Wake Forest hasn’t been to the College World Series since winning the national championship in 1955. 

But in their attempt to duplicate that feat, the Deacons are hoping to party like it’s 1999.

That’s the last time a team came to Omaha as the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and left with the championship trophy.

Things have gone well so far for coach Tom Walter’s talented team. It has outscored its opposition 75-16 while sweeping through its regional and Super Regional without a loss on the way to becoming only the 2nd team to win as many as 4 tournament games by 10 runs or more.

Still, the odds aren’t in Wake’s favor.

Not only will the Deacons have to buck recent history, they’ll also have to negotiate their way through the tougher side of the draw just to get to the championship series. Joining them are LSU, Stanford and Tennessee – teams that were ranked Nos. 1, 2 and 3 in the preseason polls. 

Although the top half of the bracket is hardly the junior varsity with top-8 national seeds Florida and Virginia in the field, the degree of difficulty facing the Gators and Cavaliers is nowhere near as high with TCU and Oral Roberts as the remaining teams.

And yet as Ole Miss proved a year ago by winning the national title as the final at-large team to sneak into the tournament, seedings really don’t matter much anymore once the opening pitch is thrown.

So will there be another upset winner? Or will the Deacons hold serve and avoid a Y2K meltdown?

Let’s break down each half of the bracket and take a stab at predicting which of the final 8 will be the last team standing.

Pool A

TCU and Oral Roberts will get things started Friday afternoon in a game that will put 1 of them into an advantageous position in the winner’s bracket.

The Horned Frogs (42-22) have been to Omaha 5 times before, but not since 2017. Despite having the fewest wins in the CWS field, they arrive at Charles Schwab Field as the hottest of the 8 entrants. They’ve won 11 straight and are 19-2 since May 1, with the only 2 losses coming by a single run each.

Third baseman Brayden Taylor is a projected 1st-round draft pick who leads TCU with 23 homers, but first baseman Cole Fontenelle has been the catalyst for the postseason run with multiple hits in each of his past 6 games.

ORU (51-12) is trying to accomplish what only Fresno State in 2008 has been able to do by winning the national championship as a No. 4 regional seed. Only 1 other team, Stony Brook in 2012 has ever made it to Omaha seeded that low.

But the Golden Eagles are anything but a fluke. They rolled through the Summit League with a 21-1 record, won the Oklahoma State regional and knocked off Oregon in the Super Regional.

They’re hitting .323 and averaging 9 runs per game in the NCAA Tournament, led by outfielders Jonah Cox (.420, 11 HRs, 67 RBIs) and Matt Hogan (.332, 18, 70). Their pitching staff features 3 starters with 8 or more wins and closer Cade Denton, whose 15 saves are tied for the most in Division I.

The other opening-round matchup has UVA (50-13) against Florida (50-15).

The Cavaliers are one of the most experienced teams in the bracket. This is their 6th trip to Omaha since 2019, winning the national title in 2015. Their 2 biggest stars have also been here before. Catcher Kyle Teel, the ACC Player of the Year, and third baseman Jake Gelof, whose 23 homers are a single-season school record, were freshmen starters on the team that played in the 2021 CWS. 

On the mound, their starting rotation consists of graduate students Nick Parker and Connor Early, and junior Brian Edgington, all of whom arrived through the transfer portal and all were lights out against Duke in the Super Regional.

The Gators, meanwhile, went 20-10 in the SEC to tie Arkansas for the league’s best record. They advanced through the loser’s bracket in their regional before sweeping league rival South Carolina in impressive fashion to return to Omaha for the first time since 2018.

Two-way star Jac Caglianone leads the nation with 31 homers and is among the top 10 with 84 RBIs while going 7-3 with a 3.78 ERA on the mound. He is joined on the conference first team by second baseman Cade Kurland, shortstop Josh Rivera, outfielder Wyatt Langford (a projected top-3 pick in the MLB Draft) and relief pitcher Brandon Neely.

Prediction: ORU is for real and won’t go down quickly or quietly simply because it’s happy to be here. But Florida and Virginia are simply too talented for an underdog to come out of this side of the bracket. The Golden Eagles will knock off TCU before getting sent to the loser’s bracket by the Gators, then sent home by Virginia. 

The Cavaliers will show off their trademark resiliency by regrouping after an opening loss to Florida, surviving elimination games against ORU and TCU and extending the Gators to a winner-take-all “if necessary” game. The Cavaliers will eventually run out of pitching, however, and Florida will advance to the best-of-3 championship series hoping to become the first program with multiple national championships in football, men’s basketball and baseball.

Pool B

The best potential matchup of this year’s CWS won’t happen in the championship series. In fact, it might not happen at all unless Wake Forest (52-10) and LSU (48-15) win – or lose – their opening games.

The Deacons and Tigers are the teams that have been ranked No. 1 the longest this season and feature what would be a dream pitching matchup in Rhett Lowder vs. Paul Skenes, both of whom are projected to be top 10 picks in the upcoming draft. Skenes could go No. 1 overall.

It’s unlikely they’ll face each other even if their teams do end up facing off in the 2nd round, as Lowder figures to be on the mound for Wake’s CWS opener against Stanford (44-18) on Saturday while Skenes faces SEC rival Tennessee (43-20).

There is 1 matchup that would happen. And it would be well worth the price of admission. LSU’s Tommy White, who is hitting .377 with 22 homers and 97 RBIs, is no stranger to the Deacons’ nation’s best pitching staff. He faced Lowder, Josh Hartle, Seth Keener and Camden Minacci last season while playing for NC State. 

“Tommy Tanks” went 3-for-11 in 3 games against Wake in 2022, with a homer against Lowder. He’s hardly the only offensive threat in the LSU lineup. Center fielder Dylan Crews is hitting .434 with 17 homers and 67 RBI from the leadoff spot. He is projected to go No. 1 in the draft, with Skenes going No. 2. The Deacs also have their share of heavy hitters, led by the ACC’s career home-run leader Brock Wilken, who just blasted his 70th in the Super Regionals.

Pitching will be the key to any plans Tennessee or Stanford have of spoiling the Wake-LSU showdown.

Volunteers ace Chase Dollander doesn’t have the impressive numbers posted by Skenes and Lowder, but he’s considered to be just as elite a prospect. He got a no-decision against the Tigers when he faced them on March 30. As a staff, Tennessee is 2nd nationally to Wake in ERA (3.57) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.07) while ranking 3rd with 9 shutouts and 4th in hits allowed per 9 innings (7.47).

Cardinal workhorse Quinn Mathews made headlines last week by throwing 156 pitches and striking out 16 in a complete game win as part of Stanford’s Super Regional win against Texas. The senior left-hander is 10-4 with a 3.60 ERA. The rest of the staff, however, has combined for an ERA of 6.34, which would become problematic as the week goes on.

Prediction: Matthews’ performance against Texas was amazing, but how much does he have left in his arm? Especially against the kind of bats Wake will throw at him. The Deacons will continue to roll and face LSU, who will ride Skenes’ powerful arm past Tennessee.

After Lowder beats the Cardinal, he’ll hand the ball to Hartle, who will tame the Tigers and send them into a rematch with their SEC rival. This time Tennessee, with its deep pitching staff and the motivation born from last year’s disappointment as the top overall season, will prevail. In the end, though, this year’s No. 1 seed will take care of business and earn the right to play for the title.

Championship series

Sure, it’s easy and in some cases borderline lazy to pick the top 2 seeds to advance to the final. But in this case, there’s no getting around the fact that they’re the best team in each of their respective brackets.

Florida had the best record in the nation’s best conference during the regular season and has gone unbeaten on the road to Omaha. So has Wake, which dominated the nation’s 2nd-best league has been even more impressive in the postseason.

Many will dismiss the Deacons’ chances because of who they are and the fact that they’ve got 2 higher-profile SEC teams on their side of the bracket. They’re the same people that picked them to get beat by Alabama in the super regional.

Wake is 1 of 2 teams at this year’s CWS, along with ACC rival Virginia, that ranks among the top 10 nationally in pitching and hitting. It’s No. 1 on the mound and No. 5 at the plate. It’s a combination that will help them end a 68-year national championship drought while accomplishing what no other top seed has done this century.