Preview: LSU vs. Wake Forest

OMAHA, Neb. – What Tom Walter thought would happen last weekend finally happened in Wake Forest’s first game of the Men’s College World Series.

The Deacons had to play from behind.

Wake’s only lead against Stanford was the one it took on Danny Corona’s two-run single in the bottom of the eighth inning, with the Deacons shutting the door in the ninth to win 3-2.

It was a thrilling end to a day that, for the most part, was not trending in the Deacons’ favor.

“I told (the team) after the game, if you’re going to have a chance to win this … you’ll probably have to win a game where you don’t play really well,” Walter said on Saturday. “I felt we were tight early and nervous and kind of got out of our plan offensively.”

That’s a recipe that can’t be repeated too many times if Wake Forest is going to accomplish its goals out here in Omaha.

Wake Forest bludgeoned its way through the regional with 48 runs in three games, and after a tight 5-4 win over Alabama last weekend, cranked out a super regional-record nine homers in a 22-5 game.

Pitching and defense travels and that much was clear for the Deacons on Saturday.

Wake’s offense will likely have to be better against LSU than it was against the Cardinal, though.

“There were definitely times you could see us tense up a little bit,” third baseman Brock Wilken said. “I think the (lightning) delay helped us. It was at the right moment, the right time to get us back in our groove.

“Right after that you saw our bats start to get much better. We started grinding at-bats and seeing much better pitches to swing at.”

Monday night has the early makings of a classic out here. Wake Forest and LSU are the only teams in Omaha that haven’t lost a game in the NCAA baseball championship.

And maybe the Deacons won’t need another weather delay to loosen up again.

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Here is what you need to know about LSU before Monday night’s game:

Time: 6 p.m. (7 eastern)

Location: Charles Schwab Field Omaha

Historic series: LSU leads series 3-0, having swept the Deacons to begin the 2011 season.

Records: LSU 49-15; WF 53-10.

Expected starter for the Tigers: Ty Floyd.

All signs point to Floyd starting for the Tigers. He’s 7-0 with a 4.50 ERA and 93 strikeouts in 78 innings. Floyd is a 6-2, 200-pound right-hander from Rockmart, Ga.

Against Kentucky in the super regional last weekend, Floyd pitched 3 1/3 innings, giving up seven hits and three runs. He only pitched three innings in a start against Oregon State in the regional, giving up five hits and one run.

His 15 home runs allowed is the most of any LSU pitcher; second is Thatcher Hurd, who’s allowed eight.

Expected starter for the Deacons: Josh Hartle.

Hartle had a rough start to last weekend’s super regional-clinching win but settled in after the first couple of innings. Notching the win made him 11-2 this season, and he has a 2.80 ERA and 131 strikeouts and 20 walks in 96 1/3 innings.

Last weekend was the third time in Hartle’s last four appearances that he’s given up four runs; he gave up four runs in one of his first 13 starts this season (and never more than four).

LSU so far in Omaha: The most important thing to know about LSU so far is that Paul Skenes threw 123 pitches already.

So you’d think he’s unavailable to face the Deacons two nights later.

Skenes was as good as advertised in carrying a shutout into the eighth inning, where he ran out of steam. Tennessee scored three runs in that inning, cutting LSU’s lead down to two runs, before LSU added an insurance run and capped the 6-3 win.

Gavin Guidry relieved Skenes and threw one pitch, a home run by Hunter Ensley. Riley Cooper finished the game on the mound for LSU, throwing 22 pitches to record four outs. Cooper is a 6-2, 270-pound lefty who’s had some interesting usage this season; he’s almost had as many single-digit pitch outings (six) as he’s thrown over 50 pitches in games (eight).

LSU got solo homers from second baseman Gavin Dugas and right fielder Brayden Jobert on Saturday night. Stars Dylan Crews (2-5) and Tommy White (1-4) were a combined 3-for-9 atop the Tigers’ lineup, with Crews scoring a run after he doubled in the seventh.

Wake Forest so far in Omaha: Here’s the story about the Deacons’ 3-2 win over Stanford on Saturday, and here’s a notebook about a few other aspects.

Every pitcher other than Rhett Lowder is available for Wake Forest on Monday night. Sean Sullivan pitched before the 1-hour, 28-minute lightning delay and Seth Keener pitched afterward, with neither throwing enough pitches to have them ruled out for a game that starts more than 48 hours after the Deacons’ last one did.

Extra bases: Wake Forest is the designated home team because both teams were the home team in their first games of pool play, and the tiebreaker goes to the Deacons because they’re the better seed. … The stadium lists 24,000 as the capacity; Wake’s game on Saturday had a crowd of 23,943 and LSU’s game had 25,010 in the building. … Wake Forest has played five games decided by one run this season, in which the Deacons are 4-1 (the loss was at Florida State). Two of those wins have come in the last two weekends. The Deacons are 7-4 in games decided by two runs.

Deacons Illustrated prognosis: Offense and outfield depth is what I’d pay attention to early in this game.

It’s felt like, for most of the season, Wake Forest has backed up subpar offensive games with explosive outputs. Sure enough:

- Lost 3-1 to Notre Dame; beat Elon 20-0 in next game.

- Lost 7-2 to Louisville; beat Liberty 7-2 in next game.

- Lost 3-0 to Pittsburgh; beat Pitt 23-4 and 17-1 in next two games.

- Lost 7-2 to Miami; beat George Mason 12-0 in next game.

If you can’t tell from the tone of extra bases (above), it feels like this is going to be a tight game. As of this writing, four of the five games in Omaha have been decided by one run; LSU’s 6-3 win over Tennessee has been the exception.

This is a big-time game and if you’ve been reading these long enough, you know what’s coming: Your best players have to be your best players in the big-time games.