Wake Forest players reflect on first days in Omaha for College World Series

When Wake Forest players arrived at the College World Series this week they did so for the first time in nearly 70 years. The last time the Demon Deacons were in Omaha was 1955 when they won it all.

They’ll be hoping to duplicate the feat this time around.

First, though, it’ll require the players to settle in and be able to put aside the magnitude of the moment to just play baseball. They admit it’s been a bit breathtaking so far.

“I mean, it was awesome. We didn’t really get to see the field. I didn’t see it until we just got here,” ace pitcher Rhett Lowder said on Thursday. “I was up top and looked down, and it took the breath away from me.”

And while Wake Forest players may be a little bit more wide-eyed than a few of the other squads in Omaha this year, make no mistake about it. They are every bit qualified and capable of winning a national title.

The Demon Deacons were the top-seeded team in the country in the postseason and set a record for the largest NCAA Tournament run differential in history going into Omaha at +59.

Just ask Alabama how fun playing Wake Forest is after the Crimson Tide were demolished 22-5 in the deciding game of the Winston-Salem Super Regional, the victim of nine home run blasts. Wake Forest players are ready to get underway.

“It’s really eye-opening. You don’t really grasp the scope of how special this moment really is until you get to step on that field,” slugger Brock Wilken said. “I took a little gaze around and took a glance at all the fans and people screaming your name. It’s pretty cool. Not too many people get to do this, so it’s a very special moment.”

Wake Forest will open play today against Stanford in a game that is slated to begin at 2 p.m. ET with a broadcast on ESPN. It’s critically important to win early in Omaha; playing out of the loser’s bracket is more often than not a foolhardy errand. So the Wake Forest players have been soaking in the atmosphere, ready to normalize to it. And then get back to playing baseball.

“These are the moments you take in today and tomorrow, really enjoy it,” Lowder said. “Then Saturday it’s ready to go. Once we step in between those lines, like we talked about earlier in the week, we only have one goal, and that’s to bring it home, so…”

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