Wake Forest loses lead, opener at Georgia Tech
Wake Forest struck early and had a three-run lead against ACC-leading Georgia Tech on Friday night.
The Deacons couldn’t hold on in a 6-5 loss to the Yellow Jackets in the series opener at Russ Chandler Stadium.
Wake Forest (28-15, 11-11 ACC) led 4-1 through two innings against a Georgia Tech team (34-7, 17-5) that entered the night with a ½-game lead over UNC in the league standings. The Yellow Jackets scored four in the fifth inning to take the lead and added a run in the sixth.
The Deacons got a run back in the seventh on Luke Costello’s RBI single — though he was thrown out at second base.
And the Deacons put the tying run 90 feet away in the ninth before the game ended. JD Stein led off the ninth with a walk, reached second on Javar Williams’ sacrifice bunt and went to third on Dalton Wentz’s groundout.
Costello grounded out into a shift on a 3-0 pitch to end the game.
GT got a two-run homer by Jarren Advincula to start its scoring in the fifth. The Yellow Jackets’ other runs in the inning came on a wild pitch by Evan Jones, who replaced Chris Levonas (8-3), and a two-out double by Will Baker.
Vahn Lackey had an RBI single in the sixth for what proved to be the game-winning run.
Wake’s first four runs came on home runs by hot hitters. Kade Lewis — who ended the game in the on-deck circle — hit a three-run homer in the first. He has four homers in Wake’s last five games.
Blake Schaaf, who hit his first home run of the season a week ago, hit a solo blast in the second. That’s his fourth homer of the season.
Levonas gave up six hits, three walks and two hit batters in four-plus innings of work. Jones pitched three innings, allowing two inherited runners to score and giving up GT’s sixth-inning run (which was unearned). Zach Johnston recorded a 1-2-3 eighth inning with a pair of strikeouts.
