May 31, 2002

Box Score |  Quotes

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) - There's something about the NCAA baseball tournament that brings out the best in Jamie D'Antona.

The Wake Forest sophomore hit his sixth home run in six career postseason games and Kyle Sleeth won his 20th straight decision as the Demon Deacons beat George Washington 12-6 Friday night.

The Demon Deacons (45-11-1) fell behind 3-0 early, but rallied to advance to play Richmond on Saturday in the winner's bracket of the double-elimination tournament. George Washington will play Navy in the loser's side of the draw.

``Our guys made great adjustments and we started chipping away,'' Wake Forest coach George Greer said. ``Once we start chipping away and we start to run a little bit, we're pretty dangerous with men on base.''

D'Antona started Wake Forest's nine-run fourth inning with a walk, then capped it with a long grand slam over the left-center wall off freshman reliever Dan Sullivan. D'Antona hit five homers in the NCAA tournament last year, including a record three in one game.

``I've had some pretty good luck the last couple of years,'' D'Antona said of his NCAA performances. ``We just knew if we got a couple of runs that Kyle would shut them down the rest of the game. We just started working the count pretty well and we put a nine-spot up.''

Sleeth, Wake Forest's ace, was roughed up early, allowing four runs on seven hits through four innings. But the 6-foot-5 right-hander settled down to improve to 14-0, striking out a career-high 11 while walking none.

``I thought Kyle was up in the zone the first couple of innings because he was too pumped up,'' Greer said. ``He hadn't pitched since last Wednesday. That's a long layoff for a guy. He was a little bit too strong, but he got the ball down and got them to start swinging at his pitches.''

Sleeth's win total set a single-season mark for the Demon Deacons. He hasn't lost since March 25, 2001, against Clemson.

``He's an All-American for a reason and he proved why tonight,'' George Washington coach Tom Walter said.

Tony Brown's fourth homer of the year gave the Colonials, making their first NCAA appearance since 1992, a 4-1 lead.

But Wake Forest struck for its second-biggest inning of the season, sending 12 men to the plate in the bottom of the fourth to take command of the game.

``We don't play as well from behind as we probably should and that inning definitely took our momentum away,'' said Mike Bassett, who had four hits for George Washington. ``We were flying high through the first three or four innings and the momentum really shifted on us.''

Ryan Hubbard, who missed the last three games of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament with a back injury, had his first three-hit game of the season for the Demon Deacons. His RBI double in the seventh gave Wake Forest a 12-6 lead after George Washington had closed within four with single runs in the sixth and seventh.

Sleeth was replaced in the top of the eighth by relief ace Dave Bush after dropping a ball at first for an error and hitting a batter. Bush's appearance was the 141st of his career, tying the ACC record.

Bush worked out of the jam, striking out two hitters.

``Bush was as advertised,'' Walter said. ``He came in and the game was over. That's what we heard about him.''