Wake Forest is picked to finish ninth of 16 teams in the ACC preseason poll for baseball.

The poll is voted on by the ACC’s coaches.

Wake Forest has reached the NCAA tournament in four straight seasons. The only one of those seasons the Deacons advanced out of the regional round was 2023, when they were the NCAA tournament’s No. 1 overall seed and went to the College World Series.

Optimism for the Deacons this season stems from a loaded pitching staff. Blake Morningstar returns after emerging as ace last year. Cameron Bagwell, a transfer from UNC Wilmington, is expected to be a weekend starter and was CAA rookie of the year last season. Pitchers Matthew Dallas, Rhys Bowie, Troy Dressler, Duncan Marsten and Chris Levonas all earned praise from coach Tom Walter in a preseason press conference last week.

Over the last four seasons, Wake Forest is 172-75-1 (68-50-1 ACC). The Deacons finished eighth in the league last season — the first in which the ACC standings weren’t split into divisions.

Here are full results of the poll with voting points:

First-place votes in parenthesis

1. Georgia Tech, 237 points (7 first-place votes)

2. North Carolina, 236 (6)

3. Florida State, 221 (1)

4. Louisville, 196

5. Clemson, 185 (2)

6. N.C. State, 169

7. Virginia, 165

8. Miami, 159

9. Wake Forest, 145

10. Stanford, 99

11. Virginia Tech, 89

12. Notre Dame, 87

13. Duke, 67

14. Pitt, 45

15. California, 41

16. Boston College, 35

As a reminder: There are 16 schools that field baseball teams in the ACC. Syracuse and SMU do not have programs.