Wake Forest gives up late lead and loses to NC State in 10 innings

Wake Forest let one slip away on Sunday against NC State losing 6-5 in 10 innings at Couch Ballpark.

After rolling through the first two games of the series winning 22-1 and 18-7, the Demon Deacons failed to sweep the series.

"That's a bad loss," Coach Tom Walter of the Demon Deacons said. "It's a game that we should have found a way to win. We gave ourselves a chance in the ninth and the 10th, which I'm proud of, but we had the lead late and couldn't hold on to it."

The Demon Deacons fell to 27-14 overall and 11-10 in ACC play while the Wolfpack improved to 26-14 and 9-9.

"We had a chance in the first inning to blow the game open," Walter said about taking a 2-1 lead. "We had runners on first and second, nobody out, two runs already in, and we just had two non-competitive at-bats."

Kade Lewis had his 19th multi-hit game of the season with three hits and four RBI's. Lewis was spectacular throughout the series, finishing 8-for-10 at the plate with nine RBIs, three home runs and five runs scored in the three games against the Wolfpack.

The Demon Deacons had a 4-2 lead in the top of the eighth, but the Wolfpack tied the game and then scored two in the top of the 10th that was just enough.

"Late in the game, we gave up too many free passes and couldn't control the running game," Walter said. "They found a way to punch across runs and unfortunately, we didn't make them earn those runs, which is disappointing."

Sophomore starter Cameron Bagwell recorded a solid outing with three strikeouts in five innings and gave up just runs. Rhys Bowie had five strikeouts in two innings of relief.

Wake Forest will play host to UNC Greensboro in its final home midweek game of the season on Tuesday at 6 p.m.

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