OMAHA, Neb. — It took a while for No. 1 Wake Forest to get much of anything going at the plate and on the bases Saturday afternoon at the College World Series.
When the Demon Deacons finally did, the two former Baylor School standouts in their lineup were a big part of it.
Danny Corona hit a go-ahead two-run single in the eighth inning to roust a dormant offense, and the Demon Deacons opened their first College World Series trip in 68 years with a 3-2 comeback win over Stanford. For the third straight game to open this year’s CWS, the winning team rallied in the eighth inning or later.
Corona’s hit drove in Nick Kurtz and Brock Wilken; Corona and Kurtz both were Baylor seniors in 2021 when the Chattanooga program won its third straight TSSAA baseball state title.
Wake Forest was playing its first CWS game since winning the national title in Omaha in 1955, and after rolling through the NCAA tournament’s regional and super regional rounds, the Demon Deacons were held to three hits and one run by Stanford before storms in the area caused a 1-hour, 28-minute delay in the seventh inning.
When play resumed, they were able to squeeze out enough production to earn their 53rd win of the season against 10 losses and move on in the double-elimination bracket.
“We call ourselves the king of delay,” Wilken said. “Every time we have a delay, we come out with so much energy, and our vibe is immediately switched.”
Wake Forest turned a double play to end the game, prompting closer Camden Minacci to pump both of his fists and do a little dance in front of the mound while infielders did jumping chest bumps.
The Demon Deacons and Stanford both play again Monday, but unlike Wake Forest, the No. 8 Cardinal (44-19) will be facing the prospect of their season ending.
Seth Keener (8-1), the third of four Wake Forest pitchers used Saturday, struck out four of the five batters he faced and earned the win.
For four innings, Stanford starter Joey Dixon held down an offense that outscored its first five NCAA tournament opponents 75-16 — the biggest run differential ever for a team heading into a CWS — and averaged 9.4 runs per game this season.
Dixon, who gave up a homer to Wilken and two singles, got out of a bases-loaded situation before he turned the game over to Drew Dowd at the start of the fifth. Dowd retired all six batters he faced, but he didn’t come back out after the delay.
“I felt we were tight early and nervous and kind of got out of our plan offensively,” Wake Forest coach Tom Walter said. “Didn’t have great at-bats, really, for the first seven innings. Give credit to the Stanford pitching. Dixon and Dowd did a great job and kind of held us at bay. But we did just enough.”
Nick Dugan got out of a mini jam in the seventh, but he walked Kurtz to start the bottom of the eighth. Left-hander Ryan Bruno (2-2) came on and walked Wilken. The two runners moved up on Justin Johnson’s sacrifice before Corona ripped a grounder up the middle to score both and give him 19 RBIs, the most in this year’s NCAA postseason.
“I told our team at the end, if we break it down to the smallest level, they got two guys on, they got a bunt down and a base hit,” Stanford coach David Esquer said. “They executed in order to win that ballgame. You’ve got to give them credit for doing that.”
The Demon Deacons were able to use the delay as an opportunity to reset.
As for Stanford, Esquer went to a concourse concession stand to buy a hot dog and the players kept things loose in the clubhouse.
“We obviously don’t want to point the finger at any delay or any single play,” Cardinal first baseman Carter Graham said. “We tried to keep our rhythm and momentum. We were playing hacky sack in the locker room, trying to stay together and have a good time, because that’s what we’re here to do.”
Wake Forest improved to 18-0 when ace Rhett Lowder starts. The projected first-round pick for the upcoming MLB draft struggled with his command, but he still had six strikeouts against one walk and limited Stanford to two runs before he left with one out in the sixth.
“He’s been battling a little virus the last couple of days and didn’t have his good stuff,” Walter said. “But he pitched into the sixth and gave us a chance to win like he always does.”
Stanford used two hits and a walk to load the bases in the first inning, and Lowder was on the verge of getting out of the jam when he hit Malcolm Moore with a 2-2 pitch to force in a run.
After Wilken hit his 31st homer of the season on his 21st birthday, tying him with Florida’s Jac Caglianone for the national lead, Graham singled in a run in the third to put Stanford up 2-1.
The Cardinal stranded five runners in scoring position against Lowder, and they lost other chances to add to their lead when reliever Sean Sullivan picked off Temo Becerra and Tommy Troy at first base in the sixth and seventh innings.
“We had plenty of opportunities throughout the day with runners in scoring position,” Esquer said. “Could have got that same hit and widened the gap or extended the lead.”