Friday, May 16
Louisville, KY
1 p.m.
Wake Forest University
36-18, 16-13
5
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4
Louisville
34-20, 14-15
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9
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Wake Forest
0
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12
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Louisville
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7
1
Long Ball Leads Wake Forest to Series Win at No. 21 Louisville
5/16/2025 5:15:00 PM | Baseball
The Demon Deacons have hit eight home runs in two games against the Cardinals and this marked the third-straight year that the Deacs have won the series against Louisville.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – For the second-straight day, graduate transfer Matt Scannell gave Wake Forest the lead in the seventh, as the Demon Deacons used his three-run home run to take the series over No. 21 Louisville, 5-4, on Friday afternoon at Jim Patterson Stadium.
This marks the third consecutive series win over the Cardinals (34-20, 14-15 ACC) and continues to improve the Demon Deacons (36-18, 16-13 ACC) position in the ACC standings in the final weekend.
With one game to play in the regular season, the Deacs currently sit as the No. 8 seed in next week's ACC Tournament in Durham, N.C., slotting Wake Forest in the 9:00 a.m. game on Wednesday against the winner of the No. 9 and No. 16 seed. Additionally, the Demon Deacons are now a half game back of both Clemson and Duke in the standings with both of them playing later on Friday.
Scannell sent the third pitch of his at-bat deep into right field for a no-doubter to give the Demon Deacons the lead late in the contest. Scannell has homered in each of the last three games for Wake Forest, and becomes the fourth Deac to reach double-digit homers this season.
Junior Austin Hawke homered for the second-straight day and sixth time in the last seven days with his solo shot in the second inning. Hawke had just five career home runs in 82 games played before the recent power surge over the last two weeks.
All five of the Demon Deacon runs came off of home runs with freshman Lucas Costello launching his eighth home run of the season over the centerfield wall in the second inning. Wake Forest now has eight home runs in the series after having five in the series-opening win Thursday night.
Starter Matthew Dallas limited the Cardinals to just four hits over 4.2 innings on the mound, striking out four hitters on the afternoon. After Louisville loaded the bases with one out in the fourth, Dallas got the next two batters to strike out, ending the threat.
The Demon Deacons also got a strong performance out of the bullpen, with just one earned run over the last 4.1 innings.
Graduate student Griffin Green claimed his second win of the season after pitching 1.1 innings in relief of Dallas, while junior Luke Schmolke and sophomore Haiden Leffew closed the final 2.2 innings of the game. Leffew earned his fourth save of the season.
HOW IT HAPPENED
FROM COACH WALTER
"I'm proud of our guys just battling. [Matt Scannell] with another huge, huge home run. Luke Schmolke gets us five big outs, and then Haiden [Leffew]. You've got to give Haiden a lot of credit there, gives up the lead-off double, and has got the top of their order up, which is so good. He gets two big punchouts and a ground ball. I was proud of him because he got away from his fastball, went to his breaking ball, made that adjustment, which was good to see. So great job by [Corey Muscara] calling those last three hitters. That was an intense game, and Louisville's such a good team, and they're so dynamic. They do so many things to beat you. You look at the runs they scored today – we have a stolen base and a balk that leads to a run. And then, we have a ball that we misplay in left field that leads to another run. Give credit to Matt Dallas, after that ball in left field, got us two huge punch outs. I thought Dally threw the best he's thrown in a while today. I was really happy with his outing and proud of how he battled." - Head Coach Tom Walter
UP NEXT
Wake Forest goes for the sweep of Louisville tomorrow on ACC Network at noon.
FOLLOW THE DEACS
GoDeacs.com | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
This marks the third consecutive series win over the Cardinals (34-20, 14-15 ACC) and continues to improve the Demon Deacons (36-18, 16-13 ACC) position in the ACC standings in the final weekend.
With one game to play in the regular season, the Deacs currently sit as the No. 8 seed in next week's ACC Tournament in Durham, N.C., slotting Wake Forest in the 9:00 a.m. game on Wednesday against the winner of the No. 9 and No. 16 seed. Additionally, the Demon Deacons are now a half game back of both Clemson and Duke in the standings with both of them playing later on Friday.
Scannell sent the third pitch of his at-bat deep into right field for a no-doubter to give the Demon Deacons the lead late in the contest. Scannell has homered in each of the last three games for Wake Forest, and becomes the fourth Deac to reach double-digit homers this season.
Junior Austin Hawke homered for the second-straight day and sixth time in the last seven days with his solo shot in the second inning. Hawke had just five career home runs in 82 games played before the recent power surge over the last two weeks.
All five of the Demon Deacon runs came off of home runs with freshman Lucas Costello launching his eighth home run of the season over the centerfield wall in the second inning. Wake Forest now has eight home runs in the series after having five in the series-opening win Thursday night.
Starter Matthew Dallas limited the Cardinals to just four hits over 4.2 innings on the mound, striking out four hitters on the afternoon. After Louisville loaded the bases with one out in the fourth, Dallas got the next two batters to strike out, ending the threat.
The Demon Deacons also got a strong performance out of the bullpen, with just one earned run over the last 4.1 innings.
Graduate student Griffin Green claimed his second win of the season after pitching 1.1 innings in relief of Dallas, while junior Luke Schmolke and sophomore Haiden Leffew closed the final 2.2 innings of the game. Leffew earned his fourth save of the season.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- A sacrifice fly put Louisville on the board first in the bottom of the first.
- After Wake Forest was down 1-0 going into the second inning, the Demon Deacons struck back with a pair of runs to grab the lead.
- With one out, freshman Lucas Costello launched his eighth home run of the season over the centerfield wall to tie the game.
- Two batters later, junior Austin Hawke continued his power surge with his sixth home run in the last seven days.
- His eighth home run of the season gave the Deacs a 2-1 lead going into the bottom of the second.
- On the bump, sophomore Matthew Dallas put the Cardinals down in 1-2-3 fashion, inducing a pair of groundouts and a fly ball to right field.
- Louisville tied it back up at 2-2 in the third.
- Dallas limited the damage, leaving the bases loaded in the fourth with back-to-back strikeouts to get out of the jam.
- Louisville scored one run to take the lead, 3-2.
- Dallas completed 4.2 innings of work before turning the ball over to Griffin Green.
- He got the first hitter to fly out to right, holding the deficit at 3-2 going into the fifth inning.
- Wake Forest loaded the bases with two outs, but were unable to even the contest in the top of the sixth.
- Green continued his strong outing, blanking the Cardinals in the sixth to keep the Demon Deacons within one.
- The Deacs responded in the seventh to jump back in front.
- Catcher Jimmy Keenan singled to center with one out and sophomore Javar Williams followed it up with a bunt single down the third base line.
- Graduate student Matt Scannell launched the Deacs third home run of the day, sending it over the right field fence to put Wake Forest in front, 5-3.
- Louisville scratched one back in the bottom of the seventh to make it a 5-4 Wake Forest advantage.
- The Deacs threatened to extend their lead with two runners on in the eighth, but were unable to push anyone home.
- Junior righthander Luke Schmolke, who came on to get the final two outs of the seventh, had a clean frame in the eighth, setting down Louisville in order.
- After the Demon Deacons went scoreless in the top of the ninth, the ball got turned over to sophomore lefthander Haiden Leffew.
- Leffew closed out the game with his fourth save of the season, getting the final runner to ground out.
- The Deacs captured the series against Louisville for the third-straight year, winning 5-4.
- All five of the Wake Forest runs in the game were scored via the home run on Friday afternoon, with solo shots coming from junior Austin Hawke and freshman Lucas Costello in the second while graduate student Matt Scannell's three-run shot to right lifted the Deacs to the win.
- Overall, the Demon Deacons have now hit eight home runs in the first two games in the series.
- Since the start of the 2022 season, Wake Forest has totaled 459 home runs, which leads the ACC and ranks third nationally during that time.
- The Deacs are one of just four teams nationally to have 100 or more home runs in each of the last three seasons, joined by Texas A&M, Florida, and Campbell.
- Wake Forest has belted 94 home runs over 54 games to lead the ACC and 11th in the nation pending the rest of Friday's results.
- The Demon Deacons are one of just 12 teams over the 90-homer mark to this point of the season, led by Winnay and Houston with 12 homers.
- Wake Forest has left the yard at least once in all but 10 games to this point in the 2025 campaign.
- The Deacs are 32-12 when hitting a home run and 21-5 when hitting multiple homers.
- Since Corey Muscara joined the Deacs in 2022, Wake Forest's starting pitchers have outlasted or matched their counterparts in 172 of 241 games (71.4%).
- During that time frame, the Deacs are 142-29-1 (.826), going 34-9-1 in 2022, 48-4 in 2023, 32-8 in 2024, and 28-8 to this point of the 2025 campaign.
- On the flip side, Wake is 28-41 (.406) in the 69 games where opposing pitchers have had a longer outing.
FROM COACH WALTER
"I'm proud of our guys just battling. [Matt Scannell] with another huge, huge home run. Luke Schmolke gets us five big outs, and then Haiden [Leffew]. You've got to give Haiden a lot of credit there, gives up the lead-off double, and has got the top of their order up, which is so good. He gets two big punchouts and a ground ball. I was proud of him because he got away from his fastball, went to his breaking ball, made that adjustment, which was good to see. So great job by [Corey Muscara] calling those last three hitters. That was an intense game, and Louisville's such a good team, and they're so dynamic. They do so many things to beat you. You look at the runs they scored today – we have a stolen base and a balk that leads to a run. And then, we have a ball that we misplay in left field that leads to another run. Give credit to Matt Dallas, after that ball in left field, got us two huge punch outs. I thought Dally threw the best he's thrown in a while today. I was really happy with his outing and proud of how he battled." - Head Coach Tom Walter
UP NEXT
Wake Forest goes for the sweep of Louisville tomorrow on ACC Network at noon.
FOLLOW THE DEACS
GoDeacs.com | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Griffin Green (2-1)
L: Jake Schweitzer (3-2)
S: Haiden Leffew (3)
Batting:
HR: Matt Scannell 1 ; Costello, Luke 1 ; Hawke, Austin 1
RBI: Matt Scannell 3 ; Costello, Luke 1 ; Hawke, Austin 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Matt Scannell 1 ; Costello, Luke 1 ; Hawke, Austin 1 ; Keenan, Jimmy 1 ; Williams, Javar 1
CS: Schaaf, Blake 1
PO: Schaaf, Blake 1
Batting:
2B: Jake Munroe 1 ; Tague Davis 1 ; Tagger Tyson 1
RBI: Alex Alicea 1 ; Zion Rose 1 ; Garret Pike 1 ; Tague Davis 1
SH: Lucas Moore 1
SF: Zion Rose 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Lucas Moore 1 ; Alex Alicea 1 ; Jake Munroe 1 ; George Baker 1
SB: Alex Alicea 2 ; Zion Rose 1 ; Tanner Shiver 1
HBP: George Baker 1
Game Leaders
AB
5
R
0
H
2
RBI
0
AB
5
R
0
H
2
RBI
0
AB
4
R
1
H
2
RBI
1
cf/lf
AB
4
R
1
H
2
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
LHP
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RHP
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INF
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C
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LHP
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OF
/ Baseball
RHP
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OF
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