Elon Baseball Bounces Back With Win at Wake Forest

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – After dropping a high-scoring contest to Wake Forest at home on Tuesday, the Elon baseball squad bounced back by claiming a 10-3 victory over the Demon Deacons on the road on Wednesday, March 11.

Elon (8-6) got a solid start from Lucas Bakker (2-3) who allowed three runs on six hits over six innings of work. He walked just one and struck out five to earn the victory and was perfect for the first three innings. A quartet of Phoenix pitchers combined to no-hit the Demon Deacons over the final three innings.

The Phoenix was the first to score, as Ryan Cooper drew a bases-loaded walk in the top of the first. Elon extended its edge to 4-0 in the second. With two outs and Kory Shumate on first, Nick Zammarelli singled and Casey Jones drew a walk to load the bases. Chris King followed by lacing a ball just inside the third-base bag for a two-RBI double. After another walk reloaded the bases, Cooper drew his second bases-loaded free pass to record his second RBI.

After Elon upped its lead to 6-0 in the top of the fourth on a Cooper RBI single and a Bower fielder’s choice, Wake Forest (12-6) got its first hit of the game to start the bottom half – a homer to right from Kevin Conway. The Deacs would later tack on another in the frame to make it a 6-2 contest.

The Phoenix put the game out of reach in the sixth by scoring four times. Wake would score its final run in the last of the sixth.

In a matchup of two of the nation’s top hitting squads, Elon (ranked sixth nationally in batting average entering the game) pounded out 11 hits, while Wake Forest (second nationally in batting average) had just six.

For the Phoenix, both King and Bower had three hits and drove in two runs. Cooper went 2-for-3 and drove in four. Zammarelli also had a two-hit night. Elon drew a season-high 11 walks.

The loss went to Chris Farish (0-2) who surrendered one run on one hit and three walks in just one inning. Wake Forest used a total of eight pitchers on the night.

Elon will be back at home at Latham Park on Friday for a 4 p.m. bout with East Carolina.