Wake Forest Secures Series Against Cal

Saturday, March 28

Winston-Salem, N.C.

2 p.m.

Wake Forest University

19-7, 5-5

Cal

13-12, 0-7

California

Wake Forest

Photo by: Seth Seebaugh / Wake Forest Athletics

3/28/2026 7:03:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 Photo Gallery

The Demon Deacons picked up their 20th win of the year with the Saturday sweep.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The Wake Forest baseball team (20-7, 6-5 ACC) secured the series against Cal (13-13, 0-7 ACC) with a pair of wins on Saturday afternoon.

The Demon Deacons rallied late to take Friday's suspended game 9-5, before defeating the Bears 4-1 in the second game of the series.

Sophomore Matt Conte went 3-for-7 (.429) at the plate over the two games, collecting a trio of RBIs on a pair of doubles to lead the Demon Deacons offensively. The Andover, Mass., native set the stage for the Deacs' big inning in the eighth of the opening game, laying down a perfect sacrifice bunt to put the wheels in motion on a five-run frame.

Playing in the first game of the series, Jackson Miller finished 2-for-4 with both hits providing key RBIs. His double in the second inning opened the scoring for the Deacs. Later with the bases loaded and one out in the eighth and the Deacs trailing by a run, Miller rocketed a double down the left field line, scoring a pair to put Wake Forest up for good.

Freshman Evan Jones closed out the series-opening win with 3.0 innings pitched on just 35 total pitches, allowing just two hits with no walks.

Sophomore right-hander Chris Levonas continued his stellar start to the season with an impressive 6.1 innings of work, scattering just five hits and one earned run while striking out 10 Bear batters.

Freshman righty Marcelo Harsch claimed his first save of the season, tossing the final 2.2 innings. He ended the game with five strikeouts while not allowing a hit and having just one walk.

HOW IT HAPPENED (Game One)

Cal grabbed a 4-0 advantage in the top of the first.
Starting pitcher Cameron Bagwell settled into the game with a scoreless second inning.
The Demon Deacons got on the board in the bottom of the second as sophomore designated hitter Jackson Miller laced a two-out double into left field to plate junior Boston Torres from first.
Bagwell added another clean frame in the third to keep it 4-1.
The Golden Bears tacked on a run in the top of the fourth.
Wake Forest logged a three-up, three-down inning in the fifth to keep it a four-run game.
Bagwell and sophomore reliever Rhys Bowie combined for a scoreless sixth inning.
The Deacs cut the deficit down to one after plating three runs in the home half of the sixth.
- Junior first baseman Kade Lewis scored on a throwing error by the Cal shortstop to make it 5-2.
- Sophomore catcher Matt Conte roped a double off the center field wall to put another run on the board.
- Sophomore right fielder Luke Costello came across home plate after another throwing error.
The game was suspended for the night in the top of the seventh due to rain.
Picking back up on Saturday afternoon, freshman Evan Jones worked a clean top of the seventh to keep things at 5-4 going into the stretch.
Jones used a trio of groundouts in the eighth to keep the deficit at one.
Wake Forest rallied with five runs in the bottom of the eighth to grab a 9-5 advantage.
- Third baseman Dalton Wentz and Costello got the frame started with back-to-back singles.
- Catcher Matt Conte laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move both runners into scoring position.
- After Torres was hit by a pitch to load the bases, Miller laced the first pitch he saw down the line in left to plate two runners and give the Deacs their first lead.
- A bunt single from shortstop JD Stein forced the Bears into a miscue and plated two more runs to stretch the lead to 8-5.
- A stolen base from center fielder Javar Williams brought Stein home on the throw down to second and capped the scoring in the inning.
Jones retired the Bears in order in the ninth to seal the 9-5 victory in the opening game of the series.

HOW IT HAPPENED (Game Two)

Starting pitcher Chris Levonas struck out a pair in the top of the first.
Wake Forest jumped out to a 2-0 advantage in the bottom of the first, highlighted by an RBI single off the bat of designated hitter Matt Conte.
Levonas sat the Golden Bears down in order in the second and the third.
Catcher Jimmy Keenan gunned a runner down to end the fourth.
The Demon Deacons extended their advantage to 4-0 in the bottom of the fifth.
- Junior Kade Lewis sent his fifth home run of the year over the wall in left field to push the lead to 3-0.
- Conte recorded his second hit of the day, roping a double to left center to plate Wentz.
Levonas recorded his 10th strikeout of the game in a shutdown sixth inning.
After Cal got on the board in the top of the seventh, reliever Marcelo Harsch entered and recorded a pair of strikeouts to limit the damage.
Harsch finished the game, tossing 2.2 innings in total to record his first save of the season.
- He ended the game with five strikeouts while not allowing a hit and having just one walk.
Wake Forest took the series with a 4-1 win in the second game of the day.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Starting pitcher Chris Levonas has made significant strides in his sophomore season, moving to 6-1 on the mound with the win over the Bears.
- Levonas has recorded 10 or more strikeouts for the fourth time this season, including four of the last six starts, punching out 10 Cal hitters over 6.1 innings this afternoon.
- The sophomore has already doubled his win total from a 3-1 freshman campaign.
- Levonas has allowed two or fewer earned runs in five of his seven starts, including each of the last three starts, allowing just four earned runs over 17.1 innings in the three starts.
- Levonas lowered his ERA to 1.95 for the season and is one of two starting pitchers in the ACC to have a sub-2.00 ERA this season.

STAGGERING STATISTICS

Wake Forest moves to 5-0 against the West Coast ACC schools this season after sweeping Stanford and taking the first two games of the series against Cal.
- The Demon Deacons have outscored the two teams by a 46-29 margin across the five contests.
- Additionally, Wake has won all three series since Stanford and Cal joined the league in 2024, taking two of three games against the Cardinal in Palo Alto a season ago.

FROM COACH WALTER
"I was obviously really happy with the way we pitched today. It was great that we only used three guys. That's important for tomorrow's game. Two freshmen to do what they did, Evan Jones got nine outs in 36 to 38 pitches, and Marcelo Harsch got eight outs. Two freshmen to come in with games on the line in ACC play and do what they did is really special. I'm really happy with Levonas' performance. I wish we would have played a little better defense for him there in the seventh inning and got him through the seventh inning, but his pitch count got high and there was just no reason, and we had Harsch ready. Again, good day on the mound for the Deacs. We need to clean up some things defensively. Offensively, not a great day but we did enough. Matt Conte had a couple really big at bats, two-out RBI there in the first inning and then a double in the left-center gap later in the game. And Kade's home run. We certainly did just enough offensively. And then in the first game, I was really happy with the inning we put together there. Get started with a Wentz single, followed by a Costello single, and then rolled from there, J.D. Stein's bunt was huge in that situation. So we did a lot of really good things, played good, clean baseball in the bottom of the eighth of the first game. So, again, two good wins. Wins are hard to come by in our league. We knew coming into this, they could really pitch, and they showed that yesterday and today. The guy they have going tomorrow is really good, so we'll certainly have our hands full." - Head Coach Tom Walter

UP NEXT
The Demon Deacons will look for the sweep against the Golden Bears tomorrow afternoon. First pitch at The Couch is scheduled for 1 p.m. and will be streamed live on ACC Network Extra.

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