Wake Forest Falls in Knoxville Regional Final

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The Wake Forest baseball team's season came to a close in the Knoxville Regional, dropping Monday's winner-takes-all contest to No. 14 Tennessee, 11-5.

Following a memorable season that included the second NCAA Regional Final appearance in the last three seasons and a run of three-straight wins in the Knoxville Regional, the Demon Deacons (39-22) battled against the defending National Champions including handing the Vols (46-17) their first loss in a home regional in the last 12 games on Sunday night.

Freshman Matt Conte connected on the Demon Deacons 15th home run of the Knoxville Regional and his fifth home run of the season. The shot to right field gave the Deacs an early 2-0 lead in the second inning.

Graduate student Matt Scannell launched his second home run of the weekend and his 12th of the season in the fifth inning to give the Deacs their third and fourth runs of the game.

Overall this season, the Deacs slugged 116 home runs, which is the third-highest total in program history and marks the fourth-straight season Wake Forest has had 100 or more home runs, totaling 481 home runs over the last four seasons:

Rank	Home Runs	Year	Games Played
1.	130	2023	66
2.	122	2022	61
3.	116	2025	61
4.	113	2024	60
5.	106	2017	63

The seven Demon Deacons to have 10 or more home runs this season are the most in program history since at least 1999.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Third baseman Kade Lewis roped a two-out double, but that was all for Wake Forest in the top of the first.
Starter Griffin Green induced a 4-6-3 double play to get out of the first inning unscathed.
Wake Forest jumped out to a 2-0 lead off the bat of freshman Matt Conte.
Left fielder Luke Costello got the frame started with a one-out single into left field.
Conte unloaded on an 0-1 pitch, sending it into the Tennessee bullpen in right to give the Demon Deacons a 2-0 lead in the top of the second.
Conte's fifth of the year left the bat at 93 mph, traveling 331 feet.
Three ground ball outs got Green through the second for a huge shutdown inning to keep the early lead at 2-0.
Entering with the bases loaded and nobody out, junior lefty Zach Johnston induced Wake's second double play of the game and strike out the Vols' leading home run hitter to escape the jam with a 2-1 lead after three complete innings.
Tennessee took an 8-2 lead with seven runs in the fourth.
Scannell launched his second home run of the Regional in the fifth to cut the deficit to 8-4.
The two-run shot left the bat at 106 mph, traveling 408 feet.
Reliever Joe Ariola retired Tennessee in order in the fifth for Wake's second shutdown inning of the game.
After a Dalton Wentz double with one out, second baseman Austin Hawke continued to cut into the Volunteer lead with a two-out single back up the middle to drive in Wentz.
Ariola recorded a pair of strikeouts for his second-straight shutdown frame in the sixth.
The Deacs were unable to capitalize on a leadoff walk in the top of the seventh.
The Volunteers pushed their lead back to five with a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning.
Wake Forest fell to Tennessee in the final game of the regional, 11-5.

FROM COACH WALTER
"I would just like to congratulate Tennessee on a game well-played and advancing to the Super Regionals. This is an incredible venue they have here, they have a great fan base and it's been a pleasure playing here over the last four days. I'm really proud of our guys and the way we battled. I hate that it's over for our seniors and the guys we'll lose to the draft, but we're proud of the way we competed. Two great baseball teams gave it their all today and then we came up on the short end." - Head Coach Tom Walter

2025 SEASON HIGHLIGHTS

Wake Forest reached the 30-win mark for the fourth-straight season, the longest such streak since the Deacs won 30 or more in six-straight seasons from 1997-2002.
The Demon Deacons are one of two programs to win at least 15 conference games in each of the last four seasons, joined by only Virginia in that regard.
Since the start of the 2022 season, Wake Forest has totaled 481 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 from 2022-24, joined by Tennessee, Florida, and Campbell.
  - With four home runs against Cal at the ACC Tournament, Wake Forest and Tennessee are the only schools to reach 100 home runs in each of the last four seasons.
- Wake Forest belted 116 home runs over 61 games to lead the ACC and were tied for 11th in the nation entering Regionals.

The Demon Deacons are one of just 14 teams over the 100-homer mark to this point of the season, led by Winnay's 15 homers.

Wake Forest left the yard at least once in all but 10 games in the 2025 campaign.
The Deacs finished 34-15 when hitting a home run and 23-8 when hitting multiple homers.

For the fourth-straight year, at least three Wake Forest baseball student-athletes were named to the All-Atlantic Coast Conference teams, with Blake Morningstar (1st Team), Kade Lewis (2nd Team) and Marek Houston (3rd Team) all selected to the all-conference team.
- The Demon Deacons have now placed at least one athlete on the First-Team ballot in nine of the last 11 All-ACC teams.
The Demon Deacons saw productivity up and down the lineup, with all nine hitters in the starting lineup recording a hit in the same game on seven occasions, doing so against Elon (2/25), Notre Dame (3/7), Coastal Carolina (3/11), Virginia Tech (3/29), Pitt (5/9), Cal (5/21) and most recently Miami (OH) (5/31). Wake Forest more than tripled the 2024 squad, which achieved the feat just twice in 60 contests.

Wake Forest is one of 17 programs to make the NCAA Tournament in each of the last four seasons.
- Additionally, the Demon Deacons are one of just seven schools to be a one or two seed in the last four tournaments, joined by Arkansas, LSU, Oregon State, Southern Miss, Tennessee and Vanderbilt.

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Team Stats

Matt Scannell

Kade Lewis

Dalton Wentz

Luke Costello

Players Mentioned

Joe Ariola

Matt Conte

Luke Costello

Griffin Green

Austin Hawke

Marek Houston

Zach Johnston

Kade Lewis

Blake Morningstar

Matt Scannell

Dalton Wentz

Wake Forest Athletics