Saturday, April 26
Stanford, CA
5 p.m.
Wake Forest University
28-16, 11-12
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Stanford
21-18, 7-16
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Ninth-Inning Rally Helps Wake Forest Even Series at Stanford
4/26/2025 10:28:00 PM | Baseball
The Deacs will look to take the series at 4 p.m. ET tomorrow.
STANFORD, Calif. – Scoring five runs in the top of the ninth, the Wake Forest baseball team won a wild one on Saturday afternoon, taking the middle game of the series, 12-9, over Stanford at Sunken Diamond.
As a team, Wake Forest (28-16, 11-12 ACC) collected a season-high 19 hits, including 11 in the final three innings against the Cardinal (21-18, 7-16 ACC) to set up the rubber game tomorrow.
Sophomore Kade Lewis paced Wake Forest with a 4-for-5 day, scoring and driving in a pair of runs. No hit was bigger than his ninth-inning single that put the Demon Deacons on top for good, as the third baseman sent the first pitch of the at-bat into center field for the go-ahead run.
Lewis collected his 20th multi-hit effort of the season and his second game of the year with four hits. In total, seven different hitters for the Demon Deacons collected two hits or more on Saturday.
Second baseman Austin Hawke had a huge day off the bench, collecting three RBI on a 2-for-5 effort. Hawke beat out an infield single in the ninth that plated a pair of runs thanks in part to some heads-up baserunning from Lewis to score from second on the play.
Center fielder Cam Nelson drove in a trio of runs to give the sophomore multiple RBI for the second-straight contest, and the fifth time this season.
Starter Blake Morningstar worked 5.0 innings, allowing just one earned run with six punchouts. The sophomore kept the Demon Deacons in the contest with back-to-back scoreless frames in the fourth and fifth innings.
Freshman Rhys Bowie was lights out in the ninth to earn the first save of his collegiate career.
HOW IT HAPPENED
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
STAGGERING STATISTIC
FROM COACH WALTER
"I feel like that's the win we've been needing. Hopefully, that can spark us. I'm really proud of our guys. Their at-bats in the seventh and the ninth were just awesome. They just grinded it out and fought for it. I thought Matt Bedford threw the ball good. I mean, he got three soft ground balls and one of them found a hole, but he did the job we needed to do in the eighth. Rhys Bowie came in there in the ninth and did a great job. Proud of Blake Morningstar giving us five solid innings and didn't have his best stuff again this week, but we'll get it figured out. When I say didn't have his best stuff, one earned run, six strikeouts and one walk. I mean, that's a good outing for anybody, but just didn't make a couple of plays behind him and ran his pitch count up. Every one of our at-bats [in the ninth inning] were just quality. Matt Scannell, both the balls he made outs on were 100 miles-per-hour ground balls which is what we want in that situation. We found some holes when we had to. Cam Nelson had a huge two-strike at bat and single to left. Kade Lewis gets a first pitch heater. Marek [Houston] with two strikes singles to right. We had our backs against the wall and the Deacs responded. I'm proud of them." - Head Coach Tom Walter
UP NEXT
Wake Forest goes for the series tomorrow at 4 p.m. ET on ACC Network Extra.
FOLLOW THE DEACS
GoDeacs.com | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
As a team, Wake Forest (28-16, 11-12 ACC) collected a season-high 19 hits, including 11 in the final three innings against the Cardinal (21-18, 7-16 ACC) to set up the rubber game tomorrow.
Sophomore Kade Lewis paced Wake Forest with a 4-for-5 day, scoring and driving in a pair of runs. No hit was bigger than his ninth-inning single that put the Demon Deacons on top for good, as the third baseman sent the first pitch of the at-bat into center field for the go-ahead run.
Lewis collected his 20th multi-hit effort of the season and his second game of the year with four hits. In total, seven different hitters for the Demon Deacons collected two hits or more on Saturday.
Second baseman Austin Hawke had a huge day off the bench, collecting three RBI on a 2-for-5 effort. Hawke beat out an infield single in the ninth that plated a pair of runs thanks in part to some heads-up baserunning from Lewis to score from second on the play.
Center fielder Cam Nelson drove in a trio of runs to give the sophomore multiple RBI for the second-straight contest, and the fifth time this season.
Starter Blake Morningstar worked 5.0 innings, allowing just one earned run with six punchouts. The sophomore kept the Demon Deacons in the contest with back-to-back scoreless frames in the fourth and fifth innings.
Freshman Rhys Bowie was lights out in the ninth to earn the first save of his collegiate career.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Wake Forest took an early lead in the first as third baseman Kade Lewis sent a single through the right side to get the Deacs on the board.
- The Cardinal scored two runs back in the bottom of the frame to take the lead.
- The Deacs put a runner in scoring position in the second but were unable to convert.
- Stanford extended their lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the second.
- Morningstar collected a pair of strikeouts in the fourth for a scoreless frame.
- Wake Forest cut Stanford's lead in half with a two-out, two-RBI single from Cam Nelson to make it 5-3 in the sixth.
- Reliever Josh Gunther worked a shutdown frame in the bottom half to keep the deficit at two runs.
- The Deacons put up four runs in the seventh inning to take a 7-5 lead over the Cardinal.
- With no outs and the bases loaded, second baseman Austin Hawke singled down the right field line to drive in the first run of the inning.
- Catcher Matt Conte followed with an RBI single of his own to left field to tie the contest at 5-5.
- A double that split the gap in left center from sophomore Javar Williams sent the final two runs of the frame across the plate.
- Gunther retired the side in order in the seventh to hold the Deacs' two-run lead.
- Stanford took the lead back with four runs in their half of the eighth inning.
- Wake Forest regained the lead with five runs in the top of the ninth.
- A single from Nelson with the bases loaded got the first run of the frame home.
- Shortstop Marek Houston and Lewis recorded back-to-back RBI singles to add two more to the Demon Deacons' lead.
- Hawke recorded a two-out, two-RBI single out to second base to close the scoring for the Deacs.
- Reliever Rhys Bowie earned his first save, as he closed out the ninth for the Deacs and helped to even the weekend series with a 12-9 win.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
- Sophomore Kade Lewis paced Wake Forest with a 4-for-5 day, scoring and driving in a pair of runs.
- Lewis brings his batting average up to an astounding .436 on the year and is the first Demon Deacon to reach 50 RBI this season.
STAGGERING STATISTIC
- Wake Forest picked up its first win of the season when trailing after eight innings.
- One of the keys to the Deacs' success over the last three years has been scoring first, as Wake Forest has gone 81-22 in games where they got on the board first since the 2023 season. Under Tom Walter, Wake is 314-125-1 when scoring first, including a 19-4 mark to start the 2025 campaign.
- Since Corey Muscara joined the Deacs in 2022, Wake Forest's starting pitchers have outlasted or matched their counterparts in 164 of 231 games (70.9%). During that time frame, the Deacs are 133-25-1 (.811), going 34-9-1 in 2022, 48-4 in 2023, 32-8 in 2024, and 21-7 to this point of the 2025 campaign.
- Wake Forest has cashed in on the big inning with four or more runs in a frame on 37 occasions through the first 44 games of the 2025 campaign, including a pair this afternoon to lead the Demon Deacons to victory.
FROM COACH WALTER
"I feel like that's the win we've been needing. Hopefully, that can spark us. I'm really proud of our guys. Their at-bats in the seventh and the ninth were just awesome. They just grinded it out and fought for it. I thought Matt Bedford threw the ball good. I mean, he got three soft ground balls and one of them found a hole, but he did the job we needed to do in the eighth. Rhys Bowie came in there in the ninth and did a great job. Proud of Blake Morningstar giving us five solid innings and didn't have his best stuff again this week, but we'll get it figured out. When I say didn't have his best stuff, one earned run, six strikeouts and one walk. I mean, that's a good outing for anybody, but just didn't make a couple of plays behind him and ran his pitch count up. Every one of our at-bats [in the ninth inning] were just quality. Matt Scannell, both the balls he made outs on were 100 miles-per-hour ground balls which is what we want in that situation. We found some holes when we had to. Cam Nelson had a huge two-strike at bat and single to left. Kade Lewis gets a first pitch heater. Marek [Houston] with two strikes singles to right. We had our backs against the wall and the Deacs responded. I'm proud of them." - Head Coach Tom Walter
UP NEXT
Wake Forest goes for the series tomorrow at 4 p.m. ET on ACC Network Extra.
FOLLOW THE DEACS
GoDeacs.com | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Bedford, Matt (5-3)
L: Keenan, Aidan (1-2)
S: Bowie, Rhys (1)
Batting:
2B: Scannell, Matt 1 ; Williams, Javar 1
RBI: Nelson, Cam 3 ; Houston, Marek 1 ; Lewis, Kade 2 ; Hawke, Austin 3 ; Conte, Matt 1 ; Williams, Javar 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Nelson, Cam 2 ; Houston, Marek 1 ; Lewis, Kade 2 ; Winnay, Jack 1 ; Costello, Luke 2 ; Hawke, Austin 1 ; Scannell, Matt 1 ; Salvino, Mitchell 1 ; Williams, Javar 1
SB: Lewis, Kade 1 ; Scannell, Matt 1
Batting:
2B: Marsh, Tatum 1
RBI: Haskins, Trevor 2 ; Marsh, Tatum 1 ; Nati, Jimmy 1 ; Becerra, Temo 2 ; Lavin, Luke 1
SF: Haskins, Trevor 1 ; Lavin, Luke 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Reynolds, Brady 1 ; Marsh, Tatum 2 ; Nati, Jimmy 2 ; Lavin, Luke 1 ; Hott, Ethan 2 ; MacDonald, Cort 1
SB: Reynolds, Brady 1 ; Becerra, Temo 1
HBP: Haskins, Trevor 1 ; Nati, Jimmy 1
Game Leaders
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3
RBI
2
AB
5
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2
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2
RBI
3
AB
5
R
1
H
2
RBI
1
Players Mentioned
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