BLACKSBURG, Va. – Although the Virginia Tech baseball team picked up just two fewer hits than Wake Forest on Friday night at English Field, the Demon Deacons made theirs count by hitting three home runs into a powerful, outgoing wind to fuel an 11-4 win.

Those three home runs came in the first four innings as the Deacons (16-11, 4-9 ACC) built a 7-2 lead on Tech starter Rhett Ballard (3-2), who allowed seven hits and struck out five.

The Hokies (16-11, 3-9 ACC) did pick up 11 hits off of Deacon starter/designated hitter Austin Stadler, who improved to 3-2 after striking out seven in 7.1 innings, but only three of those hits went for extra bases. Second baseman Michael Seaborn led the way with three hits, while center fielder Steve Bumbry and catcher Anthony Sosnoskie added two each.

A two-out walk followed by a homer down the left field line by Wake catcher Mike Murray got the Demon Deacons off to a quick lead in the top of the first inning. The Deacs used three singles to extend that lead to 3-0 in the second. Third baseman Carlos Lopez reached on a one-out base knock, moved to third on right fielder Evan Ocheltree’s single to right and came home when center fielder Steven Brooks singled up the middle.

The third inning mirrored the first for Wake Forest with another two-out walk being followed by a home run. This time, Weldon Woodall drew the walk from Ballard (High Point, N.C.) and first baseman Tyler Smith provided the round-tripper.

Tech broke into the scoring column in the bottom of the third inning with the help of back-to-back doubles to left-center field by left fielder Steve Domecus (Novato, Calif.) and Sosnoskie (Front Royal, Va.). Hokie right fielder Klint Reed (Chesterfield, Va.) reached on a fielder’s choice ahead of Domecus’ two-bagger and both players scored on Sosnoskie’s double.

Wake Forest pushed its lead back to five runs in the fourth. Ocheltree drove a pitch over the center field fence to open the inning. Stadler then walked and eventually scored the second run of the frame as Dustin Hood grounded out to second base.

A Demon Deacon fielding error led to a pair of Tech runs with two outs in the sixth inning. Consecutive one-out singles by pinch-hitter Luke Padgett (Lynchburg, Va.) and Seaborn (Atlanta, Ga.) gave the Hokies runners at first and third. Seaborn stole second base before both runners came home on an error by Lopez at third base.

The Hokies returned the favor two-fold in the seventh, committing a pair of errors on one play and yielding four runs. After walking, Smith scored from first on the wild play, which began as a fielder’s choice from Ocheltree. Stadler, Brooks and Shane Kroker followed with three consecutive hits to push across three more runs and put the game out of Tech’s reach.

Game two of the series is scheduled to start at 1 p.m., on Saturday. The game will be televised by the Regional Sports Network, which includes Comcast SportsNet and Fox Sports Net South.