Demon Deacons Selected as Two-seed in Greenville Regional (2024)

From Wake Forest Athletic Communications:

Demon Deacons Selected as Two-seed in Greenville Regional

INDIANAPOLIS –The Wake Forest baseball team was selected to the 2024 NCAA Baseball Tournament as the No. 2 seed in the Greenville Regional, as announced on ESPN2 on Monday afternoon.

This is the Demon Deacons' 16th all-time NCAA Tournament appearance and marks the Deacs third-straight postseason appearance.

Wake Forest has made three College World Series appearances, highlighted by winning the program's first national championship in 1955 and a run to the semifinals a season ago. Overall, the Demon Deacons hold a 52-33 record at the national tournament.

In addition to the second-seeded Demon Deacons (38-20), the Greenville Regional will include No. 16 national seed East Carolina (43-15), No. 3 seed VCU (37-21) and No. 4 seed Evansville (34-23).

Wake Forest will open NCAA Tournament play against the Rams on Friday, May 31 at 6 p.m. on ESPN+ in the second game of the regional. The Pirates and Purple Aces will open the regional at 1 p.m.

The Greenville Regional is paired with the Knoxville Regional. The winners of those two regionals will play in a Super Regional the following weekend (Friday, June 7-Monday, June 10). In addition to No. 1 national seed Tennessee, the regional features Southern Miss, Indiana and Northern Kentucky.

Greenville Regional

Wake Forest- 38-20 (ACC)

ECU- 43-15 (American)

VCU - 37-21 (Atlantic 10)

Greenville Regional Schedule

Game 1: No. 1 East Carolina vs. No. 4 Evansville | Fri. May 31 | 1 p.m. | ESPN+

Game 2: No. 2 Wake Forest vs. No. 3 VCU | Fri. June 31 | 6 p.m. | ESPN+

Game 3: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser | Sat. June 1 | 12 p.m. | TBD

Game 4: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner | Sat. June 1 | 6 p.m. | TBD

Game 5: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 loser | Sun. June 2 | 12 p.m. | TBD

Game 6: Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner | Sun. June 2 | 6 p.m. | TBD

Game 7*: Game 6 winner vs. Game 6 loser | Mon. June 3 | TBD | TBD

• Regionals: Friday-Monday, May 31-June 3

• Super regionals: Friday-Sunday, June 7-9 or Saturday-Monday, June 8-10

• First day of MCWS games: Start Friday, June 14

• MCWS finals: Saturday-Monday, June 22-23/24

Regular Season Highlights

• Wake Forest reached the 30-win mark for the third-straight season, the longest such streak since the Deacs won 30 or more in six-straight seasons from 1997-2002.

• Deacon Nation showed tremendous support at David F. Couch Ballpark in 2024 as this year's season attendance of 76,888 fans set a new program record.

• Set a weekend attendance record of 10,542 with sellouts in all three games of the series against North Carolina.

• Finished the 2024 regular season home slate with a program-record seven sellouts.

• Junior Nick Kurtz became the Wake Forest program record holder with 181 free passes throughout his career, surpassing Pat Blair (2010-13). Additionally, he also set the single-season walk record with his nation-leading 70th of the campaign, surpassing Brock Wilken's 69 bases on balls a season ago. Kurtz had 17 multi-walk performances during the regular season and eighth with at least three.

• Junior right-handed pitcher Chase Burns became the Demon Deacon single-season strikeout record holder, surpassing Rhett Lowder's 143 strikeouts a season ago.

• Burns led the nation during the regular season with 169 punchouts on the year and struckout 13 or more in his last four starts in the regular season.

• The right-hander is one of just four Atlantic Coast Conference pitchers all-time to win ACC Pitcher of the Week five times in a season.

• For the second-straight year, the Demon Deacons paced the country, having placed nine student-athletes on the 2024 Dick Howser Trophy Semifinalist list in the past two seasons.

• Senior Jake Reinisch was joined by juniors Chase Burns, Seaver King and Nick Kurtz as four of this year's 68 candidates coming from 18 different conferences and 48 different schools.

• Wake Forest was the best team in the country in 2023 at drawing a free 90 feet with 424 on the season, good for 11 more than any other team and continued that trend in 2024.

• The Deacs drew 349 free passes in the regular season to lead the ACC and rank third nationally.

• The 105 Demon Deacon home runs mark the third consecutive season the Deacs have reached the century mark and it is the fourth-highest home run total in program history. Coming into the ACC tournament, only 22 teams in the country had 100 or more home runs with the Deacs entering postseason play ranked second in the ACC and tied for 14th nationally.