Baseball Recap: No. 17 Wake Forest 2 - No. 2 Louisville 1

The No. 17th ranked Wake Forest Demon Deacons defeated the No. 2 Louisville Cardinals 2-1 tonight to snap their 37 game regular season home winning streak.

Wake Forest moves to 23-8 (9-4), while Louisville falls to 25-4 (10-3). If Clemson holds on to their 4-1 lead against Virginia Tech, they will move into first place alone in the Atlantic at 11-2.

It was a pitchers’ duel all night, featuring two of the best starting pitchers in the ACC in Wake Forest’s Parker Dunshee and Louisville’s Brendan McKay.

Dunshee (6-1) came out on top and got the win, throwing 7 innings, striking out 6 batters, while allowing a run on 5 Louisville hits.

McKay (4-2) continued his very strong year, pitching 7 innings himself, striking out 11 Demon Deacons, and allowing two runs, both on a Gavin Sheets home run in the 4th inning.

Griffin Roberts came in for the 8th inning and got the final six outs for his third save of the year.

The Cardinals got the scoring started off in the bottom of the third with a Colby Fitch two-out single that scored Logan Taylor.

Sheets responded right away for the Deacs with a towering two-run home run in the top of the 4th. He got up 3-0 in the count before McKay fought back to bring the count full. The payoff pitch led to Sheets turning on the offering well over the right field wall for the 2-1 lead.

Louisville’s Colin Lyman took a lead-off walk to start the 9th, and moved to 2nd base on a stolen base after a failed bunt that led to out one. A strikeout on a full count to Tyler Fitzgerald for out two brought up Logan Taylor with the game on the line.

After a mound visit, a passed ball from Wake catcher Ben Breazeale brought Lyman 90 feet away from tying the game, but Roberts got Taylor swinging on a 2-2 count to secure the victory.

It is hard to understate how big this win is for the Diamond Deacs. It snapped the long winning streak of Louisville at home, provides two chances this weekend to take the 5th straight ACC series to open the year, and maintain touch with the top two teams in the Atlantic Division.

This game featured very strong pitching, a stout defense on both sides, and a lot of loud outs as well. Regardless of how the rest of the weekend goes, even getting one win on the road here is a statement for the Diamond Deacs.

With a win tomorrow or Sunday, Wake will add another impressive line to a strong resume for hosting a regional in the NCAA Baseball Tournament.