Wake Forest closer Camden Minacci shares his mindset when pitching in tight game, blowouts

Wake Forest closer Camden Minacci didn’t have to do much work during the Regional and Super Regional rounds of the NCAA Tournament. But the junior right-hander has already been called upon twice to close out games for the Demon Deacons at the Men’s College World Series in Omaha.

The chance to pitch the final outs in two one-run victories for Wake Forest has been very exciting for the star reliever.

“It’s been fun,” Minacci said. “It’s really fun. Obviously you can’t complain when you run through a Regional or Super Regional, outscore opponents by 59. I love to get my work in up 16 in a postseason game. I’m not going to complain about that.”

Wake Forest steamrolled through the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament with five wins, four of them coming by at least 12 runs.

Minacci pitched once each weekend. He threw an inning against Maryland in the Regional round in a 21-6 victory. The 6-foot-3 pitcher then tossed one inning the next week in a 22-5 win over Alabama that clinched the team’s spot in the Men’s College World Series.

Against Stanford in the team’s first game of the Men’s College World Series, Minacci entered in the top of the ninth with Wake Forest up 3-2. One runner got on base via an error but Minacci induced a double play on the next pitch to earn the save.

On Monday against LSU, Minacci entered in the top of the eighth with the game tied 2-2 and runners at first and second base. But once again, Minacci got his opponent to hit into a crushing double play.

The Demon Deacons scored in the bottom half of the inning and Minacci closed out the game in the ninth to earn his first win of the season.

Minacci has now not allowed a run in over one month.

“We’ve been working,” Minacci said. “We all do a lot of visualization work and we believe. I’ve seen this a hundred times. I knew there would be a one-run save in Omaha. And we’ve gotten two. Doesn’t change. I treat those 16-run games like we’re up one. It doesn’t change. It doesn’t change who we play, where we play. Just do the same thing every day. And we believe and that’s why we win.”

Minacci is 1-1 on the season with 13 saves in 29 games. He has a 2.51 ERA, .208 batting average against and 46 strikeouts in 32.1 innings pitched.