Wake Forest falls to Florida State in ACC Baseball semifinals (2024)

CHARLOTTE — Tom Walter seemed to come to terms with the reality of Wake Forest’s 9-6 loss to Florida State on Saturday in the semifinals of the ACC Baseball Championship.

College baseball observers believed the only way the Demon Deacons (38-20) would get to play at David F. Couch Ballpark in the NCAA Division I tournament would be to run the table at Truist Field in Charlotte. The Seminoles (42-14) shook off an early outburst by the Demon Deacons and took command.

“No, I don’t think we’ll stay at home and host,” Walter said. “There’s too many teams ahead of us. There are certainly some things that could happen where we’d be back in the mix ... There’s maybe one host site up for grabs right now, and it’s probably going to come down to East Carolina, Duke and Wake Forest for the last spot the way I see it.”

The 10th-ranked Seminoles, seeded fifth in the tournament, overcame a 3-0 deficit and overtook Wake Forest to advance to the champiponship game, where they will play either Duke or Miami on Sunday. Those two teams were to meet in the other semifinal game, but a severe weather alert combined with the length of the Wake-Florida State game, delayed the start.

Walter wouldn’t blame Saturday’s loss on the 12-inning battle on Friday night in which the Demon Deacons took a 9-5 win that ended shortly after midnight. He did point to the lqck or production with men on base.

“We were ready to play again today,” he said. “We had chances. We left 12 on base. It seemed like we left 20 on base. We had the right guys up. We just couldn’t deliver.”

Florida State starter Andrew Amrstrong was unbeaten in five decisions this season, but his ERA was 6.57 and it didn’t take long for Wake Forest to get to him.

Armstrong allowed two base runners in the first, prompting action in the Seminoles bullpen. He settled down and retired the next two batters withoiut further pain. In the second, it only got worse.

Wake Forest loaded the bases on a walk, a bunt down the third base line that refused to roll into foul territory and a bloop single to left. Javar Williams, who came in late in Friday night’s marathon, produced a sacrifice fly that gave Wake Forest its first run. Seaver King hit a scorcher to the third baseman that he could only knock down, producing the second run. A wild pitch helped the Deacs run up a 3-0 edge.

The Semnoles got to Wake Forest starter Josh Hartle in the bottom of tbe third. Walter needed to get as many innings out of Hartle as possible after using nine relievers in Friday night’s victory over North Carolina, and he used his patience to resist the urge, especially when the early lead vanished.

Hartle gave up a single and a double, and Marek Houston booted a ground ball, allowing Florida State to tie the score. Two more runs came home in the third when a dribbler to the left of the pitcher’s mound got under Seaver King’s glove and rolled into short left field.

Tate Ballestero closed the gap to 5-4 when he launched a pinch-hit, bases-empty home run to left in the sixth. With two out, Jack Winnay may have thought he tied the score with a blast to center field, but Max Williams made a leaping grab at the wall just under the 400-foot sign.

Meanwhile, Hartle grinded his way into the sixth. After two rough innings, he retired eight in a row before issuing a one-out walk. He came out to applause from the Wake Forest fans, and Blake Morningstar replaced him. After getting a strikeout, Florida State’s Williams smacked a two-run shot to right field. Morningstar, who gave up two runs and two walks to Carolina on Friday night, was victimized again.

Florida State added two more runs in the seventh, and Wake Forest got two more in the eighth. On Monday, Walter and his players will find out their next destination in their bid to go back to Omaha and the College World Series.