Sports > April 14, 2005

By Gerard McMahon

Old Gold & Black Reporter

After a 10 year drought in Tallahassee, the Demon Deacons finally broke through with a victory against No. 8 Florida State April 10 in the third and final game of the series, improving their record to 15-19 overall and 8-10 in the ACC.

After blowing late leads in the first two games of the series, the Deacs snapped their nine-game losing skid against the Seminoles with a 13-10 extra-inning victory at Dick Howser Stadium.

Like the first two games of the series, the Deacons jumped out to an early lead in the third inning when senior center fielder Matt Miller followed a sacrifice fly by redshirt sophomore Brendan Enick, with a double to plate senior second basemen Ben Ingold.

Wake Forest utilized timely two-out hitting to tack on three more runs in the fourth to extend their lead to 6-1.

With two outs and freshman shortstop Andy Goff on third, Ingold slapped an RBI single to center. After senior J.B. Tucker was hit by a pitch, a double steal and throwing error scored Ingold and moved Tucker to third. Redshirt senior Ryder Mathias scored Tucker two pitches later on a double to right.

Gifted a five-run lead, senior pitcher Brian Bach kept Florida State off the scoreboard four straight innings before the Florida State bats erupted for four runs in the sixth to pull within 6-5.

After freshman Eric Niesen finished out the sixth and senior Kip Byrum shut the Seminoles down in the seventh and eighth, Head Coach Rick Rembielak went to his closer in the ninth to nail down the victory for the Deacs.

Four innings and 106 pitches later, converted starter Kyle Young picked up his third victory, against two losses, by holding the Seminoles scoreless in the 10th and 11th innings after allowing a game-tying home run in the bottom of the ninth.

A one-out solo blast tied the game at six and sent the game into extras, where neither team could scratch across a run for the first two frames.

Then the Deacon bats reignited.

After a one-out single and walk, Ingold, who collected four hits and four RBIs on the day, crushed his fourth home run of the year, catapulting the Deacs to a 9-6 lead.

The assault did not end there.

Following a walk and hits batsman, Enick, who went 3-for-6, knocked an RBI single to left and Miller clubbed an RBI double to left to extend the lead to 11-6.

After an RBI groundout, Goff struck a double down the left field line to plate Miller and send the Deacons’ team to the bottom of the 12th leading 13-6.

While the Seminoles made things interesting by getting the tying run up to the plate with two outs in the 12th, Young was able to close out the game with a fly ball to secure the victory.

The win came as a relief after heartbreaking losses in the first two games of the series.

The Deacons came out on fire in the first game of the series, scoring five runs in the first two innings, highlighted by a four-run one-out rally in the second inning.

Aided by consecutive Seminole errors, Wake Forest had men on first and second with one run already tallied when sophomore third baseman Matt Antonelli, who went 2-4, and Ingold singled home consecutive runs. An RBI fielder’s choice by Tucker closed out the Deacon scoring in the inning.

Unfortunately, Wake was done scoring for the game, and Florida State was just getting started.

After scratching across a run in the third off sophomore Josh Ellis, the Seminoles scored six runs in the bottom of the fifth to put game one away, 7-5.

With the loss, Ellis dropped to 4-3 on the year.

Game two went much the same way for the Deacs. A costly first inning error on a dropped fly ball by junior right fielder Casey Sterk gave the Seminoles an early 2-0 lead against sophomore Charlie Mellies.

The Deacons quickly responded, however, with a three-run third inning highlighted by a two-run double by Sterk that temporarily gave the visitors a 3-2 lead.

After retiring eight Seminoles in a row, Mellies was again victimized by porous defense as an Antonelli error allowed the tying run to score with two outs in the sixth inning.

Mellis was again superb in his outing, further lowering his season ERA to 3.86 after allowing just two earned runs alone in six innings of the game.

After sending in freshman Matt Hammond for Mellies, the game remained tied at three until the eighth inning.

Hammond allowed a single and double before giving way to Young, who walked his first batter to set up a possible double play situation.

Young, however, walked in the eventual winning run on consecutive questionable outside corner pitches before inducing the inning-ending double play ball.

Hammond took the loss to drop to 2-6 on the year after allowing a run in 1.1 innings of work.

Wake Forest returns home to Gene Hooks Stadium April 15 for a weekend series against conference rival N.C. State. First pitch is set for 3:00pm April 15.