Wake Forest Evens Series With Pitt

Saturday, April 11

Pittsburgh, Pa.

3:00 PM

Pitt

13-20, 5-12

Wake Forest

22-15, 9-8

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Wake Forest	3	0	4	0	1	2	0	2	0	12	14	0
Pitt	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	1	4	8	1

Wake Forest Evens Series With Pitt

4/11/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

April 11, 2015

Box Score

Box Score | Season Stats

PITTSBURGH -- Stuart Fairchild was a perfect 4-for-4 with two doubles and five runs batted in as Wake Forest handed Pitt a 12-3 setback on Saturday, April 11 at Charles L. Cost Field.

A day after Pitt (13-20, 5-12 ACC) posted its first-ever win against the visitors from Winston-Salem, Wake Forest (22-15, 9-8 ACC) earned the program's first victory in Pittsburgh. The rubber match game on Sunday will take place at 1 p.m.

Connor Johnstone (2-2), who had a career-long outing of 8.0 innings for the Demon Deacons, received the win after allowing three runs on six hits and four walks.

The Demon Deacons jumped on Pitt starting pitcher junior Aaron Sandefur (1-5) early, scoring three runs in the opening frame and chasing him after just 2.1 innings of work to hand him the loss. He was charged with six runs, seven hits, and a walk while striking out three.

Seven total relievers appeared for Pitt as the team tallied 12 total strikeouts.

Senior Eric Hess and sophomore Nick Yarnall were bright spots for the Panthers offensively, combining for all of Pitt's runs batted in. Hess finished the day 2-for-4 with 3 RBI, while Yarnall scored two runs and drove in one in a 2-for-4 effort as well.

Redshirt sophomore Jacob Wright extended his reached bases streak to a team-long 23 games with a base hit in the third inning. He also has a personal-best eight game hitting streak.

Wake Forest hit Sandefur early and often in the first inning, putting three runs and four hits on the scoreboard to get the scoring started.

Just like the day before, Jonathan Pryor led off the game with a single and this time Joey Rodriguez followed with a double to left field. Will Craig, one of the most lethal hitters in the country, tallied his first hit of the series when he doubled in both runs, then came in to score two batters later when Stuart Fairchild singled to right center.

Craig was back at it again two innings later, sneaking a double down the left field line to plate Nate Mondou after he reached base with a leadoff double down the right field line. Fairchild's one-out single, his second base knock of the game, chased Sandefur after only 2.2 innings -- his shortest start of the season. Sandefur's replacement, senior Hobie Harris, was greeted with a three-run homer by Gavin Sheets on the first pitch he saw to make it 7-0.

In the top of the fourth, the Demon Deacons ran themselves out of the inning as junior Alex Kowalczyk gunned out two would-be base stealers, the first of which came on a "strike `em out, throw `em out" double play.

Pitt got three runs back in the home half of the inning to close the gap to 7-3. Following a leadoff fly out, the next four Panthers reached base. Junior Aaron Schnurbusch walked and Kowalczyk singled before Yarnall recorded a base hit right side to bring in Schnurbusch. An error on Wake third baseman Justin Yurchak allowed Pitt to load the bases and Hess drove an offering back up the middle to score two more runs.

Over the next two innings, Wake Forest regained its seven run margin with one run scoring in the fifth and two more in the sixth.

The first three batters all reached base for Wake Forest when relief pitcher redshirt freshman Josh Mitchell clamped down and retired the next two batters, including a crucial strikeout. Pitt was poised to get out of the inning unharmed, but an errant throw from freshman Charles LeBlanc that pulled Hess off the bag at first allowed the Demon Deacons to score one.

Pitt then turned to freshman Isaac Mattson, who quickly got the first two batters out of the sixth on a strike out and ground out. Mattson then issued just his third walk of the season to Craig and gave up a single to Yurchak, placing runners on the corners for Wake Forest. With his third hit of the afternoon, Fairchild crushed a two-out, two-run double to straight away center.

Fairchild came up in a similar situation two innings later in the eighth, this time with runners on first and second. And just like the time before, the result was the same -- a two-out, two run double for his fourth hit of the game.

With the game's outcome all but finalized, Hess added an RBI groundout for the Panthers in the bottom of the ninth to set the final score at 12-4.

Craig finished 2-for-3 in the game with three RBI and three runs scored on two doubles and a walk. He's currently 2-for-6 in the series through the first two games.