Deacs Drop Finale But Take Series at No. 21 Louisville

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Securing the series on Friday night, the Wake Forest baseball team could not complete the sweep of No. 21 Louisville, falling 14-9 on Saturday afternoon at Jim Patterson Stadium.

Despite the loss, this still marks the third straight year that the Demon Deacons (36-19, 16-14 ACC) had won the series over the Cardinals (35-20, 15-15 ACC) with a 14-4 victory on Thursday and a 5-4 win on Friday. Additionally, Wake Forest became the first team to win a series at Louisville this season as the Cardinals had previously taken every other home series.

With Notre Dame's win over Miami, Wake Forest secures a bye in the opening round of the 2025 ACC Tournament, the Deacs earn 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.

Junior Jack Winnay finished a triple short of the cycle and has now hit safely in 15 of the last 16 for Wake Forest as the Demon Deacons enter postseason play. Winnay recorded the second four-hit game of his career with a double, home run and a pair of singles.

Additionally, sophomore Kade Lewis has now reached base in 25 consecutive games after a walk in the first inning.

Freshman Luke Costello picked up his sixth RBI in as many games with a run-scoring single to right field in the fourth inning.

Catcher Jimmy Keenan launched his sixth home run of the year to left field in the fifth to trim into the Cardinal lead. The junior collected his fifth multi-hit effort of the year in the series finale.

With the Demon Deacons hitting two more home runs in the series finale, it brings their season total to 96 for the season which leads the ACC and ranks inside the top 20 nationally. Wake Forest is looking to reach the 100 home run mark for the fourth straight season. The Deacs were one of just four schools to have 100 or more home runs each of the last three seasons (Campbell, Florida and Texas A&M).

HOW IT HAPPENED

Louisville struck first on a two-run home run in the bottom of the first.
The Cardinals extended their lead to 4-0 after two complete innings.
Wake Forest continued to search for its first hit through the first three innings.
A third home run pushed Louisville's advantage to 5-0 after three innings of play.
First baseman Jack Winnay collected the first hit of the game on a double to the wall in left. Winnay came home for Wake Forest's first run on a single to right field by freshman Luke Costello.
Louisville got the run back in the bottom half of the inning to make it 6-1.
The Deacs continued to fight back with a two-run home run by catcher Jimmy Keenan to make it a 6-3 game in the fifth.
Louisville scored another in the bottom on the fifth to make it 7-3.
After a double to start the inning from sophomore Kade Lewis, Winnay put the Deacs squarely back in the game with a two-run blast to left field.
- Freshman Lucas Costello and graduate student Matt Scannell continued the no-out hitting with a pair of singles to put runners on the corners. Scannell moved into scoring position on a wild pitch.
- Junior Austin Hawke loaded the bases with no outs, working a five-pitch walk.
- After a pitching change, Kennan walked in a run on four pitches, making it a 7-6 game.
- Two batters later, sophomore Antonio Morales tied the game as a sac fly drove in Scannell from third.
Heading to the bottom of the sixth, freshman Duncan Marsten came in after the first batter reached on a walk.
- After the bases were loaded with no outs, Marsten worked out of the jam with just one run coming across.
Trailing 8-7 in the seventh, Winnay started off the inning with a single up the middle.
- Scannell singled to right, putting two runners on with one out.
- Hawke advanced both runners into scoring position with a fly ball to center, but the Deacs were unable to push the tying run across.
Louisville pushed its lead to 10-7 with a pair of runs in the 7th.
Three more runs made it 14-7 in favor of the home team in the eighth.
In the top of the ninth the Demon Deacons added a pair to the scoring total as Winnay and Scannell both scored.
- Louisville took the final game of the series, 14-9.

FROM COACH WALTER
"Great job offensively today. I thought we grinded our at-bats. I thought we were as good today offensively as we've been all year. First couple of innings, [Patrick] Forbes was good, and then we got to him, and had good at-bats the rest of the day. So pleased with us offensively.

We didn't get a zero today. We gave up runs in every inning. They hit a couple of home runs, but most of their runs, we gave them either by free passes, errors, or balls that we should have made plays on that got called hits. We just didn't do a good job on the mound and defensively today, which was unfortunate.

The good news is we locked up the eighth seed, so we get a first-round bye. We don't play until Wednesday. So we're looking forward to heading to Durham and getting ready to play good baseball for a while." - Head Coach Tom Walter

UP NEXT
Wake Forest heads to Durham for the 2025 ACC Baseball Tournament. The Demon Deacons have secured a bye to Wednesday and will open the 2025 ACC Baseball Tournament at 9 a.m. ET on Wednesday, May 17 against the winner of the No. 9 and No. 16 seed. Stay tuned for more information later tonight.

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Deacs Drop Finale But Take Series at No. 21 Louisville

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Team Stats

Jackson Miller

Luke Costello

Matt Scannell

Jimmy Keenan

Players Mentioned

Luke Costello

Austin Hawke

Jimmy Keenan

Kade Lewis

Duncan Marsten

Antonio Morales

Matt Scannell

Jack Winnay

Wake Forest Athletics