WINSTON-SALEM – Of course there’s pressure that comes with being the No. 1 overall seed, as Wake Forest is in the NCAA baseball championship.

The Deacons, ranked No. 1 in national polls for most of May, wouldn’t have it any other way.

“We’ve put that kind of pressure on ourselves from the beginning,” coach Tom Walter said Monday, after the bracket was released. “And we’ve talked about that from Day One. I mean, we don’t shy away from that pressure, we embrace it.”

The Deacons will face fourth-seeded George Mason in the opening game of the regional, which will be 7 p.m. Friday at David F. Couch Ballpark.

There’s an old and recent nemesis heading to the regional also: Maryland is the No. 2 seed and will play third-seeded Northeastern in the other pool play game (1 p.m. Friday).

Maryland dealt Wake Forest its second loss in last season’s regional, knocking the Deacons out of the tournament.

“Personally for me, I was a little excited to see them in our regional,” junior third baseman Brock Wilken said. “Left a sour taste in our mouth from last year, so you know, we’re just going to go out there and play the game … but we’re going to go out there with a little extra oomph.”

Wake’s pitching plan is one of intrigue, in part because of how deep the Deacons’ staff is and in part because, well, the pitching approach for a top seed is always interesting, given seeding implications.

Seth Keener will start Friday night’s opener against George Mason. He’s been a reliever for most of the season, but an injury to Sean Sullivan — who is available in relief this weekend and could start later in the postseason — forced Keener into the weekend rotation in the last few weeks. Keener pitched five no-hit innings at Florida State on May 14, but has allowed four runs in each of his last two starts (6 1/3 combined innings).

“He was tipping his pitches with runners on second base,” Walter said of Keener’s start last week against Notre Dame. “We kind of saw some stuff on video that we’ll clean up between now and Friday. But we have a great deal of confidence in him.”

Walter and pitching coach Corey Muscara’s confidence in Keener means the Deacons will have Rhett Lowder, the back-to-back ACC pitcher of the year who hasn’t lost this season, pitch Game 2 on Saturday, and will have first-team All-ACC pitcher Josh Hartle pitch Game 3 on Sunday.