No. 29 Carolina Falls To Wake In Series Finale

Sunday, April 13

Chapel Hill

1:00 PM

North Carolina

Wake Forest

April 13, 2014 | Baseball

By: UNC Athletic Communications

CHAPEL HILL --- Wake Forest raced out to a 5-1 lead and held on late to salvage the finale of a three-game series with a 6-5 win over No. 29 North Carolina Sunday afternoon at Boshamer Stadium. Skye Bolt and Michael Russell combined for seven hits for the Tar Heels, while Grant Shambley had three hits and Will Craig hit a two-run homer in the second to lead Wake Forest.

The Demon Deacons (23-15, 11-7 ACC) scored three times in the first against Tar Heel starter Zac Gallen. Gallen (3-3) hit the first batter he faced in Evan Stephens and Shambley singled before the freshman righty responded with back-to-back strikeouts. But an RBI single by Conor Keniry turned into a two-run play when Bolt fired wide of third, and it was 3-0 when Parks Jordan couldn't corral Russell's high throw on a Craig grounder.

Russell made amends immediately in the bottom of the first, driving a 2-2 offering from Wake starter Connor Kaden out to left for his third home run of the year. But Wake added two more in the third via the long ball, as Craig took Gallen deep to make it 5-1.

The two teams traded solo shots in the third and fourth, as Carolina's Zach Daly led off the third with his second of the year and Wake's Jack Carey hit his second of the year with one out in the fourth. The longballs by Craig and Carey were the first two hit off Gallen in 2014 and just the fifth and sixth of the season by Tar Heel opponents.

Carolina (21-15, 9-9 ACC) began to chip away against the Deacon bullpen in the fifth. Bolt led off the inning with a double off Connor Johnstone (2-2) and scored on Landon Lassiter's sacrifice fly to right center. A trio of Wake relievers held fast until the eighth, when the Tar Heels got to Deac closer Aaron Fossas.

Wood Myers got things started in the eighth with a one-out single and moved to third on Bolt's second double of the afternoon. Myers would score on Tom Zengel's RBI groundout before Lassiter drove in Bolt with a single.

Fossas escaped further damage in the eighth, and Russell's hard-hit ball to left center came up a few feet short of a game-winning homer in the ninth to give the right-hander his ninth save of the year.

Spencer Trayner, Trevor Kelley and Taylore Cherry provided five innings of scoreless relief to keep Carolina in the game. Kelley was especially impressive, allowing just one hit and one walk in 2.2 shutout innings.

Next up for the Tar Heels is the Duel at the DBAP Tuesday evening at 7. Carolina will face NC State at the home of the Durham Bulls in a non-conference matchup before returning home to host Elon on Wednesday.