Craig Leads Wake Forest Past Gallen, No. 17 UNC Baseball to Open Series

When it comes to the best hitters in college baseball, you won’t find many better than Wake Forest third baseman Will Craig.

The ACC leader in batting average and RBIs, Craig sparked the Demon Deacons to a 6-1 win on Friday in their series opener with the No. 17 Tar Heels.

Zac Gallen–one of the ACC’s top pitchers–gave up just five hits in 6.2 innings on the mound for UNC, but it was Craig who shined brightest in the battle between the two stars.

Zac Gallen was solid on the mound for UNC on Friday, but didn’t get the run support necessary to get a win. (Joe Bray/ UNC Athletics)

A 6-foot-3-inch, 230-pound junior from Johnson City, Tennessee, Craig put Wake Forest (24-17, 8-11 ACC) ahead with an RBI single against Gallen in the first inning, scored a run in the fourth after reaching base on a walk, then sent his 12th home run of the season over the wall in left center to lead off the sixth.

He also walked in his fourth, and final, plate appearance of the night–keeping his average at a staggering .455.

The Tar Heels (26-13, 9-10 ACC) continued their inconsistency at the plate, picking up just a single run on six hits–two days after scoring 17 runs in a rout over William & Mary.

Parker Dunshee continually pitched to contact all night for the Demon Deacons, but managed to hold UNC scoreless for seven innings, before finally allowing the Tar Heels to scrape one across in the eighth on an RBI groundout from Brian Miller.

Miller, a sophomore from Raleigh, led the Tar Heels offensively, going 2-for-4 with a double. He was the only UNC player to reach base more than once, as the entire team failed to see ball four at all during the game.

Brian Miller had two hits for UNC, which failed to draw a single walk against Wake Forest. (Jeffrey A. Camarati/ UNC Athletics)

Facing reliever Brett Daniels in their half of the eighth, Wake Forest added a fourth run when Daniels walked Jonathan Pryor with two outs and the bases loaded.

A single by freshman catcher Logan Harvey in the next at-bat brought home two more–all but ensuring the Tar Heels would come up short in conference play yet again.

After falling below .500 in the conference standings, UNC has one month–and 11 ACC more games–to show it can regain the consistency that carried it through the early portion of the year.

That’s easier said than done, though, against players as dominant as Craig and a league as dominant as the ACC–which has had as many as eight teams ranked in the Top 25 this season.

Up Next:

UNC and Wake Forest will play the second game of the three-game series on Saturday, with first pitch scheduled for 4 p.m.

Game Notes:

• With runners on base, the Tar Heels went just 1-for-13, despite the lead-off man reaching on four occasions.
• Craig’s 12 home runs put him second in the ACC behind only Clemson freshman Seth Beer, who entered Friday with 14.
• Gallen fell to 4-4 this season for UNC after suffering his second straight loss.

FINAL BOX SCORE

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