Deacs Comeback Effort Falls Short in South Bend

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Battling from three runs down, the Wake Forest baseball team scored four runs combined in the seventh and eighth innings before eventually falling in the ninth at Notre Dame, 8-7, Sunday afternoon.

In his first starts in ACC play, freshman Antonio Morales finished the weekend 5-of-9 (.556) with a trio of extra-base hits, including his first homer as a Demon Deacon to tie the contest at 2-2 in the second inning and a leadoff double in the top of the eighth. Morales reached base in nine of 13 plate appearances across the three-game set. After the breakout weekend, Morales is now hitting .308 on the season becoming the seventh player in the Wake Forest lineup to have an average north of .300.

First baseman Nick Kurtz launched his 18th home run of his junior campaign in the fourth inning, moving his career total to 58 homers. He is one long ball away from second in program history and 14 away from tying the program record. He added a walk to his active career leading total to 158 in three seasons. He now is 12 walks away from second in program history and 22 away from tying the program record.

For the 10th time in the last 20 games, junior Seaver King drove in a pair of runs with his single into right field in the seventh. The Athens, Ga. product paces the Deacs with 17 multi-RBI efforts in his first season donning the Old Gold & Black.

Senior Jake Reinisch also recorded a multi-hit afternoon and reached base three times total. This was his 11th multi-hit game of the year and he now has at least one hit in 18 of the last 21 games this season.

Sophomore reliever Zach Johnson kept the Deacs in the contest with 2.1 one-hit innings, retiring seven of the eight Irish hitters he faced with a pair of strikeouts.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Notre Dame grabbed an early lead with two runs in the bottom of the first.
The Deacs answered with a pair of two-out runs in the second to tie the game.
- Sophomore Jack Winnay roped a double off the center field wall for his 26th extra-base hit of the year.
- Continuing a stellar weekend at the dish, freshman Antonio Morales mashed a 2-0 pitch over the right center wall for his first home run as a Demon Deacon to knot the contest at 2-2.
The Irish retook the lead with a solo homer in the bottom half of the inning.
Notre Dame pushed their advantage back to two with a bases loaded walk in the third.
First baseman Nick Kurtz sent a laser 113 mph off the bat out to right field for his 18th roundtripper of the year to cut the deficit to one in the fourth.
Reliever Will Ray picked up a huge shutdown frame in the bottom of the fourth with a 1-2-3 frame on eight pitches.
Notre Dame added two runs on a balk and sacrifice fly to push their lead to 6-3 after five complete innings.
Lefty Zach Johnston held the Irish scoreless in the sixth to keep the deficit at three.
With the bases loaded and two down in the top of the seventh, third baseman Seaver King came through with a two-RBI single to right field to cut the Irish lead to one at 6-5.
A groundout, flyout and strikeout from Johnston sat the Irish down in order in the bottom of the seventh.
Wake Forest scored two in the eighth to take their first lead of the contest.
- Morales led off the inning with a double to left center for his second multi-hit effort of the weekend.
- Morales avoided the tag at third on a fielder's choice to put Deacs on the corners with one away.
- Sophomore Marek Houston worked a five-pitch walk to load the bases.
- With two down, Kurtz laced a double down the right field line to plate two and give Wake Forest a 7-6 lead.
Notre Dame tied the rubber game at seven with a solo homer to leadoff their half of the eighth.
The Irish hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth to win, 8-7.

FROM COACH WALTER
"We gave up too many free passes early in the game. They scored six runs on three hits, one of which was a bunt where we didn't have all the bases covered. You just can't give away that many free runs.

We did a good job battling back to take the lead and had the game where we wanted it with six outs to go and a fresh bullpen. We just couldn't get the last six outs. We have to regroup in a hurry and be ready to go on Tuesday." - head coach Tom Walter

UP NEXT
Wake Forest plays a pair of midweeks for the first time this season with a Tuesday game in Shelby against App State and Wednesday contest at High Point.

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Team Stats

Nick Kurtz

Jake Reinisch

Seaver King

Antonio Morales

Players Mentioned

Marek Houston

Zach Johnston

Seaver King

Nick Kurtz

Antonio Morales

Jake Reinisch

Jack Winnay

Wake Forest Athletics