Four weeks ago, the 1st time it appeared as if Wake Forest might ascend to the No. 1 spot in college baseball rankings, ace pitcher Rhett Lowder downplayed the possibility.

“Based on our culture, a lot of our guys try not to dig too deep into those rankings, because they’re all just made by someone with an opinion,” he said after pitching his team to a win against NC State on April 9.

“We won’t dive too deep into it until it gets closer to tournament time and we get our seeding. That’s when it’s important.”

True.

The Deacons’ leapfrogging LSU into the top of all the major polls on Monday won’t have any bearing whatsoever on their NCAA draw, although Sunday’s series-clinching 4-2 win against Boston College did move them 1 step closer to a valued top-8 tournament seeding.

Still, for a program like Wake’s, sitting atop the college baseball world with 2 weeks remaining in the regular season isn’t an achievement to be downplayed.

It’s important. Very important. 

Even if it only turns out to be temporary.

Because there were no official national polls when the Deacons won the College World Series in 1955 for the ACC’s 1st national championship in any sport, this week’s ranking marks the 1st time in Wake’s baseball history that it has risen to No. 1.

It’s also the 1st time the Deacons have held the top spot in the polls in football, basketball or baseball since Dino Gaudio’s basketball team spent a single week at No. 1 in January 2009.

The football team has never climbed higher than No. 9.

No matter how you cut it, that’s a big accomplishment for the school with the smallest enrollment among Power 5 schools.

Wake is 1 of 6 ACC teams in this week’s D1Baseball poll. Duke is the next-highest rated at No. 10, followed by Miami at No. 11, Clemson at No. 16, Boston College at No. 20 and Virginia at No. 21.

As closely balanced and competitive as the rest of the conference is, the Deacons are clearly the cream of the crop.

They were the preseason co-favorites to win the ACC. But unlike Louisville, with whom they shared the top spot, they’ve lived up to their expectations.

And then some.

Wake has yet to lose a series this year. At 39-7 overall, it’s only 8 wins shy of the school record of 47 set in 2002. The Deacons’ next ACC win will also tie the school record for conference victories while their 18-5 league mark has them 4 1/2 games clear of their closest pursuer – Coastal Division leader Duke – for the top seed in the upcoming ACC Tournament.

They’ve done it with an amazing balance of hitting and pitching.

Led by junior 3rd baseman Brock Wilken, Wake’s all-time home leader whose 20 round-trippers lead the ACC this season, Wake leads the league in long balls with 89. It also ranks 3rd in the ACC with 432 runs scored with 4 players – Tommy Hawke, conference Player of the Year candidate Nick Kurtz, Justin Johnson and Pierce Bennett – all hitting better than .340.

On the mound, Lowder is making a strong case for his 2nd straight ACC Pitcher of the Year award at 10-0 with a 1.67 ERA and 90 strikeouts. 

But he’s had plenty of help behind him. Lowder, along with teammates Seth Keener (1.55), Josh Hartle (2.09) and Sean Sullivan (2.63) own 4 of the 5 lowest ERAs in the league. As a team, their collective 2.51 is more than a full run better than the conference’s next-best staff, Duke at 3.66.

As beneficial as that depth of pitching and the ability to win games in any number of ways have been during the regular season, it makes the Deacons all the more dangerous in an NCAA regional when a team could be forced to play as many as 4 or 5 games in a 3-day span.

Another thing going in their favor is David F. Couch Ballpark, a venue that gives new meaning to the term homefield advantage. Wake is 52-9-1 in its friendly confines over the past 2 seasons, including a 26-2 mark this season.

A top-8 NCAA seeding would ensure that the Deacons would not only host a regional but also a super regional should they get that far.

The road to Omaha would then run directly through Winston-Salem.

“It’s fun to play on this team,” Lowder said last month.

It promises to be even more fun if it can get back to the College World Series for the 1st time since the school’s lone championship season 67 years ago.

No matter what happens, this team has already accomplished something no other team in program history has done.

Being No. 1 in the nation might not be a cause for celebration now, with so much baseball still to be played. 

But it is an accomplishment. It’s something that no other Deacon team has ever done before. 

And if the moon and stars are aligned just right, it could be a stepping stone to something even more important once tournament time arrives.