Friday, February 21
Winston-Salem, NC
4 p.m.
Wake Forest University
5-1
7
vs
0
St. John's
0-4
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
St. John's
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
6
2
Wake Forest
0
0
0
0
4
0
1
2
X
7
6
3
No. 13 Wake Forest Shutsout St. John’s in Series Opener
2/21/2025 9:33:00 PM | Baseball
The Demon Deacons pitching staff punched out 20 hitters for their fifth game of the season with 10 or more strikeouts.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Behind a stellar pitching performance from starter Logan Lunceford and the rest of the Demon Deacon bullpen, the No. 13 Wake Forest (5-1, 0-0 ACC) baseball team cruised to a 7-0 victory over St. John's (0-4, 0-0 Big East) on Friday night at David F. Couch Ballpark.
Lunceford allowed just one hit over his 5.1 innings of work, striking out a career-high 13 hitters on the night. The rest of the Wake Forest bullpen tallied seven strikeouts over the final 3.2 innings, including four from reliever Will Ray during the sixth and seventh innings.
At the plate, a trio of first-time home runs powered the Wake Forest offense. Transfer Matt Scannell sparked the offense with a grand slam to open the scoring in the bottom of the fifth.
Fellow transfer Kade Lewis launched his first home run of the year with a solo blast to lead off the bottom of the seventh, while freshman Dalton Wentz hit the first home run of his career with a two-run shot to cap the scoring in the bottom half of the eighth.
HOW IT HAPPENED
FROM COACH WALTER
"Logan Lunceford was really good today with 13 strikeouts, two walks, and one hit. It was just an outstanding performance from him. Will Ray came in and threw the ball really well, and then Zach Johnston behind him, and Luke Schmolke. It was a really good day on the mound for us.
We didn't swing the bat great. We had traffic all day, but I think we were 3-for-15 with runners on base by my count. We need to do a better job of cashing in on our opportunities. We certainly need to clean up the errors. Three is too many errors. We need to clean up the defensive part and start having better at-bats with people on base.
It was a relatively low lift for our bullpen tonight, so we have a rested bullpen behind Matthew Dallas tomorrow, and we're looking forward to playing again here in 21 hours." - head coach Tom Walter
UP NEXT
The Demon Deacons will look to clinch the series tomorrow with the first pitch against the Red Storm set for 4 p.m. ET.
Follow The Deacs:
GoDeacs.com | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Lunceford allowed just one hit over his 5.1 innings of work, striking out a career-high 13 hitters on the night. The rest of the Wake Forest bullpen tallied seven strikeouts over the final 3.2 innings, including four from reliever Will Ray during the sixth and seventh innings.
At the plate, a trio of first-time home runs powered the Wake Forest offense. Transfer Matt Scannell sparked the offense with a grand slam to open the scoring in the bottom of the fifth.
Fellow transfer Kade Lewis launched his first home run of the year with a solo blast to lead off the bottom of the seventh, while freshman Dalton Wentz hit the first home run of his career with a two-run shot to cap the scoring in the bottom half of the eighth.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Starter Logan Lunceford began the contest with a pair of Ks to retire St. John's in order in the first.
- The Deacs loaded the bases in the bottom half of the inning but were unable to score.
- Lunceford struck out the side in the top of the second to bring his strikeout total to five through the first two frames.
- The righty matched his career high with nine strikeouts through the first four innings.
- Wake Forest put a runner in scoring position again in the fourth, but couldn't break the deadlock.
- The Deacs grabbed a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth.
- A pair of walks and an error from the Red Storm loaded the bases with no bases.
- With one away, transfer Matt Scannell launched his first home run as a Demon Deacon with a grand slam to right field.
- Lunceford's night ended in the top of the sixth with a career-high 13 punchouts.
- Senior Will Ray entered in relief and worked around a pair of baserunners in both the sixth and seventh innings to keep St. John's off the scoreboard.
- First baseman Kade Lewis took advantage of a hanging breaking ball, depositing it over the wall in left-center to stretch the lead for Wake Forest to 5-0 in the bottom of the seventh.
- Reliever Zach Johnston kept the Red Storm at bay with a scoreless eighth inning of work.
- After a single up the middle from second baseman Austin Hawke to lead off the eighth, freshman Dalton Wentz unloaded on a 2-1 pitch for his first home run as a Demon Deacon to cap the scoring.
- Junior Luke Schmolke finished off the shutout with a pair of strikeouts in the ninth inning, as Wake Forest took the series opener, 7-0.
- The Deacs launched three home runs to bring their season total to 11 through the first six games of the 2025 season. Nine different hitters for Wake Forest have gone deep, including all three on Friday night, which were first-time home runs.
- Transfer Matt Scannell's grand slam to open the scoring marked the 26th of his college career and his first as a Demon Deacon.
- First baseman Kade Lewis's solo shot in the seventh was his first as a Deac and the 11th of his career.
- Freshman Dalton Wentz's 376-foot blast marked the first of his Wake career, with three of his seven hits through six games going for extra bases.
- Wake Forest pitching continued to shine with a season-high 20 strikeouts on the night.
- The Demon Deacons have now produced 10 or more strikeouts in five of the first six games, including 37 in the last two contests.
- Starter Logan Lunceford punched out 13 of the 19 batters that he faced for a new career high.
- Lunceford finished the night allowing just one hit over 5.1 innings, with 21 of the 58 strikes he threw resulting in whiffs.
- Reliever Will Ray got four of his five outs via the punchout, tossing 27 total pitches over his 1.2 innings, with 22 going for strikes.
- Starter Logan Lunceford punched out 13 of the 19 batters that he faced for a new career high.
- The Demon Deacons have now produced 10 or more strikeouts in five of the first six games, including 37 in the last two contests.
- The Demon Deacons have now won 61-straight regular season non-conference home games dating back to May 8, 2021, with the last loss coming against in-state foe Elon that season.
FROM COACH WALTER
"Logan Lunceford was really good today with 13 strikeouts, two walks, and one hit. It was just an outstanding performance from him. Will Ray came in and threw the ball really well, and then Zach Johnston behind him, and Luke Schmolke. It was a really good day on the mound for us.
We didn't swing the bat great. We had traffic all day, but I think we were 3-for-15 with runners on base by my count. We need to do a better job of cashing in on our opportunities. We certainly need to clean up the errors. Three is too many errors. We need to clean up the defensive part and start having better at-bats with people on base.
It was a relatively low lift for our bullpen tonight, so we have a rested bullpen behind Matthew Dallas tomorrow, and we're looking forward to playing again here in 21 hours." - head coach Tom Walter
UP NEXT
The Demon Deacons will look to clinch the series tomorrow with the first pitch against the Red Storm set for 4 p.m. ET.
Follow The Deacs:
GoDeacs.com | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Lunceford, Logan (2-0)
L: Chaffee, Evan (0-2)
Base Running:
SB: Tucker, Jackson 1 ; LeGrande, Jon 1
HBP: LeGrande, Jon 1
Batting:
HR: Wentz, Dalton 1 ; Lewis, Kade 1 ; Scannell, Matt 1
RBI: Wentz, Dalton 2 ; Lewis, Kade 1 ; Scannell, Matt 4
SH: Hawke, Austin 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Wentz, Dalton 1 ; Conrad, Ethan 1 ; Winnay, Jack 1 ; Lewis, Kade 2 ; Scannell, Matt 1 ; Hawke, Austin 1
SB: Winnay, Jack 1 ; Keenan, Jimmy 1
HBP: Lewis, Kade 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
2
R
2
H
2
RBI
1
AB
4
R
1
H
1
RBI
2
AB
5
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
4
R
1
H
1
RBI
4
Players Mentioned
LHP
/ Baseball
INF
/ Baseball
LHP
/ BaseballINF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
OF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ BaseballINF
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