In leg one of the home and home series between the Elon University baseball team and Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, one thing became certain when looking ahead to tomorrow’s game two at Elon: Elon senior closer Nate Young will not pitch in the game.
In a pitchers duel Tuesday April 30, the Demon Deacons bested the Phoenix 2-1 in 13 innings. Starting freshman Brandon Kacer and using sophomore Andrew MacDonald through the first six innings, Young came on to pitch the seventh. He went on to throw six innings of shutout baseball while striking out nine to carry the Phoenix and the Demon Deacons to extra innings. The closer threw 86 pitches in the game.
Wake Forest sophomore left fielder Grant Shambley played a key part in both of the Demon Deacons’ runs in the game. He walked to start the fifth inning and later came around to score on a single from freshman Joey Rodriguez.
Ryan Pennell was brought in to pitch the 13th inning for the Phoenix. Senior catcher Brett Armour singled to center field with one out in the inning. The only error of the game came in the thirteenth when Pennell’s pickoff throw to first base went awry and allowed Armour to reach third base. Just a couple pitches later, Shambley flew out to center field just deep enough to get Armour home for the 2-1 victory.
Elon’s lone run came in the seventh inning when sophomore Joey Tomko drew a one-out walk, moved to second on Tyler McVicar being hit by a pitch, then getting to third on a Chris Bresnahan groundout to shortstop.
Pinch hitter Danny Lynch then singled to center to score Tomko to tie the game at one.
Pennell took the loss to drop to 0-2. Wake Forest reliever Niko Spezial improved his perfect record to 4-0 with the win.
Wake Forest moved to 25-23 on the season. Elon dropped below the .500 mark at 23-24 for the first time since March 12 when the Phoenix were 7-8.
The two teams return to the field Wednesday May 1 at 6:30 p.m. Elon will hold Military Appreciation Day at Latham Field.