CLEMSON, S.C. – On Saturday, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons battled the Clemson Tigers at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. Wake Forest evened up the weekend series with a 12-10 win over Clemson.
Here are some takeaways from Saturday’s matchup in Clemson.
Wake Forest’s Early Offense Makes a 180 From Yesterday’s Woes – The Demon Deacons had four hits in Friday’s game as a whole. Through three innings, they had 11.
Over that same stretch, they only struck out twice. Marek Houston, Kade Lewis, and Austin Hawke had multiple hits in the game. Eight players in the Demon Deacons’ lineup recorded a hit through the first three innings.
The power hitting came around for Wake Forest as well. Houston hit a home run in the first inning. A grand slam by Jimmy Keenan set Wake Forest on cruise control. Then, Lewis hit a three-run shot to extend the Demon Deacons lead out to 10-0.
Ultimately, this big burst from Wake Forest’s offense showed the adjustments made from Friday’s game and silenced the Doug Kingsmore crowd early.
Clemson Stays Patient and Gets Back into the Game – Being down 10-0 did not deter the Tigers from a comeback. They outscored Wake Forest 10-2 from the fourth inning through the rest of the game.
A lot of this came from Jacob Jarrell who finished the game with three hits. Two of his hits were doubles.
Josh Paino and Jarren Purify were also big with two RBI each in the comeback effort.
The overall production was there, with eight walks and nine hits as a team. The Tigers never were fully out of the game and showed resilience when facing a big deficit.
It took a pop fly with the bases loaded to end the game as Clemson came up just short with a big-time comeback.
Back End of Wake Forest Bullpen Comes up Big to End the Game – Griffin Green, Joe Ariola, and Josh Gunther all came in to close out the final 3 and 1/3 innings of the game.
The three arms combined for four strikeouts, gave up only one hit, and did not allow Clemson to get runs and fully complete the comeback.
Gunther earned the save for the Demon Deacons. It was his fourth this season.
WBN NCAA: https://worldbaseball.com/league/ncaa/
Photo: Wake Forest’s Marek Houston (7) reacts to a play during an NCAA baseball game on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025, in Winston-Salem, N.C. (AP Photo/Ben McKeown)
