Wake Forest loses regional baseball opener to Kentucky

Wake Forest Coach Tom Walter spoke this week about Kentucky's speed on the bases. As it turned out, that speed helped the Wildcats to a 6-5 win on Friday in the Morgantown Regional.

At the Kendrick Family Ballpark, the Wildcats scored on a wild pitch in the top of the ninth inning that was the difference.

The third-seeded Wildcats (32-21) advanced to the winner's bracket and will play either West Virginia on Saturday at 5 p.m. The Demon Deacons (38-20) fall into an elimination game on Saturday at noon against Binghamton, which lost to West Virginia 10-1 on Friday night.

"That's really a disappointing loss, given the way our team battled," Walter said. "We only gave up a couple of hard-hit balls all day. We just kept giving up free 90s. We knew coming into it that if we issued some free 90s and let them have their way on the bases, it would be a tough game. That's exactly what happened today."

The Demon Deacons have lost three straight going back to their final regular-season game against Duke and their ACC Tournament loss to Pitt.

With the score tied at 5 in the top of the ninth, Jayce Tharnish got a one-out single off reliever Will Ray. Tharnish then stole second, and then stole third with two out. Ray then uncorked a wild pitch that scored Tharnish with the go-ahead run.

Four Wake Forest pitchers combined for five walks, three wild pitches and two hit batters.

The Demon Deacons failed to mount a rally in the bottom of the ninth and lost a game that they were leading 3-0 after four innings.

Wake Forest's Dalton Wentz tied the game at 5 in the bottom of the seventh with a solo home run. It was Wentz' 18th homer of the year.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, it got a little chippy after Andrew Costello homered for the Deacs to cut the lead to 5-4. Costello appeared to gesture toward Kentucky starting pitcher Jaxon Jelkin as he rounded first base and that's when first baseman Hudson Brown took exception and started yelling at Costello between first and second base. The umpires later warned both benches.

The Demon Deacons took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of first inning when Kade Lewis hit an RBI-single that scored Javar Williams.

In the fourth inning, the Demon Deacons scored on a two-run home run by Matt Conte for his 11th of the season. It was also the Demon Deacons 90th home run of the year as they took a 3-0 lead. Conte's homer scored Wentz, who was on second base.

The Wildcats got a run in the fifth off starting pitcher Chris Lavonas. Caeden Cloud doubled to score Carson Hansen from second, but Lavonas got out of the inning when Tharnish flied out.

Lavonas did his part, going five innings allowing just one run on two hits with six strikeouts.

In the sixth, however, reliever Rhys Bowie hit the first batter he faced, and it went downhill from there as he allowed four runs that were helped by two walks. The Wildcats grabbed the 5-3 lead thanks to a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly.

Bowie, a hard-throwing left hander, hadn't allowed an earned run since late April but couldn't find the strike zone and it cost him.

Wake Forest had 10 hits in the game and Kentucky managed just five hits but scored six runs.

"We did a good job battling back," Walter said. "Andrew Costello's home run and Dalton Wentz's home run behind that gave us a chance. We had them where we wanted in the ninth inning. They had two outs with Will Ray on the mound, and we threw a wild pitch that turned out to be the winner."

It's the fourth time in the last five seasons that the Demon Deacons have lost their regional opener.

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This story was originally published May 31, 2026 at 5:45 AM.