Wake Forest Drops One-Run Game at Boston College

BRIGHTON, Mass. – With a win on Friday night in the series opener, the No. 14 Wake Forest baseball team will have a chance to take the series at Boston College in the rubber game after falling on Saturday in a tightly-contested 5-4 game at Harrington Athletics Village in Brighton, Mass.

The Demon Deacons jumped out to an early lead with the help of a strong top of the first as the top of the order set the table. With sophomore Marek Houston reaching to lead off the game, junior Nick Kurtz continued his red hot hitting with a gapper to right center that he legged into a triple, his first of the season.

Sophomore Jack Winnay drove Kurtz in to give the Deacs the early, 2-0 advantage. Wake Forest would hold the lead for the next seven innings with Jake Reinisch scoring on an RBI from Cam Nelson. Houston pushed the lead to 4-0 in the seventh with his fourth home run of the season.

Houston was the lone Demon Deacon with multiple hits while freshman Javar Williams reached a team-high tying three times in the game including a pair of walks.

Kurtz also reached three times with the triple, a walk and a hit by pitch. He now has 36 walks in 27 games played this season and is the nation's career-active leader with 147 career walks. Kurtz also came into the weekend ranked second nationally in career on-base percentage, fourth in career home runs, fourth in career slugging percentage and 11th in career runs scored.

Junior lefthander Josh Hartle has also had an impactful three seasons on the field for the Deacs, ranking 12th in career strikeouts and seventh in career wins. Hartle tossed another strong outing, scattering four hits and three walks over 5.2 scoreless innings.

Matching his season-high with eight strikeouts Saturday, Hartle now has 243 strikeouts in his career, giving him sole possession of 10th place in program history. He is six strikeouts away from Wake Forest great and nine-year MLB veteran Dave Bush (1999-02) who had 249 strikeouts in his Wake Forest career.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Wake Forest jumped on the Eagles quickly with a two-spot in the top of the first.
- Sophomore Marek Houston laced a leadoff single off the pitcher to open the game and came home on first baseman Nick Kurtz third extra-base hit of the series, as the junior roped a triple into the right-center gap.
- Kurtz came home on a sacrifice fly off the bat of sophomore Jack Winnay to make it 2-0 after a half inning of play.
Lefty Josh Hartle needed just eight pitches for a shutdown frame, picking up his first strikeout of the afternoon for the final out.
Needing just 12 pitches in the second, Hartle retired Boston College in order for the second-straight inning.
Wake Forest put a pair of runners in scoring position with two away in the top of the third but were unable to extend their lead.
A pair of great defensive plays and a strikeout from Hartle kept the Eagles off the board in the third.
- With a runner on first and nobody out, center fielder Cam Nelson made a great read on a ball hit in the gap, fired to second baseman Adam Tellier and relayed to catcher Jake Burley, who slapped the tag on the would-be run for Boston College for the first out.
- Third baseman Seaver King made a rangy backhanded stab on a ball to his left and fired to Kurtz for the second out.
- Facing runners at second and third and a full count, Hartle blew a full count fastball by the hitter to escape the jam.
Nelson extended the Wake Forest lead with an RBI fielder's choice in the fourth to make it 3-0 in the top of the fourth.
Hartle struck out a pair in both the fourth and fifth innings to bring his total to seven for the game as he continued to keep B.C. off the scoreboard.
Wake Forest looked to have brought home their fourth run of the game on another RBI fielder's choice by Nelson but a successful challenge by the Eagles kept the game at 3-0 after five and a half innings.
Freshman Josh Gunther entered in the sixth with two away and runners on first and second. After falling behind in the count 3-0, Gunther barred down and got a flyout to Nelson in center to keep the lead at three for the Deacs.
Attacking on the first pitch of his at-bat, Houston lifted the pitch over the wall in dead center to make it 4-0 in favor of the Deacs.
- For Houston, it marked the fourth of his sophomore campaign, and third in the last eight games.
Boston College tied the game with four runs in the bottom of the seventh.
Singles by King and freshman Javar Williams put a pair of Deacs on in the top of the eighth, however Wake was unable to break the tie.
Nelson picked up his second outfield assist of the ballgame, gunning down another B.C. runner trying to stretch a single into a double to start the bottom of the eighth.
Entering with the go-ahead run on second in the eight, David Falco got the Deacs to the ninth still deadlocked at 4-4 with a groundout to Tellier.
Boston College evened the series with a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth.

FROM COACH WALTER
"That's a disappointing loss. We had a 4-0 lead late in the ballgame with a rested bullpen and just didn't make pitches. We gave away too many free passes and had a hit batter that cost us. We had a couple of balls where we let base runners advance on balls to the outfield. We just didn't get it done.

We didn't get it done with runners in scoring position and overall offensively today with just seven hits and one with runners in scoring position. We just didn't put enough people on base today to get it done.

We have to come out tomorrow and play better baseball to try and take an important ACC road series for our ballclub." - head coach Tom Walter

UP NEXT
The Deacs will face the Eagles tomorrow in the rubber game of the series on ACC Network Extra at 1 p.m.

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Team Stats

Marek Houston

Nick Kurtz

Jack Winnay

Jake Reinisch

Players Mentioned

Josh Gunther

Josh Hartle

Marek Houston

Seaver King

Nick Kurtz

Cam Nelson

Jake Reinisch

Adam Tellier

Javar Williams

Jack Winnay

Wake Forest Athletics