LSU baseball set to take on No. 1 team in America, here’s where it stands against Wake Forest

LSU being in the SEC comes with its challenges. Playing some of the best teams in America every weekend can make a team much better, but it is still, nonetheless, a challenge.

Regardless of LSU’s regular season schedule containing other SEC powerhouses, the Tigers are set to face arguably their toughest opponent of the season, a team that isn’t in the SEC.

LSU will square off with the No. 1 team in the country, Wake Forest on Monday at 6 p.m. C.T. from Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska. The game will be aired live on ESPN.

Wake Forest didn’t win their conference championship, the ACC, but they still came in to the NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 team in America. Combining their deep offense with their stellar pitching certainly allows them to have that top spot.

Not many teams have had success in stopping the Demon Deacons, but teams have taken them down.

Wake Forest’s ACC Tournament run ended in the semifinals off a 7-2 loss to Miami, who finished runner-up to Clemson in the conference tournament. The Demon Deacons currently hold a 53-10 record, but what makes their loss to Miami so significant is who pitched in it.

Both of Wake’s possible starting pitchers for Monday’s game pitched in their ACC Tournament loss to Miami, Josh Hartle and Sean Sullivan. Sullivan, however, came out of the bullpen in Wake’s College World Series opener against Stanford on Monday. He pitched 25 pitches in 1.1 innings, so the odds of him starting the game are lower, but he’ll be a likely option out of the bullpen.

Josh Hartle is the likely starter on the mound for the Demon Deacons, and he is no slouch. In fact, if he were on just about any other team in America, he would be their ace, as fellow Demon Deacon starter, Rhett Lowder won the ACC Pitcher of the Year for the second season in a row. Hartle holds an 11-2 record and a 2.80 ERA. He was selected to the All-American team by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.

Miami found a way to hit Hartle in the ACC Tournament Semifinals. He came out of the bullpen, gave up four runs on seven hits in 4.1 innings pitched, but struck out five. 

The biggest adjustment LSU will have to make with Hartle is that he is a left-handed pitcher. Sullivan also throws from the left-side, meaning if LSU had trouble hitting Hartle, Sullivan would most definitely be an option out of the bullpen to keep the Tigers off-balance.

Wake’s pitching is ultimately what sets them apart from other teams in the country, but combining their pitching with their hitting put them on another level at several points throughout the season.

The Demon Deacons are led at the plate by sophomore, Nick Kurtz, and junior, Brock Wilken. Similar to how LSU’s offense operates, Kurtz and Wilken thrive off the long ball. 

Wilken thrives so much off the home run ball that he set a school record for most home runs in a season with 30, and career home runs with 70. Coming into the College World Series, Wilken held a .357 batting average with a team-high 80 RBIs.

Kurtz led the team headed into the College World Series with a .370 batting average along with 24 home runs, the second most on the team, and 69 RBIs, also the second most on the team.

But, of course, the hitting doesn’t stop there. Seven of Wake’s starters came to Omaha with .300 batting averages or above. To put that in perspective, LSU had six starters with .300 batting averages or higher, and the Tigers have been known for their depth at the plate all season.

LSU and Wake Forest are very much alike. It makes perfect sense why the two teams held the No. 1 national rank for long periods of time throughout the regular season. The game is set to be one for the ages, and the bats will certainly shine on both sides. What will give either team the edge is their execution on the mound.

Wake’s production on the mound has made itself known all season, and their pitching at its full potential can beat just about any team in the country. For LSU to match the Demon Deacons, its pitching will need just about its most consistency it’s had all season.

Ty Floyd is the likely candidate for the starting job Monday night. Floyd’s best on the mound has been great, great enough to keep LSU in the game against a team like Wake Forest. He has a 7-0 record on the season, which many people overlook because of his inconsistencies. 

But when his pitches aren’t working, LSU has found themselves in tough situations. Floyd will be tested tomorrow, and in order to keep the Tigers in the game, everything has to be on point. 

This postseason, Floyd hasn’t been at the level he could be to beat a team like Wake Forest. In his start against Kentucky in the Super Regional, Floyd went 3.1 innings, gave up three runs on seven hits and struck out five. In order to make it a game, Floyd will need to go longer than three innings. He won’t need to go the length that Skenes can go, but enough to limit the amount of other pitchers LSU uses the rest of the game.

That all starts with pitch execution. Against Kentucky, Floyd’s off-speed was not working. That got him deep into counts and, therefore, his pitch count went up. He pitched 82 total pitches in 3.1 innings against Kentucky. In addition, despite there being a rain delay, forcing Floyd to come out when the game resumed, he was still at 71 pitches through three innings.

If it hasn’t been known already, Floyd would need to show glimpses of how great he’s been at certain points of the season. Some Tiger fans seem to think Floyd needs to match the performances that Skenes has, but for any pitcher in college baseball to do that is doing themselves a disservice.

Assuming Floyd gets the start, he just needs to do his job at a high level. Wake Forest struggled against Stanford in their College World Series opener, but still found a way to pull things together to come away with the win. 

LSU is a good enough team that’s capable of doing the same types of things. The offense is has been as powerful as any team in the country, and more times than not, Tiger fans know what to expect at the plate. For both teams, it will come down to pitching. LSU will have to execute from the jump rather than dig themselves into a hole and rely on rallying back. Because a team as good as Wake Forest may not let them back into the game once they’re out.