A wild matinee had it all: two different three-run rallies, a handful of launched home runs and a coach’s ejection. In the end, a raucous crowd at David F. Couch Ballpark saw one-seed Wake Forest take game one of the NCAA Super Regional over No. 16 Alabama, 5-4.

Game two will be Sunday at 11 a.m. CST. Wake Forest will throw first-team All-ACC lefty Josh Hartile. Alabama’s starter is to be determined.

Saturday’s back-and-forth contest began two hours later than scheduled due to a “non-game-related medical emergency,” just after 1:15 p.m. CST. When it did start on ESPN+, the fireworks came early.

Tide leadoff hitter Jim Jarvis barely missed an opposite-field home run off Rhett Lowder, but it curved left of the foul pole. On Wake Forest’s first swing, Tommy Hawke blasted a solo shot off the right field video board. The lead grew when Justin Johnson started the second inning with his own home run. A wild pitch that same inning put Alabama in an early hole.

Alabama rallied with a few home runs of its own. Long balls by Caden Rose and Colby Shelton (team-best 23rd) silenced the home crowd, if only briefly, and popped the rows of UA fans behind the visiting dugout. The latter of which came in a two-out rally. Lowder, the nation’s No. 2 pitcher according to ERA (1.77), allowed three earned runs for just the fourth time this season.

Lowder eventually settled in, retiring eight of the next nine batters before leaving the game in the top of the seventh inning. He finished with six strikeouts and allowed six base runners. Holman, meanwhile, gutted out 104 pitches with eight strikeouts.

In the bottom of the fifth, Wake Forest designated hitter Danny Corona appeared to strike out but a check-swing review extended his at-bat. He then sent the next pitch over the hedges in right field to make it 4-3 Demon Deacons. While he rounded the bases, the umpires ejected Alabama assistant coach Matt Reida, who had been arguing the call.

The bottom of Alabama’s lineup kept it close. Rose sent a ball 104 miles per hour off the bat and over the fence for his second home run in the eighth inning. Tommy Seidl then reached second base on a throwing error as the tying run.

But Wake Forest reliever Sean Sullivan struck out Andrew Pinckney and Drew Williamson to end the threat. The Crimson Tide’s three and four hitters combined to go 0-for-8 with four strikeouts. Sullivan would finish the game with five-straight punchouts.

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].