Wake Forest one win away from College World Series after defeating Alabama, 5-4
It was just the way Wake Forest drew it up.
Starting pitcher Rhett Lowder kept Alabama’s big bats under control, reliever Sean Sullivan finished up, and the Demon Deacons hit the long ball.
And after Saturday’s 5-4 victory, the top-seeded Deacons (51-10) are one victory away from their first College World Series appearance in 68 years.
Wake Forest will go for the clincher in the best-of-3 Super Regional series at noon Sunday. That game, and a possible Game 3 on Monday, will be at David F. Couch Ballpark in Winston-Salem.
The Demon Deacons entered Saturday’s game — their first in a Super Regional — with 117 home runs on the season, ninth-best in NCAA Division I. They added three to that total, and the biggest came in the bottom of the fifth.
Alabama (43-20) had battled back from a 3-0 deficit and tied the game.
With two out in the fifth, Wake Forest sophomore Danny Corona caught hold of a Luke Holman pitch and drove it more than 410 feet to right field for a home run. The Demon Deacons led 4-3 and never trailed again.
“I had struck out and flown out in my first two at-bats,” Corona said. “But I didn’t let it get to me.”
What might be better remembered came on the pitch preceding the home run. With two strikes, Corona took a half-swing at a Holman pitch. The umpire crew ruled it a checked swing.
“I for sure did swing on that,” Corona admitted after the game. “That was a blessing. I had to make sure I stayed grounded and waited for the next pitch.”
The next pitch landed in the grassy hill beyond the right-field fence.
It was the eighth homer in the last 16 games for Corona, who said the Wake Forest coaching staff helped him make some batting adjustments late in the season.
The Deacons still weren’t out of the woods.
They built their lead to 5-3 in the bottom of the sixth when Brock Wilken reached second base on an error by Alabama second baseman Ed Johnson, advanced to third on a fly ball, and scored on Adam Cecere’s two-out single.
Alabama, which also hit three home runs Saturday, closed to 5-4 in the top of the eighth on Caden Rose’s second homer of the game.
Deacons’ pitching excels
Rose’s home run was about the only mistake made by reliever John Sullivan, who pitched outstanding ball otherwise over the final 2.2 innings.
But let’s go back to the Demon Deacons’ starting pitcher, Rhett Lowder, the pride of North Stanly High. In 2018 and ’19, Lowder was the standout on North Stanly teams that went a combined 45-7. He was 9-0 in 2019 with a 0.63 earned run average.
He’s been every bit as dominant this season for Wake Forest, on a team that set a school record for single-season victories and is the NCAA’s No. 1 tournament seed for the first time.
Lowder is 15-0 after Saturday’s victory, and he scattered 5 hits over 6.1 innings.
Other than the home runs — a solo shot by Rose in the second inning and a two-run game-tying homer by Colby Shelton in the fourth — Lowder was in charge. He recorded five strikeouts in the final 2.1 innings he pitched, and Sullivan picked up where Lowder left off.
Sullivan faced 10 batters in 2.2 innings. One (Rose) hit a home run. Another hit a single. Seven of the other eight struck out.
With the crowd of 3,903 — about 100 fans over listed capacity — cheering in the top of the ninth, Sullivan struck out the side. He ended the game on a called third strike to the Crimson Tide’s Johnson.
Wake Forest hasn’t been to a College World Series since 1955, and the Demon Deacons will put the ball in the hands of Josh Hartle (10-2, 2.59 ERA) on Sunday, in hopes of returning to college baseball’s biggest event.
Game’s start delayed
The start of Saturday’s game was delayed for more than two hours, due to an unspecified “medical emergency” that did not directly affect the game. As of Saturday evening, officials had not disclosed the nature of the emergency.
The delay had an impact on Wake Forest and Alabama fans who weren’t at the game Saturday.
The first pitch had been scheduled for noon but instead took place at 2:15 p.m. That meant ESPN, which was scheduled to carry the game, instead aired the Duke-Virginia game. Wake Forest and Alabama were switched to ESPN+, a subscription service.
Steve Lyttle on Twitter: @slyttle
