No. 1 Wake Forest wins Winston

Wake Forest players celebrate after winning the Winston-Salem Regional.

Charles Leftwich | Special to the News

Wake Forest's Danny Corona returns to the plate after hitting a home run against George Mason on June 4.

Wake Forest Athletics

WINSTON-SALEM — Wake Forest won the Winston-Salem Regional with a 15-1 victory over George Mason on Sunday night.

The Deacs allowed just seven runs in its three victories: 12-0 vs. George Mason on June 2, 21-6 vs. Maryland on June 3, and 15-1 vs. George Mason on June 4. Wake Forest's 16.0 runs per game are the most runs per game in NCAA opening round history.

Wake also struck out 50 batters over the three games.

The Demon Deacons punched their ticket to the Super Regional round for the third time since super regionals began in 1999: 1999, 2017 and now 2023. Additionally, this will be the first time David F. Couch Ballpark will host a Super Regional, which is set to run from either June 9-11 or June 10-12.

No. 1 Wake Forest will host No. 16 Alabama (43-19) in the best 2-of-3 series. Alabama went 3-0 in the Tuscaloosa Regional, posting wins of: 4-3 vs. Nicholls State, 11-8 vs. Troy and 8-0 vs. Boston College.

With an appearance in said Super Regional on the line, Deacon Nation came out in support of their Deacs as David F. Couch Ballpark recorded an attendance of 3,823 – the second sellout of the Winston-Salem Regional and second official sellout in Wake Forest Baseball history.

Heading into Sunday's contest, the Demon Deacons held a 37-4 record when they score first. They improved on this mark as they were able to tally the first scores of the game in the top of the second. Back-to-back home runs by Pierce Bennett and Danny Corona put Wake Forest up 3-0 heading into the third inning of action.

Red hot Justin Johnson continued to produce for the Deacs as his bases-clearing double in the third increased the Wake advantage to 6-0. Johnson totaled seven hits including two doubles, a triple, two home runs and 13 RBIs in his Winston-Salem Regional action.

In the same frame, Corona launched his second home run of the night, which stands as his second multi-home run game of the year, previously occurring against Mt. St. Mary's on Feb. 24th.

This marked the end of the third six-run inning in the past two games for the Deacs.

An RBI single in the fourth by Bennett and run-scoring double by Nick Kurtz in the fifth earned Wake Forest their tenth and eleventh runs, making it the fourth-straight frame in which the Deacs had scored.

A walk by Nick Kurtz, an RBI single by Brock Wilken and Pierce Bennett single scoring two increased the Deacon advantage to 15-1.

USA Golden Spikes Award Semifinalist Josh Hartle started the game on the hill for Wake Forest in Sunday's contest. Not only was Hartle able to record the victory, making him the 12th pitcher in program history to reach double digit wins in a single season, but also recorded nine punchouts which places him fourth in program history in single season strikeouts (120).

The lefty held George Mason to one run before handing the pitching duties to teammate, and fellow lefty, Sean Sullivan. Sullivan held the Patriots scoreless in his relief outing and retired seven of the ten batters he faced on strikes.

Will Andrews and Reed Mascolo each entered the game in relief, both recording scoreless outings.

Eight Demon Deacons were named to the Winston-Salem Regional All-Tournament Team: 1B Nick Kurtz, 2B Justin Johnson (Most Outstanding Player), OF Pierce Bennett, OF Tommy Hawke, DH Danny Corona, SP Seth Keener, SP Rhett Lowder, and RP Michael Massey.

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