Wolfpack Roars Past Wake Forest 15-8

WINSTON SALEM, NC – The NC State Wolfpack (22-14, ACC 14-13)  defeated the Wake Forest Demon Deacons 15-8 (15-22, ACC 7-19) to win their three games series on Sunday afternoon. It was the 188th series between the two rivals, dating all the way back to 1890. 

The Wolfpack rebounded in fashion, with their bats continuing to stay hot to help out their starting pitcher Reid Johnston. The four combined home runs from Tyler McDonough, Austin Murr, and Terrell Tatum carried the Pack to a monster offensive afternoon. McDonough finished with four hits, including two bombs.

Junior right-hander Reid Johnston got the nod for the Wolfpack, logging in his sixth start of the campaign. He came into the afternoon supporting a 4-2 record with a 4.03 ERA. Despite giving up two early home runs in the contest, Johnston settled down and was able to keep his team ahead. He lasted six 1/3 innings, giving up nine hits, five earned runs, while striking out four. He did not issue a walk and gave the Pack solid innings on a day that produced plenty of offense. The victory earned him his team-leading fifth of the year.

Johnston retired the first three Demon Deacons he faced in order but ran into some trouble in the bottom half of the second inning. Allowing back-to-back home runs to Bobby Seymour and Chris Lanzilli to give the Deacons their only lead 2-0.

William Fleming was the opposing pitcher, toeing the rubber for Wake Forest, carrying a record of 2-5 and a 6.93 ERA into the appearance. The 6 foot 6 righty surrendered six earned runs and 11 total due to numerous errors. He allowed 13 hits in five innings, walked two, and struck out five.

The Wolfpack responded quickly after falling behind, piling up three runs in the top of the third. The damage began with Vojtech Mensik reaching on a walk, followed by J.T. Jarrett advancing on a Fleming error to put two on with no outs.

Two batters later, Tyler McDonough, who had a massive day at the plate, took advantage of the mistake and continued his dominance versus ACC pitching. He knocked in Mensik on a single to right field to open up the scoring for the Pack. The RBI was the first of four on the day for McDonough. The error became costly for the Deacons, as Jarrett would score to tie things up at 2-2 from a Jonny Butler RBI single. The Pack finished their damage, taking a 3-2 lead, with McDonough crossing home plate on a past ball.

The inning shifted the momentum in favor of the Wolfpack, and they would continue their productive offensive day in the fourth and capitalized on the Deacon’s mistakes. With two outs, first baseman Austin Murr smacked a two-run dinger for his seventh of the year to make the Wolfpack’s advantage 5-2. The rally ended with three consecutive singles off the bats of McDonough, Butler, and Luca Tresh to extend the Packs lead to 6-2.

In the sixth inning, the Pack put the game out of reach with a six-spot to double their comfortable advantage to 12-2. They jumped on Fleming right away, with the first four batters of the inning reaching on hits. Tyler McDonough belted his first of two home runs scoring in Murr, which now gives McDonough a team-best 12 homers. After a Butler single, Luca Tresh nearly had a home run of his own tripling off the top of the centerfield fence.

A Jose Torres walk ended the day for Fleming, Hunter Furtado would take over the pitching duties, but it did not make a difference. Terrell Tatum, the first batter Furtado faced, hit his third home run of the series and sixth of the year to wrap up the big inning for the Pack.

Wake Forest would finally respond with some runs of their own in the bottom of the sixth after giving up 12 unanswered. Deacon’s top hitter Michael Turconi kicked off the inning with a solo blast. The Deacons cut the deficit to 12-5 after scoring two more runs off of two fielder’s choices. Johnston was able to limit the damage at three runs ending the inning with his fourth and final strikeout.

In the seventh, McDonough led off the inning, taking Deacon’s second reliever Seth Keener deep to get back a run bringing the score to 13-5.

Evan Justice took over for Johnston with one out in the bottom of the seventh after his strong outing. Justice, like Johnston, allowed back-to-back jacks from Seymour and Lanzilli in his first inning of work to cut the Packs lead to 13-8. 

The Pack ended their scoring surge putting up two more runs in the top of the eighth, which then brought the game to the final score of 15-8. Dalton Feeney finished the game, pitching a scoreless ninth to keep the Pack from utilizing any more depth out of their bullpen.

The NC State Wolfpack will enjoy an off-day on Monday and head back to Doak Field at Dail Park on Tuesday, May 4th as they are expected to host Elon University at 6:00 pm.