Wake Forest Drops Opening Game of Knoxville Regional

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The Wake Forest baseball team dropped the opening contest of the Knoxville Regional, 11-6, to Cincinnati Friday afternoon at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

The Demon Deacons (36-21) will now play in an elimination game tomorrow (May 31) against the loser of Tennessee and Miami (OH) at 12 p.m. ET.

Freshman Dalton Wentz launched a pair of home runs for the second-straight game to move into third on the team with 12 in his first year as a Demon Deacon.

First baseman Jack Winnay recorded a hit for the ninth-straight contest and 16th time in the last 17 games with a solo shot in the fifth inning to bring his RBI to 60 on the year.

Junior Marek Houston recorded his 28th RBI with two outs on a single to left field in the second inning, and later launched his 13th home run of the season to match Winnay with 60 RBI.

Reliever Luke Schmolke held the Bearcats hitless over 1.2 innings with a pair of strikeouts, while freshman Rhys Bowie allowed just one hit over 1.2 innings with four flyouts and a strikeout.

Graduate transfer Griffin Green sat down all four batters he faced, with a trio of strikeouts.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Cincinnati mounted a two-out rally to score two runs in the top of the first.
Wake Forest stranded a pair in the bottom half of the inning after a single from Scannell and a walk from Houston to open the game.
The Bearcats extended their lead to 8-0 with a six-run second inning.
The Demon Deacons immediately responded with three runs of their own, highlighted by Wentz's solo shot to right to leadoff the bottom of the second.
- Hawke recorded a sacrifice fly to score Costello before Houston capped off the inning with an RBI single to plate Williams.
Morningstar pitched a shutdown third and logged his fourth strikeout of the afternoon.
For the second consecutive inning, Wentz led off with a solo homer to right field and cut the deficit to 8-4.
- This marks his second consecutive game with multiple home runs.
Morningstar tossed a 1-2-3 inning in the fourth on just 11 pitches with a pair of strikeouts.
After a scoreless fourth, Cincinnati added to its lead in the fifth with a pair of runs.
Wake Forest added another solo shot in the fifth, this time by Winnay, to make it 10-5 Cincinnati.
Schmolke recorded a quick three-up, three-down sixth inning and helped keep the Deacs within striking distance.
The Demon Deacons got Hawke in scoring position, but came up empty as they went into the seventh inning trailing by five.
Cincinnati extended its advantage back to six with an unearned run in the seventh.
Houston sent his 13th home run of the year out to right center to make it 11-6 after seven complete innings.
Neither team crossed the plate over the final two innings as the Bearcats won the opener, 11-6.

FROM COACH WALTER
"A bunch of times with two outs, we just couldn't get off the field. [Cincinnati] scored four runs with two outs and two strikes, and then they scored two runs with two outs in like a 1-1 count. They had six two-out RBIs. We knew coming into this that if you give Cincinnati a lot of free bases, then they can score some runs, and that's what happened. Offensively, I thought we did a pretty good job. We had a little stretch there after Dalton's second home run. I wasn't happy with our bats there in about a seven-hitter stretch, where we made seven outs on about 25 pitches or so. Before and after that, I thought our at-bats were pretty good all day. We fought. Marek [Houston] had a great swing there in the eighth with a couple of guys on. We had good swings in the ninth. I was happy with our at-bats. We certainly have enough firepower on the mound and offensively to come back through the losers bracket in this regional, and that's what we'll try to do." - Head Coach Tom Walter

UP NEXT
Wake Forest takes on the loser of Tennessee and Miami (OH) tomorrow, Saturday, May 31 at 12 p.m. on ESPN+ in an elimination game.

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Team Stats

Dalton Wentz

Marek Houston

Matt Scannell

Jack Winnay

Players Mentioned

Rhys Bowie

Griffin Green

Marek Houston

Luke Schmolke

Dalton Wentz

Jack Winnay

Wake Forest Athletics