Deacons Illustrated

The new pitching coach for Wake Forest is a former Deacon who already has a little experience on the coaching staff. Eric Niesen will be the Deacons’ new pitching coach, a source confirmed to Deacons Illustrated on Tuesday afternoon. Jacob Rudner of Baseball America first reported the news. Niesen pitched at Wake Forest from 2005-07, with a 14-9 career record. He was a third-round pick of the Mets in 2007.

The ACC-SEC Challenge matchup won’t be Wake Forest’s only home game against an SEC opponent this season. Wake Forest will play host to Vanderbilt in the upcoming men’s basketball season, the programs announced Monday afternoon. This season’s game will be played Dec. 21 at Joel Coliseum; next season’s return trip will be played at Vanderbilt’s Memorial Gym in Nashville, Tenn., with the date to be determined later. Vanderbilt holds a 6-4 edge in the all-time series against Wake Forest.

It was one thing for Wake Forest’s baseball team to fight back with three season-extending wins over the last two days. The Deacons just couldn’t muster a rally from down six runs in the decisive game of the Knoxville regional against Tennessee, though. Wake Forest lost 11-5 to Tennessee on Monday night at Lindsey Nelson Stadium, ending the season one win away from the super regional round of the NCAA tournament. The Vols (46-17) will play Arkansas this upcoming weekend in a best-of-3 series.

Three times in the last two days, Wake Forest’s baseball season has been on the line. For the third time, the Deacons staved off elimination — this time walking into a win. Jack Winnay drew a four-pitch walk with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning for a 7-6 win against Tennessee on Sunday night at Foley Field. It sets up a winner-take-all final game of the Knoxville regional, which will be played at 8 p.m. Monday night and shown on ESPN2.

The offense was there again, first with some timely hitting by Wake Forest’s baseball team and then a few moonshot home runs. But the story of the Deacons extending their season starts with Matthew Dallas. Wake’s sophomore left-hander pitched seven shutout innings in a career performance, leading the way for the Deacons’ 10-3 victory against Cincinnati on Sunday at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. Wake Forest (38-21) will play regional host Tennessee on Sunday night.

Score and score some more until the season has at least one more game on the schedule. Wake Forest’s baseball team staved off elimination by beating Miami (Ohio) 14-13 on Saturday afternoon at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. The Deacons (37-21) will play another elimination game Sunday afternoon, against the loser of tonight’s game between Cincinnati and Tennessee. Wake Forest lost to the Bearcats on Friday; the Vols are the regional host.

Starting the NCAA tournament in an eight-run hole is about as bad as it gets. Wake Forest’s baseball team fell behind by that much and lost 11-6 to Cincinnati in the first game of the Knoxville regional on Friday at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. The Deacons (36-21) are one loss away from their season ending. They’ll play the loser of tonight’s Miami (Ohio)-Tennessee game at noon Saturday. And they’ll hope for a better beginning to the game.

The first game with Jake Dickert as coach at Wake Forest will be on ACC Network. The times and TV assignments for the first three weeks of the football season were announced by the ACC on Thursday. The rest of Wake’s kickoff times and TV assignments will be announced during the season. Wake Forest is coming off back-to-back 4-8 seasons. Dave Clawson resigned in December and was hastily replaced by Dickert, who came from Washington State and remade the Deacons’ roster.

Wake Forest will play N.C. State and Virginia Tech twice in the upcoming men’s basketball season, the ACC announced Wednesday afternoon. The league is downshifting from the 20-game schedules that have been in place since the 2019-20 season and dropping back to 18 ACC games. Giving teams the ability to add two quality non-conference teams was done with the idea of bolstering the league’s metrics after only four of the league’s 18 teams made the NCAA tournament this past season.