Notebook: Wake Forest baseball’s scrimmage vs Elon

Notebook summary here for Wake Forest’s fall scrimmage with Elon. The Deacs played two games — one nine-inning (“A” squad), one seven-inning (“B” squad). Solid crowd out at The Couch, a lot of scouts on hand as well for game one.

I have in-depth notes from game one — a 12-0 Wake victory — including Wake Forest’s dominant pitching effort; Elon only registered one hit and struck out 17 times.

Game two — a 6-2 Deacs win — has some interspersed notes on the batters and pitchers.

At the end, I have some words from head coach Tom Walter.

Without further ado…

GAME 1

Wake Starting Batters:

SS Marek Houston: 3-5, 2 RBI

• Made the pitcher work with his first at-bat (8 pitches), single up the left hole
• Deep fly out to right, just to wrong place
• 2-RBI single
• Double to center
• Ground out to second

CF Seaver King: 1-3, HR, BB

• Two-run homer to left, 111mph, 408 ft
• Fly out
• Walk
• Strike out
• Moved to short for the 9th

1B Nick Kurtz: 2-3, HR, BB

• 113 mph foul ball moon shot, draws a walk
• Slides home well on a wild pitch
• Home run, 110 mph, 408 ft
• 106 mph fly out to center
• Hard single to right

RF Jake Reinisch: 1-4, K

• Nice piece of hitting, single
• Grounds out to second
• Ground out to pitcher
• Strikes out looking

DH Jack Winnay: 1-4, 4 K

• Struck out first at bat
• Struck out in third
• Struck out looking
• Struck out swinging
• Double to center

C Tate Ballestero: 1-2, BB

• Works a walk
• Single up the middle
• Ground out

LF Chris Katz: 1-4, 3 K, RBI

• Strike out
• Strike out
• Strike out
• RBI double

3B Adam Tellier: 0-3, 2 BB

• Deep fly out to left
• Walk, steals second
• Walk, steals second, gets to third on passed C throw
• Fly out to first
• Deep fly out to right

2B Austin Hawke: 2-2, sac fly RBI

• Good double to left
• Bloop type double
• Sac fly to left
• Fly out to center
• Very good defensive play in the eighth

Batters/Fielders off the bench:

C Cameron Gill: 1-2, K

• Entered in seventh
• Very hard contact double over the LFs glove
• Strikes out

LF Antonio Morales: 0-1

• Ran for Katz in the seventh
• Out trying to steal third
• Fly out to left

CF Javar Williams: 0-1, K

• Entered defensively in the 8th
• Strike out

RF Cam Nelson: 1-1, HR

• Entered defensively in the 8th
• Hard homer to right, 100 mph

Ryan Preisano: 0-1

• Pinch hitting in ninth

Pitchers:

Josh Hartle: 2.0 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 4 K

• got into trouble in the first, gets out, 2 Ks
• Hit batter to start the second, then walk
• Strikeout, strikeout, fly out to get out of trouble

Chase Burns: 1.0 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 3 K

• First 4 pitches: 98 mph fastball, 98 mph fastball, 93 mph slider, 100 mph fastball
• Strikes out the side in the first
• Only gets one inning

Michael Massey: 2.0 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 5 K

• Strikes out the side
• Fly out, strike out, strike out

Cole Roland: 2.0 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 5 K

• Strikes out the side
• Strike out, strike out, ground out

David Falco Jr: 2.0 IP, 0 R, 0 H

• Fly out to center, ground out, fly out to center
• Line out to second, grounder to C, grounder to 2B

Game 2

Wake Starting Batters:

CF Javar Williams

• speedy

LF Antonio Morales

• Grounder to 2B bungled by Elon for a double

SS Seaver King

• Good defensive play

1B Tate Ballestero

3B Jack Winnay

• Sac fly

C Cameron Gill

RF Cam Nelson

• Sac fly

DH Pirmin Brechbuhl

2B Jeter Polledo

• Good bunt for a base hit, very fast
• Gets around to score
• 2-RBI double, nice hit

Batters/Fielders off the bench:

• Jacob Burley in at C in the 4th

Pitchers:

Ben Shenosky

• 1st inning solo homer
• 2 clean innings otherwise

Joe Ariola

• Gets out of loaded bases with a strikeout

Zach Johnston

• Gets out of runners on 2nd and 3rd with K

Haiden Leffew

• 2 Ks

Josh Gunther

• 2 Ks, threw some serious heat

Andrew Koshy

• ER

Words from Tom Walter:

On the pitching in game one:

“Yeah I was really pleased with the guys in the first game. I thought Chase Burns was really good. Massey was really, really sharp. Roland was really, really sharp. Josh was solid; he walked a couple more guys than he usually does. Happy with the way David Falco threw the ball.”

On if the game one lineup is along the lines of what the starters will be in the spring:

“I think probably. There’s some other guys that are pushing to get in there. Those are the nine guys right now that we’d start the season with, but we’ve got some good, young players that are kind of pushing. Cameron Gill’s been playing well, Javar Williams and Cam Nelson, Antonio Morales, those guys are pushing to change [the starting nine] so we feel really good about being 13-14 guys deep.”

Standouts from today:

“Marek Houston had a really great day. All his at-bats were good. Obviously good in the field. I was really happy with the way Seaver King played, especially defensively at shortstop. Nick Kurtz had good at-bats all day today. Ballestero had some good at bats. Adam Tellier, I think he’s kind of a game changer for us with his speed. Austin Hawke had a good day, defensively and offensively.”

On freshman/younger pitchers’ performance…who might be the midweek starter:

“We think it might be Haiden Leffew. Haiden threw the ball well today again, a little too many balls. Ariola and [Zach] Johnston are guys that we’re trying to figure out, what that’s gonna look like, come springtime. At times, they look really good, but at [other] times, they just didn’t throw strikes. In that second game, I felt like we threw the ball fine. We just didn’t throw it in the zone enough.”