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Wake Forest

Tom Walter reveals Wake Forest's pitching plan for College World Series

On3-Social-Profile_GRAYby:On3 Staff Report•06/16/23
Tom Walter, Wake Forest Demon Deacons baseball coach
Wake Forest coach Tom Walter trots to the mound during an ACC Tournament game on May 25, 2023. (Eakin Howard / Getty Images)

After reaching the College World Series for the first time since 1955, Wake Forest wants to ensure that its stay in Omaha is not short-lived. That will put the onus on the team’s starting pitching.

Coach Tom Walter outlined his plan for the first couple games, starting with Saturday’s opener against Stanford.

“Rhett (Lowder) will start on Saturday,” Walter said. “Josh Hartle will start on [Monday]. Those things are for sure.”

Those are the clear 1-2 starting pitchers for the Demon Deacons, the ones who have done the bulk of the heavy lifting to this point in the postseason, which has been a relative cakewalk for Wake Forest.

Lowder has a 6-0 record with a 1.84 ERA. He has struck out 58 batters this season while walking only 11 in 49.0 innings of work.

Hartle has a 6-1 record with a 1.94 ERA. He has struck out 69 batters while walking just seven in 46.1 innings pitched.

Wake Forest will also have some quality options backing up both pitchers out of the bullpen at the College World Series. Walter outlined how he plans to approach that.

“(Seth) Keener and (Sean) Sullivan will be available out of the bullpen on Saturday, and we won’t hesitate to go to one or both,” Walter said.

Illustrating the sheer quality of the Wake Forest pitching staff, Keener and Sullivan have both posted impressive numbers. Keener is 4-0 with a 0.60 ERA through 30.0 innings, while Sullivan is 5-1 with a 1.56 ERA in 40.1 innings.

That’s a pretty good set of arms coming out of the bullpen, with Wake Forest having carefully protected its arms all year.

Of course, the College World Series can be taxing on pitching depth, especially if you end up having to play out of the loser’s bracket. The goal is to avoid that, obviously.

But if Wake is forced to, it’ll have ample arms.

“Then obviously the normal bullpen pieces where (Michael) Massey, (Camden) Minacci, (Cole) Roland, etc.” Walter said. “Hoping to get as much length as we can out of Rhett and then turn it over to our good bullpen.”

Wake Forest will begin play at the College World Series on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET against Stanford. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.