Wake Forest offense piles on Alabama with eighth-inning grand slam to inch closer to Omaha

Marek Houston is about to force Alabama to start the buses.

Houston belted a grand slam to left field to extend Wake Forest’s lead to 13 runs in the eighth inning. The no-doubter was just his fourth of the season.

The home run was good for the 11th long ball of the afternoon across both teams. Check out what is likely the nail in the coffin for the Crimson Tide.

Wake is feelin' GRAND!!#RoadToOmaha x 🎥 ESPN / @WakeBaseball pic.twitter.com/T0dD863QEu

— NCAA Baseball (@NCAABaseball) June 11, 2023

Despite the major discrepancy on the scoreboard, both teams have been going yard all afternoon. All five of Alabama’s runs have been scored off home runs, while Wake Forest has knocked six balls out of the park at the Crimson Tide’s expense. 

After Alabama entered the bottom of the first inning, right fielder Andrew Pinckney stepped up to the plate and delivered a two-run shot to start things off. 

The second inning was just as exciting. Tommy Hawke belted a two-run homer to right field to put Wake Forest up two runs again. Alabama officially made it a shootout once Colby Shelton hit a solo shot to right field to cut the lead to two in the same inning.

Wake Forest continued to make the most of Sunday’s home run derby with another solo homer, this time from Brock Wilken who hit his home run into the trees outside of left field. From there, Wake poured on five runs in the third inning, two in the sixth, and then six more for insurance in the eighth — and four more in the ninth.

Brock Wilken becomes ACC’s all-time home run leader 

The way Wake Forest was hitting on Sunday, it should come as no surprise that Brock Wilken was having a field day against Alabama during game two of the Winston-Salem Super Regional.

He knocked three balls out of the David F. Couch Ballpark, totaling 4-for-5 at the plate with a walk. The hot afternoon earned him his 68th, 69th and his record-setting 70th career home run to break the all-time ACC record.

Wilken wasn’t the only player that was hot at the plate. In fact, his whole team was on fire hitting a total of nine home runs — which tied an NCAA record — en route to defeating Alabama 22-5 to finish off the Super Regional sweep of the Crimson Tide. Five other Demon Deacons scored home runs during the game.

Coming into the matchup, Wilken was batting .317, having scored 46 runs (90 total bases) at 120 at-bats. He’s now hit 18 home runs on the season, but he does more than just hit. He’s drawn a team-high 30 walks but has struck out 32 times.

His game two performance looked like he was a completely different player from the one on the field in game one. He went hitless in four at-bats and was struck out once.