College baseball is in full swing, and what a start it was for the #1 team in the country as they hosted the Fordham Rams in front of a record setting crowd at the Couch.
It is not a secret that filling the third base role for Wake Forest is a tall task, especially when that position was manned by Brock Wilken over the last few seasons. But it turns out that the task wasn't too tall for Ball State transfer Adam Tellier on Opening Day. On the very first pitch of his debut plate appearance to lead off the bottom of the first, Tellier smoked a ball over the left center field wall to get the Deacs' offense rolling after they had gone down 1-0 early. Tellier ended up going 2-3 on the day and reaching base four times.
It was a decent debut day for two other new transfer students as well. Former North Carolina Tar Heel Austin Hawke, the younger brother of recent Demon Deacon center fielder Tommy Hawke, showed off his speed around the bases and forced multiple errors on a play, which ended up being a "little league" inside the park homerun. Two other base runners scored ahead of him as a result.
Former St. John's catcher Tate Ballestero also had himself a day, as he added a couple of RBIs in a 1-4 effort from the plate in his Wake Forest debut.
Junior ace Josh Hartle had an impressive season debut as he pitched 5.2 innings while only allowing three hits and one earned run while striking out four without walking a batter. Hartle was more animated than usual on the mound, presumably in reaction to some of the calls he was getting from home plate umpire Brian Miller. But the right handed star kept his cool and delivered a solid performance anyways. Another tall task completed for Wake Forest as Hartle is replacing the dominant Rhett Lowder in the Friday night starting role.
The Deacs would go on to beat Fordham by a score of 9-3 in a fairly routine outing. They'll go at it again tomorrow afternoon against the Illinois Fighting Illini with the much anticipated debut of Tennessee transfer Chase Burns, who is scheduled to take the mound for Wake Forest.
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