March 2, 2001

Box Score

WINSTON-SALEM, NC - The Wake Forest baseball team notched its fifth straight victory with an 10-4 win against New Orleans on Friday afternoon at Hooks Stadium. The win improves the Demon Deacons' home record to a perfect 7-0 and their overall mark to 9-2.

The Deacons jumped out to a 5-0 lead with three runs in the second and two in the third. Jason Aquilante's two-out double to left field in the second inning scored Jamie Athas and Matt Price. In the third, freshman Jamie D'Antona drilled a two-run opposite field homerun, his third of the year, to give starter Ben Clayton a five-run cushion.

Clayton earned his second victory of the season after yielding just one run in five innings of work. Clayton was forced to pitch out of a jam on a couple occasions, however, most notably in the third inning when the Privateers loaded the bases with no outs with Jeff Miller, the cleanup hitter, at the plate. Clayton got Miller to pop out to D'Antona in foul ground before Seth Champion rolled into a inning-ending double play to escape the scoring threat with no damage.

The Privateers pulled to within two runs after scoring two in the top of the eighth inning. But Wake Forest responded with four runs of their own in the bottom half of the frame to put the game out of reach. Dave Bush threw the final two innings to earn his league-leading fourth save of the year.

Senior third baseman Corey Slavik and D'Antona, a freshman from Trumbull, Conn., both extended their hitting streaks to 11 games. They each have at least one hit in each of the team's games this season.

Left-hander Tom Lipari (3-1) took the loss for the Privateers, his first of the season.

"New Orleans is a good club, an NCAA tournament team last year, and it's never easy to beat a team like that," head coach George Greer said. "We didn't play our best baseball of the season today but I like a team that knows how to win when it is not at its best. That is a good quality for a team to have."

The Demon Deacons resume their series with the Privateers tomorrow afternoon at Hooks Stadium. Freshman Kyle Sleeth will take the hill for Wake Forest and the first pitch is 1:30 p.m.