Deacs hold on to 4-3 win over Duke to advance to ACC Tournament pool play

DURHAM, N.C. — On an afternoon where nothing really came easy for the Deacs, Will Craig had trouble finding the strike zone with his off speed pitch.

That’s to say, he hadn’t thrown a single breaking ball for a strike.

Until the bottom of the 9th inning, while facing Duke’s Jack Labosky, the Blue Devils leading home run hitter.

With one on and nobody out, Labosky had worked the count full with the tying run already on base. One big shot and he celebrates a walk-off winner.

Craig knew Labosky would be locked into his fastball, so despite missing high on every other breaking pitch, he dug down and tried once more.

Labosky was surprised as watched strike three creep past him, and the Deacs (33-23) held on to a 4-3 victory Tuesday over Duke (33-22) to advance to pool play in the ACC Tournament at Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

“Yeah, I definitely had trouble with it earlier, the previous few batters, I kept leaving it up. But I knew that was the pitch. I knew he was going to be sitting on a fastball more than likely,” Craig said. “I knew that was the pitch if I was going to get him out, a strikeout which is what we needed.

“Just wanted it to be a breaking ball. It was kind of a -- if I got it over, I looked like a genius, and if I didn't, look like somebody who should never play baseball again.”

Craig earned a seven-out save, though he allowed four hits and a walk. He fanned three.

Wake starter Parker Dunshee got the win, striking out 10 Blue Devils over 6.1 innings pitched. He allowed nine hits, two walks and three earned runs. Duke left 12 runners on base in the loss.

“Yeah, that's just a great win for our program right there, and it was our pitching that got it done for us today. Parker Dunshee was awesome. He struck out ten through six innings, had both his pitches working really well,” Wake Forest coach Tom Walter said. “Was aggressive, and coming on two times in a row with short rest to pitch like that in this game was huge.”

The Deacs struck early, with Stuart Fairchild blasting a two-run homer over the left field wall to give Wake a 2-0 lead in the top of the 1st.

“Credit Fairchild,” Duke coach Chris Pollard said. “He was ready for a fastball there in the first.”

The other two runs were cobbled together by duct tape and superglue, but there were just as important as the Deacs held on for dear life through the later innings.

Jonathan Pryor led off the third inning with a single to center field, then advanced to second on a balk. Alert baserunning allowed him to get to third on a no-out shallow fly to right. Duke’s Peter Zyla caught the ball on his heels, and Pryor easily scooted to third base. He scored on a Nate Mondou fly ball to center field to give the Deacs a 3-1 lead.

Stuart Fairchild scored the final run for the Deacs, reaching on an infield hit that was not fielded cleanly by the Duke pitcher. He advanced to second on a Will Craig deep flyout to center, then was driven home by a Gavin Sheets single through the right side.

The Deacs made the most of their limited opportunities, plating four runs on just five hits. They left just two runners stranded.

“I think today was a good example, one of those memories you're going to have, you're playing a really good team in Duke and you're able to put together some runs and fight, and you never know when the game is going to turn the other way,” Dunshee said. “That's kind of how we want to remember our college years is in games like this where we fight and claw. You don't remember games you win 20-0. You don't remember those games. You remember games that you actually earned the win and that's kind of how the whole ACC Tournament going to be.”

Wake advances to pool play in the ACC Tournament, where they will have games against Louisville at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Virginia at 3 p.m. Friday and Clemson at 11 a.m. Saturday.

The Deacs will start John McCarren (7-2, 3.41) against Louisville Wednesday, with the Cards slated to go with Kade McClure (11-0, 2.50). That should leave Connor Johnston and Drew Loepprich available to pitch against Virginia and Clemson respectively.

“They (UL) didn't see McCarren last week. Johnny had a great start against Marshall mid-week against a good Marshall club that just finished a half a game out of the C-USA Championship for the regular season,” Walter said. “So John is going to get the ball. They haven't seen him. He's a guy that throws three pitches for strikes, changes speeds. I think he's a good matchup for Louisville.”

Craig won’t be available out of the pen Wednesday, but everyone else will be, including Donnie Sellers, who warmed up, but did not pitch Tuesday.

Wake was still in NCAA projected brackets even after getting swept by Louisville last weekend, and the win against Duke only helps. The Blue Devils came in No. 23 in the RPI, with the Deacs at No. 26.

Duke coach Chris Pollard believes the Blue Devils have done enough themselves to make the NCAA field.

“I think most of the folks that really know our sport, had us in going into today. And I can't see where anything that happened on the field today would take that away from us. We had 13 hits. We walked one guy. We didn't make an error,” Pollard said. “I would say that we absolutely have earned the right to go and keep playing baseball.”

Another win over a ranked opponent should be enough to put Wake in comfortably, and now they’ve got three chances before this week is complete. NCAA pairings are revealed at noon Monday.

“This is one of those teams you don't want to end early with, so we are trying to take this team as much as possible as far as we can. We knew at the beginning today a win would really help us for the NCAA regional,” Craig said. “The next three days we are going to play and have fun. We are going to play like it's our last game. We want to keep playing. We don't want to stop. It's going to come eventually to an end, but hopefully it's in a regional or super regional or maybe even Omaha.”