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Wake Slips By Virginia
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April 6, 2001
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The Wake Forest baseball team overcame an 8-4 deficitto capture a 9-8 victory on Friday at Gene Hooks Stadium. The Demon Deaconsscored one in the seventh and four in the eighth capped by Ryan Johnson’spinch-hit sacrafice fly to earn the victory. Wake Forest improves to 21-10overall and 7-6 in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Wake Forest blasted three home runs on the day, including two by senior thirdbaseman Corey Slavik. Matt Price cranked his first of the season, a solo shotto straight away center field, in the second inning.
Freshman Adam Hanson earned his fourth win of the season in relief. Once theDeacons claimed a lead, Hanson gave way to junior closer Dave Bush who earnedhis seventh save of the season. Bush has 16 career saves, tied for secondplace all-time. He needs just one more to tie Keith Ksansnak for the schoolrecord.
Wake Forest fell behind 8-4 as Virginia posted three runs in the fifth andtwo more in the sixth. But in the seventh, Carlos Brackley’s infield groundout scored Jamie D’Antona to set the stage for the eighth inning rally. TheDeacons sent ten batters to the plate and plated four runs on four hits toget a one-run lead.
Price and Jason Aquilante led off with singles before Cory Sullivan doubledto score Price. Nick Blue grounded out, scoring Aquilante. D’Antona singledto left to bring in Sullivan. After a pitching change, a hit batsman and awalk, the bases were loaded for Johnson. His sacrafice fly proved to be thegame-winning RBI as D’Antona scored from third.
“We got some important hits at important times today and that was thedifference. In recent games, we haven’t been getting the clutch hits. That’swhat makes this one a good win,” head coach George Greer said. “The Fridaygame is an important one to win because it sets the tone for the rest of theweekend and takes the pressure off right away. We want to carry this momentumthrough the rest of the weekend.”
The two teams will reconvene at Hooks Stadium on Saturday afternoon at 1:30p.m. Senior Josh Bartlett gets the ball for Wake Forest. Saturday’s game, aswell as Sunday’s contest, will air on WTRU 830 AM and on the internet atwww.wakeforestsports.com.