Wake Forest not committing to starting pitcher, expects to face Paul Skenes in elimination game

Wake Forest head coach Tom Walter would have preferred to have beaten LSU on Wednesday night. However, as a reward for not losing prior to that game, Walter and the Demon Deacons are going to get a second shot in a row and a third in four days to beat LSU.

Ahead of that game, Walter would not commit to a starting pitcher, though everyone knows that whoever the Demon Deacons put on the mound is going to have to face Paul Skenes.

“That’s a good question,” Walter said. “I’m not 100 percent sure on Rhett [Lowder]. We’ll have to talk to him and see how he feels tomorrow and make a decision on that. Knowing Rhett he’ll probably be on the board tomorrow. But we’ve got [Camden] Minacci and [Cole] Roland and [Michael] Massey and [William] Ray and [Derek] Crum and [Reed] Mascolo. We’ve certainly got plenty of pieces tomorrow.”

There’s no secret that LSU is putting Paul Skenes on the mound, arguably the best pitcher in college baseball. Tom Walter expects that too and he also expects Skenes to bring his best stuff to the game.

“I do. I do expect to see Paul Skenes tomorrow. He threw before the game today. He was cutting it loose pretty good. I imagine that’s exactly who we’ll see.”

LSU and Wake Forest are 1-1 against each other to this point in the College World Series. Wake Forest won their first meeting but dropped the second one. Skenes did not pitch in either game, getting the ball against Tennessee instead.

The winner of the game on Thursday night advances to the final where they will play the Florida Gators.

Tom Walter on Wake Forest making a comeback attempt

When Wake Forest went down early in the game against LSU, it would have been easy to step back and wait for the Thursday game. However, the Demon Deacons made a real push, even though they came up short.

For Tom Walter, this said something to him about his team’s character.

“We talked about it before the tournament started. We do have the ability to win games in different ways because of all our pitching and defense we can win the 3-2 game. 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,” Walter said.

“But it’s a veteran club and we’ve got some toughness to us. That’s the one thing — I said to the guys in the huddle before the game, I said they don’t know how tough we are.”