Sunday, March 2
Winston-Salem, NC
9:30 a.m.
Wake Forest University
9-3
6
vs
7
Princeton
1-7
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Princeton
0
0
0
7
0
0
0
0
0
7
6
0
Wake Forest
0
0
1
0
0
2
1
0
2
6
10
0
No. 12 Wake Forest Earns 10th Win of Season in Sunday Split
3/2/2025 7:46:00 PM | Baseball
The Demon Deacons bounced back with a 9-1 victory in the final game of the weekend.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Responding from a tough 7-6 loss against Princeton (1-7) to start the day, the No. 12 Wake Forest (10-3) baseball team got back in the win column with a 9-1 victory over Maryland (6-5) on Sunday afternoon at David F. Couch Ballpark.
Freshman Dalton Wentz paced the Wake Forest offense on the day, finishing 6-for-10 (.600) over the two games with three doubles and three RBIs. First baseman Jack Winnay was electric in the second game, belting a pair of home runs for the fifth multi-HR game of his career and second of the 2025 season.
Transfer Ethan Conrad gave the Demon Deacons the lead against Maryland with his third home run of the year and has reached base safely in all 13 games so far of his Demon Deacon career.
Sophomore Blake Morningstar had his best performance in a Wake Forest uniform, limiting the Terps to just three hits over 6.0 scoreless innings while matching his career high with seven strikeouts in a no decision.
Junior Luke Schmolke earned his second win of the season, picking up the final nine outs for the Deacs. Schmolke allowed just one hit with five strikeouts.
In the opening game of the day, reliever Joe Ariola had his best outing as a Deac, holding Princeton hitless over 3.2 innings with a career-high eight strikeouts.
HOW IT HAPPENED (Game One)
HOW IT HAPPENED (Game Two)
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
STAGGERING STATISTIC
FROM COACH WALTER
"Great bounce back win that we sorely needed. Blake Morningstar was the difference. He was outstanding. He can't pitch a whole lot better than he pitched today. And you know, he's really turning into a guy for us. His last couple outings have been outstanding. He's got four real pitches that he can throw at any time in the count that makes him really hard to deal with. It wasn't a great day for us offensively. Disappointing in the first game that we didn't find a way to come back and win that. Disappointing in the first game that we gave up seven runs with two outs. We've had in the last two games that we couldn't get off the field in the ninth. Yesterday, and couldn't get off the field today in the Princeton game, there in the fourth. We've got to find a way with two outs to make a pitch in that situation. We knew Princeton had their guy in the bullpen who's good, and runs were going to be hard to come by late, but I figured we'd do a little more than we did. So game one, disappointing loss. Really happy with the bounce back in game two, but we've got some questions to answer offensively. You probably have to move Marek Houston up in the leadoff spot starting on Tuesday. I feel really good about Houston, followed by Conrad, Winnay, Lewis and Wentz, I feel really good about that stretch and Austin Hawke. I felt good about his at-bats today so Austin will be back in there on Tuesday too. We've got to answer the other spots in our lineup. We just had too many games where we have outs in our lineup, and we need to do a better job grinding at bats. So disappointing weekend, all in all. But really happy with the bounce back, winning game two." - Head Coach Tom Walter
UP NEXT
Wake Forest travels to Boone, N.C. on Tuesday, Mar. 4 for an in-state matchup with App State. First pitch against the Mountaineers is set for 5 p.m. ET.
FOLLOW THE DEACS
GoDeacs.com | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Freshman Dalton Wentz paced the Wake Forest offense on the day, finishing 6-for-10 (.600) over the two games with three doubles and three RBIs. First baseman Jack Winnay was electric in the second game, belting a pair of home runs for the fifth multi-HR game of his career and second of the 2025 season.
Transfer Ethan Conrad gave the Demon Deacons the lead against Maryland with his third home run of the year and has reached base safely in all 13 games so far of his Demon Deacon career.
Sophomore Blake Morningstar had his best performance in a Wake Forest uniform, limiting the Terps to just three hits over 6.0 scoreless innings while matching his career high with seven strikeouts in a no decision.
Junior Luke Schmolke earned his second win of the season, picking up the final nine outs for the Deacs. Schmolke allowed just one hit with five strikeouts.
In the opening game of the day, reliever Joe Ariola had his best outing as a Deac, holding Princeton hitless over 3.2 innings with a career-high eight strikeouts.
HOW IT HAPPENED (Game One)
- After a leadoff single, starter Matt Bedford struck out the side in the first.
- A great defensive effort from freshman Dalton Wentz helped retire the Tigers in order in the second.
- Bedford ran his strikeout total to five with a punchout in the top of the third for the final out of the frame.
- Catcher Matt Conte led off the inning with a solo shot to right center for his first home run as a Demon Deacon to break the deadlock.
- Princeton took a 7-1 lead in the top of the fourth.
- Reliever Joe Ariola worked a 1-2-3 inning in both the fifth and sixth.
- The Deacs cut into the deficit with a pair of runs in the bottom half of the sixth.
- Junior Ethan Conrad led off the inning with a single back up the middle and moved into scoring position after right fielder Jack Winnay was hit by a pitch.
- After a productive groundout moved both runners into scoring position, Wentz drove in a run with an RBI groundout.
- Senior Chris Katz doubled into the gap in left center to make it 7-3.
- Ariola ran his strikeout total to seven with another scoreless inning to take the contest to the stretch.
- A sac fly from Winnay trimmed the Princeton lead down to 7-4 after seven complete innings.
- Senior Dylan Zucker got the last two outs of the eighth with a strikeout and pick-off at first to keep Wake Forest in it.
- The Demon Deacons got the tying run to third, but Princeton held on for a 7-6 win.
HOW IT HAPPENED (Game Two)
- Sophomore Blake Morningstar got his day started with a three-up, three-down top of the first.
- The Deacs got a runner 90 feet away, but were unable to score in the bottom half.
- Morningstar retired the Terps in order in both the second and third innings to keep the visitors off the scoreboard.
- The righty danced around trouble in the fourth with a pair of strikeouts, and retired Maryland in order in the fifth.
- Wake broke through in the bottom half for the first run of the contest on a two-strike, two-out RBI single from sophomore Kade Lewis.
- A great play from left fielder Antonio Morales on a fly ball towards the line kept Maryland off the board in the sixth to preserve the 1-0 advantage.
- Maryland tied the game at 1-1 in the top of the seventh.
- The Demon Deacons broke the game open with five runs in the bottom of the seventh.
- Pinch hitter Javar Williams laced the first pitch he saw through the right side for a lead-off single.
- Junior Marek Houston walked for the third time in the game to put two on with nobody out.
- Conrad delivered the big blow, hammering an 0-1 pitch over the wall in left center to make it 4-1 in favor of the home team.
- Winnay went back-to-back with Conrad, taking the very next pitch over the right field wall to push the lead to four.
- Lewis drew a six-pitch walk and moved to second on a wild pitch to put another runner in scoring position for the Demon Deacons.
- With his second hit of the game, and sixth of the day, Wentz plated Lewis on a single to right field to push the Demon Deacon lead to 6-1 after seven complete.
- Junior Luke Schmolke had a shutdown frame in the eighth with a pair of strikeouts to keep the lead at five.
- Wake cushioned the lead with three runs in the bottom of the eighth.
- Three stolen bases combined from Houston and Conrad put a pair in scoring position with one away.
- For the fifth time in his career, Winnay had a multi-HR performance, taking a 2-2 pitch over the wall in left field to make it 9-1.
- Schmolke slammed the door in the ninth to put the Demon Deacons back in the win column.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
- Making his second start of the season, sophomore Blake Morningstar had his best outing since joining the Deacs last year.
- Morningstar retired the first nine batters he faced on Sunday and held a Maryland offense that was averaging 12.6 hits per game entering the contest to just three over 6.0 scoreless innings.
- The Wyalusing, Pa. native had at least one strikeout in each inning of work en route to matching his career high of seven punchouts.
- On the season, Morningstar holds a 1.26 ERA over 14.1 innings and has struckout 18 hitters. Opponents are hitting just .157 against him.
STAGGERING STATISTIC
- Freshman Dalton Wentz picked up his fourth and fifth multi-hit efforts of the 2025 season with a 6-for-10 (.600) day against Princeton and Maryland.
- Wentz doubled three times against the Tigers becoming the first Demon Deacon to do so since Chris Lanzilli at Duke during the 2019 season.
- Wentz now leads the team with seven doubles on the season, which would place him tied for second nationally, pending other performances this weekend.
FROM COACH WALTER
"Great bounce back win that we sorely needed. Blake Morningstar was the difference. He was outstanding. He can't pitch a whole lot better than he pitched today. And you know, he's really turning into a guy for us. His last couple outings have been outstanding. He's got four real pitches that he can throw at any time in the count that makes him really hard to deal with. It wasn't a great day for us offensively. Disappointing in the first game that we didn't find a way to come back and win that. Disappointing in the first game that we gave up seven runs with two outs. We've had in the last two games that we couldn't get off the field in the ninth. Yesterday, and couldn't get off the field today in the Princeton game, there in the fourth. We've got to find a way with two outs to make a pitch in that situation. We knew Princeton had their guy in the bullpen who's good, and runs were going to be hard to come by late, but I figured we'd do a little more than we did. So game one, disappointing loss. Really happy with the bounce back in game two, but we've got some questions to answer offensively. You probably have to move Marek Houston up in the leadoff spot starting on Tuesday. I feel really good about Houston, followed by Conrad, Winnay, Lewis and Wentz, I feel really good about that stretch and Austin Hawke. I felt good about his at-bats today so Austin will be back in there on Tuesday too. We've got to answer the other spots in our lineup. We just had too many games where we have outs in our lineup, and we need to do a better job grinding at bats. So disappointing weekend, all in all. But really happy with the bounce back, winning game two." - Head Coach Tom Walter
UP NEXT
Wake Forest travels to Boone, N.C. on Tuesday, Mar. 4 for an in-state matchup with App State. First pitch against the Mountaineers is set for 5 p.m. ET.
FOLLOW THE DEACS
GoDeacs.com | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Kinneen, Liam (1-1)
L: Bedford, Matt (1-2)
S: Faulkner, Jacob (1)
Batting:
2B: Bold, Jake 1
RBI: Shapiro, Caden 2 ; Bold, Jake 2 ; Werdesheim, Grant 1 ; Googins, Tommy 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Koonin, Jake 1 ; Shapiro, Caden 1 ; Shenefelt, Nick 1 ; Zdunek, Dylan 1 ; Werdesheim, Grant 1 ; Zorc, Joseph 1 ; Googins, Tommy 1
SB: Shapiro, Caden 1
HBP: Zorc, Joseph 1
PO: Werdesheim, Grant 1
Batting:
2B: Houston, Marek 1 ; Wentz, Dalton 3 ; Katz, Chris 1
HR: Conte, Matt 1
RBI: Winnay, Jack 1 ; Lewis, Kade 1 ; Wentz, Dalton 2 ; Katz, Chris 1 ; Conte, Matt 1
SF: Winnay, Jack 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Conrad, Ethan 2 ; Winnay, Jack 2 ; Conte, Matt 1 ; Hawke, Austin 1
CS: Lewis, Kade 1
HBP: Conrad, Ethan 1 ; Winnay, Jack 1
Game Leaders
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4
RBI
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AB
5
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0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
3
R
2
H
1
RBI
0
AB
5
R
0
H
1
RBI
1
Players Mentioned
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