To many college baseball fans, the LSU-Wake Forest could be the most anticipated matchup of the season.
LSU entered the season as the No. 1 team in the country, and held that title for 12 weeks. When the Tigers started to slip and were dropped in the rankings, Wake Forest became the No. 1 ranked team. They’ve been that way ever since.
With the Tigers and the Demon Deacons both being in Bracket Two of the College World Series (CWS), they can’t meet in the CWS Finals Series. So unless the two teams were to meet again in the game that will send the winner to the final series, this may be the only opportunity fans will have to see the two powerhouse teams face off.
LSU hasn’t been to Omaha since 2017. In that season, the Tigers made the CWS Finals but lost the series to Florida two games to none. LSU was ranked inside the Top 15 every single week.
LSU baseball might not be the favorite to win the College World Series in Omaha, but it’s the favorite to take home a different prize: the dru…
Going into the postseason, the Tigers were ranked sixth. But they rose from No. 11 two weeks before. The Tigers went into the 2017 season ranked No. 3, but didn’t get inside the top three again until the postseason.
That season was successful, obviously. But it did not have the anticipation this year has had. This season, after LSU lost the No. 1 rank after 12 weeks of holding it, they held a spot inside the top five for another three weeks before falling to No. 6 the week of May 29.
On the other hand, Wake Forest has not been to Omaha since 1955. That season, they won the College World Series. They also made it to Omaha in 1949, where they finished runner-up. Back then, college baseball teams did not play nearly as many games, so it’s difficult to compare those teams to the teams today.
Regardless, it’s safe to say that this season’s Wake Forest team is one of the best in program history.
The Demon Deacons have not ever even made the NCAA Tournament with the target on their backs that they’ve had this season. In 2022, Wake Forest entered as the No. 2 seed in the College Park (Maryland) Regional.
Before 2022, they hadn’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2017. The Demon Deacons hosted a regional but were not a top eight national seed and therefore did not host a Super Regional.
This season, they came into the NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 overall seed.
It’s almost given that this matchup would be one of the most anticipated in Wake Forest baseball history, but it also certainly makes the ranks for the biggest games for LSU baseball history, that aren’t championships.
With Skip Bertman at the helm for five national championships, and Paul Manieri for one, it’s difficult to say that this game compares the stakes of this game to those national championship games.
However, for this game not even being for a national championship, the hype surrounding it is unlike many college baseball games. Neither team will win a championship by winning solely this game, and the loser won’t be eliminated. But college baseball fans around the country are still intrigued to the point where it seems like the winner will win a trophy after.
The funny thing is, there could have potentially been more hype for this matchup.
The first game is complete, and it ended with a Tigers win. LSU took down Tennessee in the opening round of the College World Series 6-3 in Omaha.
Neither LSU nor Wake Forest are throwing their aces; Paul Skenes pitched 123 pitches on Saturday against Tennessee, and Wake Forest’s leading pitcher, Rhett Lowder, pitched 100 pitches on Saturday against Stanford. Lowder came into the CWS as the back-to-back ACC Pitcher of the Year. If both teams had saved their ace pitchers for Monday’s matchup, the game could have had that much more to say about it.
But who is at the plate won’t change. Dylan Crews, Tommy White, Tre’ Morgan and more will still make their impacts on the game for LSU, and Wake Forest’s Nick Kurtz, Brock Wilken, and Justin Johnson will still make their impacts for Wake Forest.
The matchup between LSU and Wake Forest has the potential to be one of those games college baseball fans ask each other “remember the LSU-Wake Forest game in Omaha…,” regardless of it not being for a national championship.
Many expected the matchup to come with a national title as the winner’s reward, but this time it’s just a step in getting there.
Other than winning a national championship, which LSU fans and college baseball fans will certainly remember, LSU players playing Monday night have the chance to make a legacy for themselves regardless of whether or not they finish on top at the end of the CWS.
They could be the team that took down No. 1 Wake Forest, a feat that not many teams have been able to accomplish.
At this point, with a win Monday night, a national title at the end of LSU’s season would mean that much more. Critics wouldn’t be able to say that the Tigers were “pretenders,” had an easy route to the championship series, or weren’t a good team without Paul Skenes on the mound.
LSU has so much to prove in Monday night’s game.
But regardless of if LSU finds themselves on top in the end or not, Monday night’s game has the potential to be one for the ages, and one college baseball fans will remember for a long time. LSU being on the winning side of that, however, could make the hype that much more meaningful to them.
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