WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – In front of another record-breaking, sellout crowd at David F. Couch Ballpark, the Wake Forest baseball team claimed the first game of the Winston-Salem Super Regional with a 5-4 victory over Alabama on Saturday afternoon.
Deacon Nation came out in support of their Deacs as David F. Couch Ballpark recorded an attendance of 3,903, the highest attendance at The Couch ever and third official sellout in Wake Forest Baseball history.
The Demon Deacons punched their ticket to the Super Regional round for the third time since super regionals began in 1999 (1999 and 2017) after going a perfect 3-0 in the Winston-Salem Regional last weekend, outscoring Maryland and George Mason by an overall tally of 48-7.
After breaking the program record for wins in its opening game of the regional last Friday, Wake Forest (51-10) has broken the program record for regular season wins, ACC wins, ACC series wins and overall wins this season. Additionally, the Deacs became the first team in Wake Forest history to have 50 or more wins in a single season last week.
The Demon Deacons continue to lead the nation in wins (51) while having the least amount of losses among Division I teams (10).
Heading into Saturday's contest, the Demon Deacons held a 38-4 record when they score first. They improved on this mark as they were able to tally the first three runs of the game. Tommy Hawke sent the first pitch he saw off the scoreboard in right center before Justin Johnson doubled Wake Forest's lead with a solo shot of his own in the second. Pierce Bennett singled and came around to score on a wild pitch to increase the Demon Deacon advantage to 3-0 after three frames.
After Alabama came back to tie the game, Danny Corona hit a clutch two-out solo home run over the right field wall in the fifth, putting the Deacs in front for good. An inning later, Adam Cecere had another clutch two-out hit up the middle, scoring Brock Wilken and putting the Deacs up 5-3 into the final three frames.
Two-time ACC Pitcher of the Year Rhett Lowder earned his nation-leading and program-record breaking 15th win of 2023 and 30th victory of his career after finishing with six strikeouts in 6.1 innings on Saturday.
Lowder ended his start strong, retiring eight of the last nine batters he faced, highlighted by perfect 1-2-3 innings in the fifth and sixth. Additionally, he walked just one batters, the 12th game this season the right hander has conceded less than two walks in an outing.
The Albemarle, N.C. native is the only pitcher in the nation with a perfect 15-0 record this season and owns the Wake Forest program record for single-season wins as the junior passed Kyle Sleeth (2002) with his 15th win of the season.
In the seventh, Lowder turned the ball over Sean Sullivan. The righthander came in and closed the door with a runner on base, striking out back-to-back batters in the seventh.
With a one-run lead in the ninth, Sullivan finished the game in style, punching out all three batters he faced in the inning to help the Deacs to the 5-4 victory. He ended the afternoon with seven of the eight batters he got out coming via a strikeout to earn his third save of the season.
Sullivan now has 108 strikeouts in 64.2 innings this season. With that total, Wake Forest now has three players in the top 10 in single-season strikeouts:
Wake Forest Single Season Strikeouts
• 2. Rhett Lowder (2023) - 131
• 4. Josh Hartle (2023) - 120
• T10. Sean Sullivan (2023) - 108