Wake Forest heading to Knoxville Regional final after beating Cincinnati

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Marek Houston went 3-for-5 with a home run and a double and four RBIs, Matthew Dallas pitched 7 2/3 solid innings and Wake Forest eliminated Cincinnati from the Knoxville Regional with a 10-3 victory Sunday.

The Demon Deacons (38-21) will play No. 14 national seed Tennessee in the regional final and would have to beat the defending national champion twice to reach super regionals for the second time in three seasons.

Cincinnati (33-26), which beat Wake Forest in Friday’s regional opener, was held scoreless until the eighth inning. Wake Forest was up 10-0 by then.

Austin Hawke and Matt Scannell also went deep for the Demon Deacons, who have homered 12 times over three regional games.

Dallas (5-1) allowed three runs on eight hits and a walk and struck out four in his longest outing of the season.

Jack Natili had an RBI groundout and Christian Mitchelle hit a two-run double in the eighth for the Bearcats’ runs.

Wake Forest tagged Cincinnati starter Carson Marsh (3-6) for four runs in 2 1/3 innings.