Wake Forest’s hopes of making it out of the Morgantown regional are still alive after they eliminated the Binghamton Bearcats 12-3 on Saturday.
After dropping a close one on Friday afternoon, the Deacs had no plans of messing around today. After scoring 3 runs in the first 3 innings, Wake used a massive 5-run 4th inning to take a commanding 8-0 lead into the 5th. The Deacs would go on to score 10 runs through 5 innings before the Bearcats ever got on the board.
Cameron Bagwell got the start on the mound and had a terrific beginning to the game. Through 4 innings, Bagwell faced just 15 batters, giving up no runs and only a couple of hits—it was the 5th inning where things started to get a little messy. Binghamton started the inning off with a homerun to get on the board and then proceeded to load up the bases after 2 hits and a walk. A fielder’s choice and a sac fly to center scored 2 more runs for the Bearcats to cut the lead to 10-3.
After 3 quick out for the Deacs in the top of the 6th, Binghamton loaded up the bases again with 3 straight singles, and it looked like they were going to make a game out of this one. Zach Johnston replaced Bagwell with the bases loaded and no outs, and quickly got Wake out of the jam—a strike out and a a double play in his first two batters faced retired the inning for the Deacs and preserved the 10-3 lead.
The Deacs were nearly perfect defensively to finish the game. In the final 3 innings, the Deacs faced just 9 batters and allowed 1 hit on a Zack Kent single in the 8th inning—Kent was quickly thrown out at 2nd base as part of a double play on the very next pitch. Wake added 2 runs in the final 3 innings on a Javar Williams home run in the 8th and a Blake Schaaf RBI single in the 9th to win the game 12-3.
Binghamton was the weakest team in the regional by far, but it is great to see the Deacs break their 3-game losing streak and keep their hopes of advancing alive. Wake has been pretty reliant on home-runs to score this season, so it was also nice to see they can put up 12 runs in a game with just 1 coming from the long ball.
The Deacs will play the loser of the West Virginia-Kentucky game tomorrow at noon.
Go Deacs!
