Wake Forest loses season opener
There have been better starts to baseball seasons for Wake Forest.
The Deacons lost 8-2 to Houston in the first game of the season on Friday at Estadio Paquito Montaner in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
Wake Forest gave up four runs in the bottom of the third inning. The first two scored on an airmailed throw to first base by first baseman Kade Lewis on a sacrifice bunt attempt. The third run scored on a wild pitch.
That was Wake’s lone error of the game. Four of the five runs surrendered by Blake Morningstar (0-1) were earned. The Deacons’ Friday starter allowed five hits and two walks, striking out two, in three innings. He threw 77 pitches.
Troy Dressler pitched 2 1/3 innings in relief and allowed one run. He had four strikeouts. Freshman Ryan Brennecke pitched the next 1 2/3, walking one and retiring the other five he faced. Grant Nicholson, also a freshman, was charged with the last two runs when he allowed all three batters he faced to reach base in the eighth (HBP, single and a walk). Ryan Bosch, the third freshman pitcher in this game for the Deacons, allowed two of the three inherited runners to score.
Wake’s only two runs came in the top of the sixth and cut Houston’s lead to 6-2. Dalton Wentz had an RBI double and Andrew Costello pushed across a run with a fielder’s choice.
But even that felt hollow, as the Deacons’ first four batters reached base in that frame. Jimmy Keenan’s pop up to the catcher in foul territory on a 2-0 pitch loomed large as the first out of the inning.
Lewis and Javar Williams were 2-for-4, the only multi-hit games for the Deacons. Wentz and freshman JD Stein had doubles, the team’s only extra base hits.
Houston’s Jackson LaLima, batting ninth, had its only multi-hit game, going 2-for-3 and scoring three runs. The Cougars’ Paul Schmitz threw four shutout innings to start the game.
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