LSU and Wake Forest, the only teams ranked No. 1 in this season’s college baseball polls, finally meet in the second round of the College World Series winner bracket tonight at 6 p.m in Omaha.
After the Tigers (49-15) beat Tennessee 6-3 in the CWS opener Saturday night against a pitching staff ranked second nationally in earned run average, LSU’s next challenge is taking on Wake Forest’s pitching staff that sports an NCAA-leading 2.82 ERA.
LSU head coach Jay Johnson, whose team is batting .314 and ranks first nationally in runs with 594, believes his offense is in a good place after touching Tennessee for 10 hits.
“We have a great offense, 1 to 9 we have a lot of things working for us right now,” Johnson said. “There's some speed. There's some power, obviously. Solid hitting skills throughout. But you've got a ton of college at-bats in there.”
Wake Forest (53-10) has four pitchers ranked in the nation’s top 30 in ERA, including Josh Hartle who’s the expected starter against LSU.
The Demon Deacons, who are hitting .308, are powered by third baseman Brock Wilken and first baseman Nick Kurtz.
Wilken, who’s batting .358, is the ACC’s all-time career home run leader with 71, No. 1 nationally in home runs (31) and No. 2 in runs (90).
“We can beat you in so many different ways,” said Wilken, who hit a solo homer in the Deacs’ 3-2 win over Stanford on Saturday. “When we need to get the job done, we're going to do the job. No matter who it is in our lineup, whether it's a bunt or a long ball or it's a laser up the middle, whatever it may be, we have so many ways that we can win.”
Kurtz leads Wake Forest with a .364 batting average. He’s fifth nationally in on-base percentage (.533) and 11th in home runs (24) and runs (76), batting .364.
The Deacs have hit home runs in bunches this season including nine in a Super Regional title-clinching home win over Alabama. But Wake’s ballpark is considerably smaller than Omaha’s Charles Schwab Field.
“We certainly can't expect some of the home runs we've hit at our ballpark or other ballparks in the ACC,” said Wake Forest coach Tom Walter, making his first trip to the CWS in his 14th season leading the program. “If you look across our league, there's probably only one or two pitchers’ parks in the whole league. It's mostly hitters’ parks in our league. It's not just our ballpark that plays a little smaller in our league.
“We have to lower our ball flight in general and change our pitch plan a little bit too.”
Allowing home runs has been a problem this season for LSU’s projected starting pitcher Ty Floyd.
While Floyd is 7-0, he’s given up a team-high 15 homers including nine in the first two innings. In almost every case, he has settled in and delivered five innings or more in most of his starts.
“I’m trying to stay true to myself and trying to locate my pitches better to get ahead early in at-bats,” Floyd said recently. “I have the confidence I can go longer in games.”
Johnson certainly believes in Floyd.
“Because Paul (Skenes) has been so out-of-this-world good, I think people have really missed how good a season Ty Floyd has had,” Johnson said.
No. 5 SEED LSU (49-15) vs. No. 1 SEED WAKE FOREST (53-10)
WHERE: Charles Schwab Field, Omaha, Neb.
BALLPARK DIMENSIONS: 335 feet left and right field lines (five feet longer than LSU’s Alex Box Stadium’s left and right field lines, 25 feet longer than Wake Forest David F. Couch Ballpark’s left field line and 35 feet longer than Couch Ballpark’s right field line), 375 feet left center and right center field (10 feet longer than Alex Box in left center and right center, 5 feet longer than Couch Ballpark in left center and 8 feet longer than Couch Ballpark in right center) and 408 feet center field (3 feet longer than Alex Box, 8 feet longer than Couch Ballpark).
WHEN: Tonight, 6 p.m. ESPN.
GAMETIME WEATHER: 93 degrees, 0 percent chance of rain, winds 12 mph.
LIKELY STARTING PITCHERS
LSU: Ty Floyd, 7-0, 4.50 ERA, 114.2 innings pitched, 93 strikeouts/32 walks.
WAKE FOREST: Josh Hartle, 11-2, 2.80 ERA in 96.1 innings, 131 strikeouts/50 walks.
LSU VS. WAKE FOREST SERIES
LSU leads the all-time series with Wake Forest, 3-0. The teams met in a 2011 season-opening series in Baton Rouge, and the Tigers won all three games by scores of 15-4, 4-3 and 9-1.
LSU IN THE COLLEGE WORLD SERIES
LSU is participating in its 19th College World Series, and its first since 2017 when the Tigers finished as the national runners-up to Florida. LSU is 41-27 (.603) all-time in CWS games, including a 7-3 mark in CWS championship games. The Tigers have six national championships (1991, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2009), the second-most in NCAA history. LSU has never played Wake Forest in the CWS or the NCAA tournament.
WAKE FOREST IN THE COLLEGE WORLD SERIES
This is Wake Forest’s third-ever Men's College World Series appearance and its first since capturing the program's first national championship in 1955.
STATS
LSU: No. 1 in the nation in shutouts pitched (10) and runs scored (594), No. 2 in on-base percentage (.437), slugging percentage (.570), home runs (135) and home runs per game (2.11), No. 3 in strikeouts pitched per nine innings (11.7), No. 4 in hit-by-pitch (131) and scoring average (9.3 runs per game), No. 6 in hits allowed per nine innings (7.69) and walks received (370), No. 9 strikeouts to walks ratio (2.89) and No.10 WHIP (1.30)
WAKE FOREST: No. 1 in the nation in shutouts pitched (10), walks received (409), earned run average 2.82, hits allowed per nine innings (6.65), strikeouts pitched per nine innings (12.1), WHIP (1.04) and strikeouts to walks ratio (4.45), No. 2 in walks allowed per nine innings (2.73), No. 3 in runs (586), No. 4 in home runs per game (2.06), on-base percentage (.431) and scoring average (9.3), No. 5 in home runs (130) and No. 6 in slugging percentage (.553),
STARS
LSU
CF DYLAN CREWS: Winner of the Bobby Bragan National Collegiate Slugger Award as college baseball's best hitter, National College Baseball Writers Association first-team All-American, SEC Player of the Year, All-SEC first team, All-SEC Defensive team, Golden Spikes Award finalist, No. 2 in the nation in on-base percentage (.573) and runs scored (90), No. 3 in batting average (.433) and No. 4 walks (65), has 17 home runs, 16 doubles and 67 RBIs, and has increased his reached base streak to 68 straight games (all 64 games this season and the final four games of last season).
3B TOMMY WHITE: National College Baseball Writers Association first-team All-American, All-SEC first team, No. 2 in the nation in RBIs (97) and No. 3 in RBIs (1.64).
WAKE FOREST
3B BROCK WILKEN: The ACC’s all-time career home run leader with 71, No. 1 nationally in home runs (31), home runs per game (.49), No. 2 in runs (90), No. 3 in walks (67), No. 4 in slugging percentage (.845), 10th in RBIs (81), batting .358.
1B NICK KURTZ: No. 5 in on-base percentage (.533), No.7 nationally in slugging percentage (.810), No. 11 in home runs (24) and runs (76), batting .364.
P JOSH HARTLE: 11-2 record, No. 6 nationally in strikeouts (131), No. 9 in strikeouts to walks ratio (6.55).
