The (newly updated) No. 15 Wake Forest Diamond Deacs continued their impressive ACC play by taking 2 out of 3 games in Tallahassee this weekend.

With the series win the Deacs have moved to 3rd place in the ACC and 2nd place in the Atlantic Division. Louisville clinched the Atlantic Division of the ACC for the third straight year with a sweep over Clemson this weekend.

Wake improved to 35-16 (17-10) on the year, while Florida State dropped to 33-20 (12-14). The Seminoles now sit at 5th place in the Atlantic, and 8th in the ACC overall.

This was the first series win for the Deacs over the Seminoles in Tallahassee since 1993.

Friday (W 4-3)

This game was actually played on Friday and Saturday, as rain in Tallahassee caused the game to be delayed with the Deacs leading 4-2 in the middle of the 5th inning. Gavin Sheets provided his 18th home run of the season to push the Deacs out to a 2-0 lead, before a Bruce Steel RBI double made it 3-0. Florida State responded with a 2-run home run by Tyler Holton (who had a hell of weekend), before a Stuart Fairchild home run made it 4-2 before the delay.

Dunshee provided 6 strikeouts in 4 innings on Friday before the delay, and then a combination of Colin Peluse and Griffin Roberts closed out the game for the Deacs with a 4-3 victory. It was Roberts 6th save of the year.

Saturday (L 0-4)

Wake was blanked 4-0 on Saturday afternoon in a stunning performance by the aforementioned Tyler Holton. The ‘Noles scored four runs in the bottom of the first on Wake Forest pitcher Donnie Sellers and that was all the game provided from a run standpoint.

Holton allowed just four hits with no walks and struck out 9 Wake batters in a 124 pitch complete-game shutout.

Sellers was actually very good after the first inning, allowing just one hit after the four-run first, but the damage was already done.

Sunday (W 10-9)

The rubber match took place on Sunday at 1, and it was quite the high-scoring affair. Bruce Steel proved to be the hero for the Deacs, crushing two home runs for five RBI’s.

The Deacs jumped out to an early 2-0 lead after Florida State pitcher Drew Parrish walked in two runs in the first inning. That lead would evaporate in the second when the inning was extended after a dropped fly ball by rare-starter Patrick Frick in right field. The Seminoles grabbed a 3-2 lead after a two-run triple and RBI bunt on the next play.

From there, Wake put up 6 straight runs to take a lead that would not be relinquished. This included Steel’s monsters 3-run homer in the top of the third.

Florida State would cut the margin to 8-6 and 10-9 before Griffin Roberts shut the doors again on the Seminoles. This time Roberts threw 2.2 innings to get the save, ending the game on a nasty slider that froze Florida State’s Nick Derr.

Up Next

Wake Forest will close out the regular season non-conference schedule with a neutral game against Appalachian State in Shelby, NC on Tuesday at 5 PM.

The ACC season will wrap up this Thursday-Saturday as the Demon Deacons welcome the Pittsburgh Panthers to Winston-Salem. The Panthers are 22-27 overall and have 6 out of 7, including back-to-back ACC sweeps at the hands of Georgia Tech and N.C. State.

The Deacs guarantee a 3rd place finish in the ACC overall if they sweep the Panthers this weekend. Clemson is a game back at 16-11 in the ACC, and have a huge series at N.C. State this weekend.