BOONE, N.C. — Strong staff-day pitching and the first of two homers from
Juan Correa enabled App State Baseball to take a one-run lead into the seventh inning against No. 15 Wake Forest, but the Demon Deacons moved ahead for the first time with a nine-run seventh and posted a 14-6 victory on Tuesday at Smith Stadium.
Igniting a five-RBI day, Correa hit a 411-foot, two-out homer to left with two runners aboard to produce a 3-0 advantage in the third inning. The Mountaineers (6-6) were still ahead 3-2 after six innings, but they trailed 11-4 by the time Correa stepped into the box and recorded his seventh homer of the season on a two-run, opposite-field shot that hit the pole down the right-field line in the eighth.
App State starting pitcher
Cal Clark (five outs),
Bradley Wilson (four outs) and
Zach Lewis (scoreless inning in his season debut) combined to hold Wake Forest (11-3) without a run through four innings.
The Demon Deacons used a solo homer and a two-out RBI double to pull within 3-2 in the fifth before
Cody Little, the third pitcher of the frame, took the mound with two aboard. He recorded a swinging strikeout with two runners in scoring position, then ended the next frame by getting a swinging strikeout on a 3-2 pitch with the tying run on second.
Wake Forest opened the seventh inning with four straight walks, including two on 3-2 offerings. The bases-loaded walk that tied the game preceded pinch-hitter Matt Scannell's two-run double down the line in right.
The Demon Deacons followed a fielder's choice that ended with an out at the plate by delivering an RBI single for a 6-3 advantage. The margin was still three runs in a two-out, bases-loaded situation when a Wake base runner going toward second beat a long, underhanded flip to the bag after a cleanly fielded grounder. One run scored on that potential inning-ending play, and the Demon Deacons used consecutive two-RBI hits to push the lead to 11-3.
App State made some late noise, cutting into its deficit on
Graham Smiley's 415-foot homer to left in the seventh and Correa's two-run shot in the eighth, but Wake Forest scored three times in the top of the ninth.
The 2025 App State Baseball season is presented by Chick-fil-A. The Mountaineers are back in action Friday at 4 p.m. to start a weekend series at the College of Charleston.
