2023 Wake Forest Baseball Top Moment: Ambush

3B Brock Wilken Rounding First:

Back on June 11th, Wake Forest took on Alabama in game two of the Winston-Salem Super Regional. The Demon Deacons completed a thrilling 5-4 victory the day before and were the designated away team for the second game of the best-of-three series. Tommy Hawke, the table-setter, led the game off with a double down the right field line. Two batters later, Nick Kurtz took a hanging 0-2 slider from Jacob McNairy and crushed it over the parking lot in right field to the delight of the thousands of fans in attendance. It was Kurtz's 24th home run of the year, tying him with Brendan Tinsman for second on the single season home run list at Wake Forest. Brock Wilken, the next batter, hammered a 3-2 hanging slider over the makeshift pavilion that sat beyond the left field wall. It was Brock's 28th home run of the year, extending his home run record and drawing him closer to the ACC all-time home run crown (which will be discussed in a later post). This inning was one of my personal favorites from this year due to the pure electricity the crowd brought and the genuine reactions from both Kurtz and Wilken.

Wake Forest went on to beat Alabama 22-5 in this game to advance to the College World Series for the first time since 1955.