Demon Deacons Take Down App State in Shelby

Tuesday, April 28

Shelby, NC

6 p.m.

Wake Forest University

29-17

App State

26-17

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
App State	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	0
Wake Forest	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	0	X	3	8	0

4/28/2026 9:36:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score Photo Gallery

Wake Forest moves to 9-3 during midweeks this season.

SHELBY, N.C. – The Wake Forest baseball team (29-17, 11-13 ACC) completed the season sweep of App State (26-17, 13-8 SBC) with a gritty 3-2 victory over the Mountaineers on Tuesday night at Keeter Stadium.

Sophomore starting pitcher Duncan Marsten delivered his second quality start of the season, tossing 6.0 innings of efficient, two-hit, two-run ball with five punchouts. The Lake Balboa, Calif., native faced the minimum in five of his six innings of work. Additionally, Marsten has gone at least five innings in each of his last three starts, allowing just five earned runs across 16.0 innings.

Freshman Marcelo Harsch struck out three of the four batters he faced out of the bullpen, providing a dominant, shutdown bridge to the eighth inning for the Demon Deacons. Senior Will Ray earned his team-leading third save of the season, recording the final four outs of the contest.

Freshman left fielder Andrew Costello continued the Demon Deacons' power surge, launching the first home run of his career over the wall in left field to put Wake Forest on the board in the bottom of the second.

The home run marked the team's 34th in the last nine games after hitting just 42 in the first 36 games of the season.

First baseman Kade Lewis delivered a clutch, go-ahead two-RBI single in the fifth inning to push Wake Forest ahead. For Lewis, it marked his team-leading 22nd multi-hit game and 16th multi-RBI performance of the season.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Starting pitcher Duncan Marsten worked a three-up, three-down top of the first with a pair of groundouts and a strikeout.
Third baseman Dalton Wentz extended his hit streak to five games with an infield single to third base, but that was all for Wake Forest in the bottom of the first.
Marsten picked up two more strikeouts in a clean top of the second.
Wake Forest grabbed a 1-0 advantage in the bottom half, as freshman Andrew Costello launched the first home run of his Demon Deacon career over the wall in left field.
Marsten retired his ninth straight in the top of the third.
App State grabbed a 2-1 advantage in the top of the fourth.
After three free passes loaded the bases with one out, first baseman Kade Lewis roped a single into right field to drive in a pair of runs and make it 3-2 in favor of the home team to end the fifth.
For the fifth time in six innings, Marsten sat the Mountaineers down in order.
Freshman Marcelo Harsch entered in relief in the seventh, punching out the side to preserve the one-run lead.
Freshman Ryan Bosch and senior Will Ray combined to keep App State off the board in the eighth.
Ray induced a double play and struck out the final batter of the game to preserve the 3-2 win in the ninth.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Wake Forest has left the yard at a staggering rate with 34 home runs over the last nine games.
Over the last five seasons, Wake Forest has totaled 556 home runs, which lead the ACC and rank third nationally.

Rank	School	Home Runs
1.	Tennessee	676
2.	Georgia	597
3.	*Wake Forest*	*556*
4.	Florida	554
5.	LSU	549

STAGGERING STATISTICS

Wake Forest picks up its 10th straight win over App State, dating back to the 2021 season.
The Demon Deacons have outscored the Mountaineers by a 100-47 margin over the win streak.

Date	Location	Score
Apr. 28, 2026	Shelby, N.C.	3-2
Mar. 4, 2026	Boone, N.C.	9-8
Apr. 29, 2025	Shelby, N.C.	3-2
Mar. 4, 2025	Boone, N.C.	14-5
Apr. 30, 2024	Shelby, N.C.	10-9
Apr. 11, 2023	Boone, N.C.	10-4
May 17, 2022	Boone, N.C.	18-4
Apr. 19, 2022	Winston-Salem, N.C.	6-5
Apr. 13, 2021	Boone, N.C.	13-0
Mar. 30, 2021	Winston-Salem, N.C.	15-7

FROM COACH WALTER
"This annual Jim Horn game is just really special to me, personally, and to our program. This Shelby Baseball community is phenomenal, and they love their Deacs down here. Anything we can do to support Jim Horn and Linda Horn, and American Legion Baseball, we're proud to be a small part of that. Glad we could get the win today. It wasn't pretty, but thankfully, we got a good start out of Duncan [Marsten] again. He's been so solid for us on Tuesdays, and it's made such a big difference. Nobody got extended out of our bullpen, which was good with a Thursday series coming behind it. We found a way to do enough offensively. Kade Lewis with the big two-RBI single to put us in front, and we're able to hold it down." - Head Coach Tom Walter

UP NEXT
The Demon Deacons return to The Couch for a three-game series against Louisville starting on Thursday, Apr. 30. First pitch against the Cardinals is set for 7 p.m. ET on the ACC Network.

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