Louisville Baseball Dropped Game 1 to Wake Forest by a Walk Off Homer

Mark BlankenbakerMarch 17, 2018

DJ Poteet’s ninth inning solo home run lifted Wake Forest to a 2-1 walk-off win against the No. 4 Louisville baseball team in Friday night’s series-opener at David F. Couch Ballpark.

With the score even at 1-1 and one out in the bottom of the ninth, Poteet lifted a 2-2 pitch from Austin Conway over the right field wall for his third home run of the season. It marked the second walk-off home run in the last seven days for Poteet, who delivered a two-run homer in the ninth inning of Wake Forest’s 4-3 win over Florida State last Saturday.

The Demon Deacons (8-10, 3-1 ACC) struck for the first run of the night with an unearned tally in the fourth inning. The Cardinals answered with a run in the seventh inning after sophomore Drew Campbell connected on his first home run of the season sending the first pitch of the at-bat from Griffin Roberts over the right field wall to even the score at 1-1. Campbell finished the game 2-for-3 at the plate.

Louisville had a chance to gain command in the top of the ninth putting runners on second and third with one out. However, Wake Forest intentionally walked Campbell to load the bases before reliever Rayne Supple forced an inning-ending double-play with his first pitch after entering the game out of the bullpen.

Neither starting pitcher figured into the decision despite strong performances on each side. Louisville junior lefthander Adam Wolf had a career-best 11 strikeouts while surrendering only an unearned run on six hits in 6.0 innings. Wolf lowered his season ERA to 1.80 with Friday’s outing and has 38 strikeouts and just nine walks in 30.0 innings overall. Roberts had a career-high 13 strikeouts with one earned run on five hits in 8.1 innings for the Demon Deacons.

No. 4 Louisville and Wake Forest will continue the weekend series on Saturday at 4 p.m., ET while Sunday’s finale is set for 11 a.m.