Wake Forest stays alive in baseball regional with big win over Binghamton

Wake Forest's offense got back in a groove on Saturday in a 12-3 win over Binghamton in an elimination game of the Morgantown Regional in the NCAA Tournament.

The Demon Deacons (39-20), who broke a three-game losing streak to stay alive, will play in another elimination game on Sunday at noon against either West Virginia, which lost to Kentucky 11-9 on Saturday night. The Bearcats (31-22) went 0-2 in the regional.

Against Binghamton, seven of the nine Wake Forest players had hits as it collected 15 hits with eight of those for extra bases.

"It's a great team win," Coach Tom Walter said. "I'm really proud of our guys and the way they came out and competed today. I thought we competed well yesterday. We limited the free 90s today, which was huge. We only had three on the day. Obviously, some great individual performances, Blake Schaaf and (reliver) Zach Johnston, came in in a big situation, the game's still on the line. It's 10-3 with nobody out, and he gets a punchout and a double play ball to get us in the dugout. That was really the difference in the game."

Javer Williams hit a solo homer in the eighth inning for an 11-3 lead for the Demon Deacons.

Binghamton fought back with three runs in the bottom of the fifth to cut the Wake Forest lead to 10-3. Starter Cameron Bagwell went five innings allowing eight hits with two of the three runs he allowed being earned. He had four strikeouts and two walks in his quality start.

Relievers Zach Johnston and Blake Morningstar closed the game out for the Demon Deacons.

Wake Forest took a 10-0 lead with run-scoring hits from Williams and JD Stein, who broke out of his slump. The Demon Deacons erupted for five runs in the fourth inning to take a commanding 8-0 lead. In the inning, Williams' laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to score Blake Schaaf and Luke Costello, Kade Lewis and Matt Conte all had run-scoring hits for the Demon Deacons. Schaaf went 4 for 4 with two runs scored.

The Demon Deacons took a 3-0 lead, scoring a run in the top of the third on a Dalton Wentz single. His hit scored Lewis, who doubled.

Wake Forest scored two runs in the top of the second thanks in large part to two errors by Binghamton's infield, which came into the game having committed the fewest errors in the America East Confrence. Wentz started the inning with a double and Conte reached base on an error. Wentz had moved to third on a passed ball and he scored on the error.

Later in the inning Schaff singled to score Conte for the 2-0 lead.

Williams, Lewis, Wentz and Stein picked up two hits each for Wake Forest.

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