Wake Forest Beats Top Seeded North Carolina 9-5 in 12 Inning Marathon

The Wake Forest Baseball team has punched their ticket to the semifinals of the ACC Tournament after an incredible 9-5 win over the #1 seed North Carolina Tar Heels.

This one was a long, emotional rollercoaster that saw the Deacs take an early 4-0 lead, fall into a 5-4 hole in the 9th inning, and then manage to battle back and win in a game that spilled over into Saturday morning.

It was Chase Burns Day for Wake Forest, and the nation’s leader in strikeouts delivered once again for the Deacs. Burns held the Tar Heels scoreless through 6 innings and added 15 strikeouts to his already stellar season. It was his 5th straight start with 15 or more strikeouts.

While Burns was wheeling and dealing, Wake got 3 home runs from Merek Houston, Adam Tellier, and Cameron Gill to give the Deacs a 4-0 lead heading into the 7 inning. Things were looking great for Wake Forest.

The 7th inning is where things started to go downhill quick for the Deacs. The Wake Forest bullpen really struggled to put the ball in the strike zone, and UNC took full advantage. Wake first tried Blake Morningstar to start the 7th, but he was quickly replaced after walking 2 straight batters. William Ray replaced him, faced 1 batter, and then was replaced by Zach Johnston with 2 Tar Heels on base and just 1 out. North Carolina then hit 4 straight singles to send home 3 runs before the Deacs were able to get out of the inning. It felt like the Deacs could do nothing to get out of the inning, and everything—including a ball hitting 2nd base and flying 20 feet into the air—was going right for UNC. The Heels added 2 more runs in the 8th inning to take a 5-4 lead.

With the Deacs desperately needing a run to stay alive, Nick Kurtz delivered with a double to center field that brough Cam Nelson home to even things up at 5 in the 9th inning. Whenever the Deacs needed someone to make a play tonight, Kurtz was the guy that elevated to the moment.

The game, which started Friday at 7:00pm, headed into Saturday for extra innings. The 11th inning is where things really got interesting. With the base loaded for the Heels and just 1 out in the bottom of the 11th, things looked grim for the Deacs—a base hit or a walk would win the game for UNC and send the Deacs home, but Wake would not go down without a fight. North Carolina’s Gavin Gallaher put the ball in play on a grounder to Marek Houston, who scooped it up and made a perfect throw to home to get the out and keep Wake’s ACC Championship hopes alive. You won’t see a better play with the game on the line.

That play allowed Wake to get to the 12th inning, where the bats heated up for the Deacs. After a Marek Houston leadoff single to start the inning, Nick Kurtz—AKA Nicky Nukes—stepped up again for Wake Forest, blasting a 2-run homer to give the Deacs a 7-5 lead. You always love to see big time players making big time plays when the moment arises, and this was a legendary play from the All-American.

After loading up the bases later in the inning, an Antonio Morales single would bring in 2 more runs for Wake Forest to give them a 9-5 lead heading into the bottom of the 12th.

Needing just 3 outs to advance, Michael Massey took his place on the mound. The first batter he faced, Vance Honeycutt, started the comeback effort with a lead-off double. That would be the only hit the Heels would get in the inning as Massey, who just played his first game in nearly a month on Wednesday, struck out the next 3 batters swinging to slam the door on the comeback and send Wake to the quarterfinals.

Just watching this game as a fan was exhausting, so I can’t imagine how the team feels after grinding out a win over the ACC’s top seed. They will have to rest up quickly, because they are back in action tomorrow in under12 hours to take on the Florida State Seminoles at 1:00 pm.

That was a heck of a game.

Go Deacs!