the Deacs up 2-0 after an inning of play.
- Burns struck out the side in the second to preserve the early lead.
- After Burns recorded his seventh-straight strikeout to start the game, Duke got a run back on a solo homerun to cut the lead in half.
- Wake Forest extended their lead with four runs in the bottom of the third to give the Deacs a 6-1 lead.
- With one out in the bottom half of the third, Kurtz reached on a walk.
- With two outs, Reinisch sent a home run over the wall in right-center to add to the Deacs lead.
- Following a Winnay single, Hawke hit the second Wake Forest home run of the inning to give the Deacs four runs in the bottom of the third.
- Burns fanned two more batters in the top of the fourth and added another scoreless frame to his performance.
- In the top of the fifth, Burns sat down two more batters and kept the Blue Devils scoreless.
- After a leadoff fly out, Burns struck out the next two batters in the scoreless top of the sixth.
- Burns ended his day only allowing two hits and two walks in 6.0 innings pitched highlighted by a career-high 14 strikeouts.
- Will Ray came in during the top of the seventh inning and kept the score at 6-1 and fanned one batter.
- In the top of the eighth, Ray added three more strikeouts to keep the Blue Devils at bay, 6-1.
- Ray finished the night with four strikeouts in 2.0 innings of work.
- Gunther came into the game in the top of the ninth and fanned two batters then the Deacs turned to Falco who secured the victory for Wake Forest.
- Wake Forest defeated Duke, 6-3.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
- Since being inserted into the lineup as an everyday starter for the Demon Deacons this season, Jack Winnay has had an impressive start to his sophomore season.
- With a pair of hits and RBIs on Saturday, Winnay now had 17 hits and 17 RBIs which both rank second on the team through 14 games played.
- Winnay also leads the team in four hitting categories with a .370 batting average, a 1.270 OPS, .826 slugging percentage and six home runs.
- Saturday was his sixth multi-hit game of the season and the seventh time this season he has had two or more RBIs.
- Additionally, he has reached base in nine of the 13 games he has played in this season.
STAGGERING STATISTICS
- In 175.2 career innings pitched, Chase Burns has now struckout 260 career batters. The righty finished last season ranked third nationally with 14.3 K/9 and currently sits at 15.3 K/9 through his first three outings.
- For the eighth time in his career, the junior struck out 10 or more with a career-high 14 punchouts on Saturday.
- Additionally, 14 strikeouts tied for the second-highest single-game strikeout total in program history and it was the highest total since Tim Cooney also had 14 strikeouts against Radford in 2011:
- Rank Player Strikeout Total Date
- 1. Erik Hanson 18 April 17, 1985
- T2. Chase Burns 14 March, 9, 2024
- T2. John Stokoe 14 1957
- T2. Tim Cooney 14 March 6, 2011
- T5. Nine tied 13 Last: June 2, 2023
- For the eighth time in his career, the junior struck out 10 or more with a career-high 14 punchouts on Saturday.
- Wake Forest improves to an impressive 66-11-1 (.864) since the start of the 2022 season at David F. Couch Ballpark.
FROM COACH WALTER
"Obviously it starts with Chase Burns. I don't know how you can throw better than he did tonight. I was so impressed with him and so proud of his effort. He was throwing three pitches for strikes, pounding his pitches in the zone and playing very well. He punched out the side with 10 pitches in the second and then punched out two in the fourth for two big shutdown innings.
Will Ray in behind him was really good, he has emerged as a special piece of our bullpen. I was really happy for Will. Then Gunther and David pieced together the ninth, so I'm happy with that.
Offensively, runs are tough to come by against Duke. They have a really good pitching staff and thankfully we were able to get some two-out RBIs. We had a two-out double by Winnay, a two-out homer by Reinisch and a two-out homer by Hawke. In the situation right after Duke scored, we came in and scored four with two outs and nobody on, which was a testament to our ball club. That was a really great win and I'm looking forward to tomorrow's ball game with two great teams battling it out." - head coach Tom Walter
UP NEXT
The Deacs close the seven-game homestand at 4 p.m. on Sunday for the series finale with the Blue Devils. For fans not in attendance at The Couch on Sunday, the game can be seen on ACC Network Extra.
Follow The Deacs:
GoDeacs.com | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Burns, Chase (3-0)
L: Healy, Andrew (1-1)
S: Falco Jr. , David (4)
Batting:
2B: Clark, Wallace 1
HR: Clark, Wallace 1
RBI: Clark, Wallace 3
Base Running:
RUNS: Gracia, AJ 1 ; Yu, Andrew 1 ; Clark, Wallace 1
SB: Morris, Zac 1
HBP: Yu, Andrew 1
Batting:
2B: King, Seaver 1 ; Winnay, Jack 1
HR: Reinisch, Jake 1 ; Hawke, Austin 1
RBI: Reinisch, Jake 2 ; Winnay, Jack 2 ; Hawke, Austin 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Tellier, Adam 1 ; Kurtz, Nick 2 ; Reinisch, Jake 1 ; Winnay, Jack 1 ; Hawke, Austin 1
SB: Tellier, Adam 1 ; King, Seaver 1
PO: Nelson, Cam 1
Game Leaders
AB
4
R
1
H
2
RBI
2
AB
4
R
1
H
2
RBI
2
cf/ss
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
3
R
1
H
1
RBI
2
Players Mentioned
RHP
/ Baseball
RHP
/ BaseballINF
/ Baseball
1B
/ BaseballOF
/ BaseballINF
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