Between batting practice hacks, some Alabama players gauged the playing surface at Wake Forest’s David F. Couch Ballpark.

The field is all turf. The mound and warning track are differentiated by different shades of beige and green. As one Crimson Tide player demonstrated with his bat on Thursday, there’s a slight change in depth between the areas where grass and dirt would normally rest. Because of the slicker surface, one could predict an offensive showcase this weekend. But both coaches would tell you the opposite.

The No. 16-seeded Crimson Tide and the one-seed Demon Deacons are set for a battle of pitching staffs in Winston-Salem, N.C. A trip to the College World Series is on the line in a best-of-three series featuring some of the nation’s hottest pitching staffs. Alabama interim coach Jason Jackson and Wake Forest’s Tom Walter previewed the NCAA Super Regional, noting each team may follow a similar gameplan: Rely on depth, limit walks and try to bash a couple of home runs.

“They’re pitching really well. For both clubs, it starts with pitching. I don’t think either team can expect to go out there and score double-digit runs,” Walter said. “I think it’s going to be a low-scoring, 5-4, 5-3, 6-3, type game. It’s going to come down to clutch hitting and who gives it away less.”

Jackson followed: “I just told the team before we practiced today. I said, ‘If you look at these two teams that I think are very, very similar ball clubs.’ We’re both very well-rounded teams. We got some guys pop, some guys that can run a little bit. Some depth on the mound, some power arms just like they do.”

In Game 1, it’ll be Alabama sophomore Luke Holman against junior Rhett Lowder, a player of the year and the best arm in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Holman (a 3.46 ERA on the year) pitched six strong innings against Nicholls State last week. Lowder (1.77 ERA) is a perfect 14-0 and has struck out 125 batters in 101 2/3 innings.

Lowder credited the program’s pitching labs for his development. He said he’s added about 6 miles per hour to his fastball since arriving on campus. Alabama’s top hitters, Jim Jarvis and Tommy Seidl, stressed the importance of seeing a lot of pitchers from Lowder to be able to report back with a good scouting report. Though as Seidl noted, Demon Deacons pitchers don’t make many mistakes.

Walter revealed his rotation for the weekend. It’ll be Lowder on Saturday (first pitch set for 11 a.m. CST), followed by lefty Josh Hartile (first-team All-ACC) on Sunday. Wake Forest’s other elite arms, Seth Keener and Sean Sullivan are available all weekend out of the bullpen and one is likely to start should a Game 3 be necessary on Monday.

For Holman, he’ll need to navigate the dangerous combo of Nick Kurtz and Brock Wilken. Both have posted a home run in all but one of the Demon Deacons’ weekend series this year. Wilken told reporters he and Kurtz joked about being kept in the ballpark during its regional round and the team still outscored opponents 48 to seven.

“Just go out and attack the strike zone,” Jackson said. “That’s kind of the big thing. There’s a lot of talk about this park being an offensive ballpark. The ball really files. There’s a short porch in straightaway right and left. … There’s probably gonna be a ball that goes out of the ballpark this weekend. So you got to make them be solo home runs. That’s what I want to see, guys go out and not change what we do. Continue to do the things we’ve done all year. Stike one, strike one, strike one.”

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].