OMAHA, Neb. – The team that went wire-to-wire in sweeping its regional and super regional has led for all of two half-innings at the Men’s College World Series.

Wake Forest has won a lot of games in a variety of ways and this week, that’s meant two eighth-inning rallies for 3-2 wins, first against Stanford, then against LSU.

Coach Tom Walter has said since February that he liked his team’s versatility and that’s still the case with a week left in the college baseball season.

“We do have the ability to win games in different ways. Because of pitching and defense, we can win the 3-2 game,” Walter said after the latter 3-2 win out here. “Because of our offense, we can win the 8-6 or 10-8 game. That’s one of the things I really like about this club.”

This Wake Forest team checks every box. A dangerous lineup hasn’t been as potent in Omaha but it’s come through when needed most. The pitching staff that was the class of college baseball all season is shining on the biggest stage.

Wake’s defense hasn’t been flawless but like the offense, it’s been stellar in the most critical of moments.

The Deacons will need to come up clutch one more time in pool play. They’re in the driver’s seat and will only need to beat LSU — which knocked out Tennessee with a 5-0 win on Tuesday night — once in two games to reach a final best-of-3 series against either Florida or TCU (Florida needs one win, TCU needs two).

There’s confidence, trust, accountability — you name the critical aspect that a team needs for a championship, Wake Forest has shown it.

“How can we lose?” junior closer Camden Minacci asked rhetorically after Monday night’s heavyweight battle. “Every single guy is having the time of their lives right now. Who can beat us? It seems pretty much impossible.

“So the amount of fun we have is truly incredible.”

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Here is what you need to know ahead of Wednesday night’s game:

Time: 6 p.m. (7 eastern)

Location: Charles Schwab Field Omaha

Series history against LSU: LSU leads 3-1; Wake Forest won 3-2 on Monday night.

Records: Wake Forest 54-10; LSU 50-16.

Pitching situation for LSU: This category (again) starts with ace Paul Skenes, the Dick Howser Award winner as the top player in the country.

Discussion around the stadium before LSU’s game against Tennessee is that Skenes would be unlikely to come back for a game against Wake Forest. He threw 123 pitches in the Tigers’ Omaha-opening 6-3 win over Tennessee and stands to be a top-five pick in next month’s draft.

Anything is possible, but Skenes’ next game action is likely to be in the minor leagues or in a possible championship series.

That leaves the Tigers, who started reliever Nate Ackenhausen against Tennessee, pressed for pitching. Skenes and the two pitchers Wake Forest saw Monday night, Ty Floyd and Thatcher Hurd, are the only three Tigers to start at least 10 games this season.

Christian Little is not little, at 6-4, 225 pounds, and he was 2-2 with a 7.09 ERA in 18 appearances (eight starts). Chase Shores started four games but was lost to a torn UCL; lefty Javen Coleman started three games, all since mid-April, after starting the season with an injured elbow.

Pitching situation for Wake Forest: The deeper Wake Forest got into this event, the more of an advantage the Deacons would have.

No team all season boasted the pitching depth of Wake Forest. Which is how we’ve gotten to a situation where the Deacons have won two games and only need to win one more, and have two quality options to choose from.

How that plays out is covered at the bottom of this thread.

LSU so far in Omaha: Beat Tennessee 6-3, lost to Wake Forest 3-2; beat Tennessee 5-0.

Plenty of temporary Omaha residents loved to see the Tigers stick around, as they’re up 2-0 on Tennessee in the sixth at the time of publication.

Wake Forest so far in Omaha: Beat Stanford 3-2, beat LSU 3-2.

The Deacons played back-to-back games at Clemson decided by one run, winning both, and lost a one-run game at Florida State in mid-May. After having three one-run games in the first 60 games of the season, Wake Forest has played three of them in the last four — beating Alabama 5-4 in Game 1 of the super regional and winning two games here 3-2.

Extra bases: Wake Forest will be the designated road team. That’s because the Deacons have been the designated home team twice without being a road team, and LSU has been the road team twice in pool play. … Nick Kurtz entered the super regional series on a 15-game hitting streak and he’s 1-for-14 in Wake’s last four games. He’s walked three times in Omaha and two of those were his last two at-bats against LSU. … Six runs in a two-game span is tied for the second-worst output from Wake Forest this season. The only worse two-game span was a 3-0 win at Louisville followed by a 7-2 loss; there was also a six-runs-in-two-games stretch in mid-March (8-1 loss at Duke followed by a 5-3 win).

Deacons Illustrated prognosis: Are you superstitious? Or even just a little stitious?

Maybe don’t read the following if you are.

Everything about this feels like it’s breaking in Wake’s favor. The Deacons’ offense doesn’t feel like it’s going to squeak by forever, so if a breakout is coming, that’s going to be paired with a rested and deep pitching staff.

It’s college baseball and as Walter likes to say, momentum is only as good as the next day’s pitcher.

Wake’s next day’s pitchers all look to be better than those from other teams in pool play.