Wake Forest wins eighth straight, final mid-week game
Wake Forest is rolling in the final week of the baseball season.
The Deacons won 7-5 at Liberty on Tuesday night, picking up their eighth straight win with only three games left in the regular season.
Wake Forest (36-17) scored the go-ahead run in the top of the fifth inning when Andrew Costello scored on a throwing error by Brandon Dahlman. Dalton Wentz added an insurance run for the Deacons with a solo home run in the ninth.
The Deacons held on to that slim lead through the second half of the game because of a stellar, shutout effort from a four-man bullpen effort.
Ryan Bosch (1-1) picked up the win by relieving Duncan Marsten in the fourth. Bosch went 1 1/3 innings, allowing a hit and a walk with two strikeouts.
Zach Johnston handled the sixth and seventh. He allowed a hit but faced the minimum because of a double play. The senior lefty ran his scoreless innings streak to 12 1/3 innings; he hasn’t allowed a run since late March.
Will Ray walked the leadoff batter in the eighth but kept Liberty (36-17) off the board. Rhys Bowie allowed a leadoff single in the ninth but that was his only baserunner, giving the sophomore his second save of the season.
Luke Costello started the game’s scoring with a solo homer in the first. It’s his team-best 17th of the season; Wentz’s ninth-inning homer puts him at 16.
JD Stein drove in two of Wake’s runs, one with a bases-loaded hit by pitch and another with a single. Javar Williams hit a sacrifice fly after Stein’s run-scoring HBP, and Kade Lewis also had a sacrifice fly.
Marsten gave up all five of Liberty’s runs, four of them in the second inning. He allowed five hits and four walks, and also hit two batters.
