Baseball Drops Pair at No. 24 Wake Forest

Saturday, February 29

Winston-Salem, N.C.

2:00 PM

Brown University

1-5

Wake Forest

5-5

Brown

Wake Forest

2/29/2020 9:10:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The Brown baseball team dropped both ends of a doubleheader at No. 24 Wake Forest, 7-4 and 10-0, on Saturday to continue a four-game round-robin weekend at Couch Ballpark.

Brown dropped to 1-6 on the young season. Wake Forest improved to 6-5 overall.

Game 1: Wake Forest 7, Brown 4
Brown cut the deficit to one run in the eighth inning, but the Deacons held off the late attack, as the home team scored twice in the bottom half of the frame to secure the opening win.

Rich Ciufo (Medford, N.Y.) went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and Parke Phillips (Venice, Fla.) drove home a pair of runs.

Collin Garner (St. Augustine, Fla.) picked up his first loss of the season as he went five innings with four runs allowed and five strikeouts. Ryan Kuntz (Minneapolis, Minn.) and Gregory Strickland (Raleigh, N.C.) combined for three innings of relief work. Jared Shuster went seven innings with two runs allowed in the win for the home squad.

"This game could have gone either way," said head coach Grant Achilles. "Collin did a great job, and we put together good at-bats up and down the line-up."

Wake Forest held a one-run lead after three innings, but the Bears took the lead with three hits in the top of the fourth, as Phillips smacked a two-run single up the middle for the 2-1 lead. Wake Forest tied the game with one run in the bottom half.

After the Deacons scored three times over the next three innings, the Bears came back with two runs in the eighth. Ciufo scored Garett Delano (Callahan, Fla.) with a triple to center field and then crossed the plate on a passed ball. Nevertheless, Wake Forest added a pair of insurance runs and Eric Adler cleaned up the final out to earn the save.

Game 2: Wake Forest 10, Brown 0
William Fleming went eight scoreless innings on the mound to pick up the win for Wake Forest. He limited the Bears to two hits and totaled nine strikeouts. Rookie John Torroella (Baltimore, Md.) allowed three runs over four innings in the loss for the Bears.

"I'm really proud of how the team competed until the last pitch," Achilles said. "That is a regional-host caliber team, and we didn't back down for a moment."

Wake Forest scored in each of the first three innings for a three-run lead heading into the fifth frame. Brennan Vasquez (Milton, Fla.) hit a two-out double in the top of the second to give the Bears a runner in scoring position, but Fleming managed to escape without any damage.

The Demon Deacons used a four-run fifth to pave the way to a nine-run lead through six innings. Wake then tacked on a single run in the eighth.

Rookie Bobby Olsen (Powdersville, S.C.) provided a scoreless inning with one hit out of the bullpen.

Brown will play La Salle on Sunday to wrap up the four-game weekend.