No. 16 Virginia Baseball Loses Saturday vs. Wake Forest

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Wake Forest’s Tyler Smith hit two home runs and drove in four runs as the Demon Deacons downed the No. 16 Virginia baseball team, 14-3, Saturday night at Davenport Field. Jeremy Farrell (Jr., Westlake, Ohio) drove in two for the Cavaliers, while Tyler Wilson (Fr., Midlothian, Va.) tossed three scoreless innings out of the bullpen.

Charlie Mellies (1-4) pitched eight strong innings for Wake Forest and allowed three earned runs, six hits and two walks while fanning six. Virginia’s Jacob Thompson (Jr., Danville, Va.) fell to 4-2 this season after starting and lasting 3.2 innings. He gave up seven runs, although only one was earned. He also allowed five hits and two walks and struck out three.

Virginia (30-11, 12-8 ACC) finished with seven hits from seven different players. Wake (15-23, 7-12) knocked Cavalier pitchers around for 13 hits, with three coming from Willy Fox. Allan Dykstra added two hits, including an inside-the-park home run, and four RBI.

After Virginia took a 2-1 lead in the first inning, the Demon Deacons roared back to score the next 14 runs over five innings.

Wake tallied a run in the first on a double by Mike Murray, but Virginia countered with two in its half of the first on RBI singles by David Adams (Jr., Margate, Fla.) and Farrell.

The lead was short lived, as the Demon Deacons tied the score in the third on a single by Dykstra.

Wake then blew the game open with six unearned runs in the fourth inning. Virginia committed two key errors to prolong the inning, and Wake took advantage with the big blow coming from Dykstra, who launched a ball off the top of the right-field wall. The ball caromed off the wall, past right fielder David Coleman (Fr., Richmond, Va.) and back toward the infield. The Cavaliers’ relay to the plate was just late as Dykstra slid home for a three-run inside-the-park home run to give the Deacs an 8-2 lead.

Wake added two in the fifth inning on a solo home run by Smith and an RBI single by Fox and tacked on four in the sixth inning, with three coming on Smith’s second long ball.

Virginia scored the final run of the game in the bottom of the sixth as Dan Grovatt (Fr., Tabernacle, N.J.) tripled and then scored on a Farrell sacrifice fly.

The teams wrap up the three-game series with the rubber game at 1 p.m. Sunday. The game will be webcast on ACC Select.