WINSTON-SALEM – The career accolades section of Rhett Lowder’s bio page is lengthy.

Among the highlights are being Wake Forest’s first ever ACC pitcher of the year. All-America designations from Baseball America, Perfect Game, D1 Baseball and others for last season.

There’s a lot of the same when it comes to preseason accolades. You’d expect it for a right-handed starter pressed into a larger role than expected as a freshman, and who thrived as a sophomore.

It begs the question: Now what?

“I’ve worked on a few things here and there, like pitches and stuff like that. But that’s not my main area of focus,” Lowder said.

So what is the area of focus for the projected first-rounder?

“I just think each year, you get another year of experience under your belt in college is just more valuable than any pitch you can add or any metric you can change,” Lowder said. “I’ve been through the bad, I’ve been through the good. I have a pretty good feeling about what’s going to be thrown at me.”

Lowder is the ace of a Wake Forest staff that is generating as much hype — maybe more — as the batting lineup. Fellow junior Teddy McGraw and sophomore Josh Hartle ended last season as weekend starters, too, and their strong finishes to the season is a large source of preseason optimism about Wake’s staff.

Neither of them was the ACC pitcher of the year, though.

You won’t see Lowder on the mound to start Wake’s season though; that’ll be Seth Keener, in a little bit of a shakeup that’ll be further explained after Friday’s opener against Youngstown State.

“Rhett probably hasn’t made as big a jump as Teddy and Josh, but didn’t have as big a jump to make,” coach Tom Walter said. “You know, he was more polished than those guys were last year.”

That polish showed on the mound in the form of consistency more than any eye-popping velocities or pitches that catch the eye of Twitter gurus.

Lowder started 16 games and went 11-3 with a 3.08 ERA. He didn’t allow more than three runs in any start before the last one, an NCAA tournament game against Connecticut. He had two or fewer walks in 13 of 16 starts, and had more strikeouts than innings pitched in 10 of those starts.

There’s room to nitpick, especially if you’re bitter about the seven runs and 10 hits allowed against UConn. But if Wake Forest gets something similar from Lowder as its ace along with the progression of McGraw and Hartle as weekend starters, the Deacons will live up to their preseason billing.

Wake’s chemistry took a leap forward because of a concerted effort entering last season, and it’s been furthered along going into this year.

“Corey Muscara coming in here (as pitching coach) has totally given us the sense that the pitchers feel that they’re a part of the team,” Walter said. “I think before that, we had a divide between the pitchers and hitters, they always seemed like they were at odds with each other.”

The team-chemistry building, third baseman Brock Wilken said, felt a little forced entering last season; it’s become more natural now.

That extends to some games of Hacky Sack — yes, the game with the little bean-filled ball — among other activities around Wake’s facilities.

When naming the best Hacky Sack players on the team, Wilken didn’t include Lowder — whose interview followed Wilken’s at the team’s media day a few weeks ago.

“I think he forgot about me or something,” Lowder joked. “Gotta be top three or four. He had some hot takes, so that’s OK.”

Since “top three or four” isn’t the best, maybe there’s room after all for Lowder to improve.