Wake Forest dropped a non-conference matchup on Wednesday evening to Liberty by a final score of 8-4 at Liberty Baseball Stadium in Lynchburg, Va.

The Deacs (10-12, 5-9 ACC) outhit the Flames (18-8, 8-3 ASUN) in the midweek contest, with six of their 10 hits coming as doubles, but ultimately Liberty's fast start was too much to overcome.

After Wake Forest secured a 1-0 lead following a RBI double from Bobby Seymour to open the game, Liberty scored five-straight to take a 5-1 lead after two innings. A base knock from Chris Lanzilli in the third scored Wake Forest's second run of the game before Liberty answered with a run in the fourth and their final two runs in the sixth. The Deacs dug into the lead in the eighth, plating a pair of runs behind a double from Adam Cecere.

Lucas Costello, Seymour and Lanzilli led the Deacs at the plate with two hits each, as the trio registered half of Wake Forest's extra base hits. Shane Muntz added a two-bagger to lead off the sixth, while Brock Wilken doubled to center field with one out in the ninth.

Six Deacs took to the mound in the midweek contest as Cole McNamee made his first start since his freshman season. Brennen Oxford threw 2.1 innings and struck out a team-best two batters. Behind the arms of Oxford and Teddy McGraw, the Deacs allowed no hits in the three consecutive frames.

Additionally, the freshmen duo of Camden Minacci and Hunter Furtado tossed 1.1 innings and only gave up one hit a piece.

In the Spotlight
Lucas Costello extended his hit streak to a team-high nine games on Wednesday evening, finishing 2-for-5 at the plate with one run scored. The two-hit performance marked the eighth time Costello has recorded at least two hits in a game this season.

Overall, the Miami, Fla. native has tallied a hit in 16 of Wake Forest's 22 games, with the series finale versus Georgia Tech on March 21, 2021 being the last time the freshman did not record a hit.

Words from Walter
"Obviously a disappointing loss. We just weren't good enough on the mound today. We had seven situational at-bats, we only executed one of them. If we find a way to push across a few more runs there in those innings, we put a little more pressure on them.

College baseball is a momentum-based sport. If you don't grab the momentum then it's an uphill battle when the team has the momentum in their dugout the whole game. We were just never able to grab that momentum by good innings on the mound or stringing a bunch of good at-bats together. We've got to recover and be ready on Friday for a big series."

On Deck
Wake Forest will be back in action for a conference series against Virginia Tech on April 9-11 at David F. Couch Ballpark.