Game 1: LSU’s ace Kade Anderson finished off his college career with a 1-0 3-hit 130 pitch shutout that was both amazing and concerning for his arm health.
Game 2: LSU finally got to CCU’s ace Jacob Morrison, putting up 4 runs in the 4th that stuck and they held on for a 5-3 win.
Your 2025 College World Series Champion: LSU, winning their 2nd since we started hyper covering the CWS and their 8th title since 2001.
Here’s some links to past years of CWS coverage here. I’ve been doing this for more than 10 years now! Each link below is the blog post covering that CWS final.
That’s it for the 2025 CWS tournament. I think its safe to say that it was an odd year for college baseball, seeing a mid-major cruise relatively untested into the final and having the all-powerful SEC win the event but (frankly) disappoint with its overall post-season performance.
We now get to focus entirely on 1-1 watch for a while.
We get one more look at Anderson in the CWS final. Photo via MLB.com
After a couple of frenetic weeks of tracking CWS play-in games, we’re through the pedestrian-paced group play in Omaha and have reached the final of the 2025 CWS tournament; here’s a recap of group play in Omaha.
In the Top Bracket ( Louisville, Coastal Carolina, Arizona, #8 Oregon State )
In the opening games, Coastal continued on its current 24-game winning streak, scoring 3 in the 8th to break open a tie-game to top Arizona. They havn’t lost since April 22nd. Meanwhile, Lousville tied it in the top of the 9th only to have Oregon State walk-it off in the bottom, with 1-1 candidate Arquette scoring the winning run, to cap an exciting day for the top bracket.
In the first elimination game, Louisville blew open a close game with 6 in the eight to make Arizona the first team eliminated.
In the winner’s bracket game, Coastal’s saturday starter Jacob Morrison spun a gem, shutting down OSU for nearly 8 innings to put CCU in the driver’s seat.
In the play-in game, OSU’s Arquette did his best to help his team, but Louisville walked it off in a 7-6 back and forth affair to eliminate Oregon State and move into the group final.
In the group final, Coastal Carolina kept its win streak alive with a beat down of OSU 11-3 to win the group unblemished and return to the National title game.
Final Group standings: Coastal Carolina, Louisville, #8 Oregon State, Arizona
In the Bottom Bracket (#15 UCLA, #3 Arkansas, #6 LSU, Murray State)
In the opening games, UCLA got to Murray State’s starter in the 5th for enough runs to make it stick to move on. In the night cap, probably the best game we’ll see in CWS featured the two SEC teams and two best ranked teams battle, with LSU’s Kade Anderson putting up the best possible line you could expect in a CWS game: 7ip 3 hits, 1r (on an inside FB that Arkansas’ light-hitting 1B turned on), 7/2 K/BB. Just 100 pitches to get through 7.
In the first elimination game, Arkansas’ Gage Woods threw probably the greatest game in the history of the CWS, a 9ip no-hitter with 19 Ks (!!) to send Murray State home. He had a perfect game into the top of the 8th and only let five balls even get into fair territory. 119 pitches. Amazing.
In the winner’s bracket game, LSU bashed their way to a rain-delayed 9-5 win over UCLA to take control of the group.
In the play-in game, Arkansas scored early and often and were in control throughout, downing UCLA 7-3 to setup an all-SEC group final.
In the group final, Arkansas certainly made it interesting, with 2 in the 8th and 2 in the ninth to take the lead, but then LSU’s middle of the order came through, with 3 in the 9th to walk it off for a shot at the title. What a game.
Final Group standings: #6 LSU, #3 Arkansas, UCLA, Murray State
Analysis/commentary
I suppose its fitting that this year of regional upsets gives us a national powerhouse back in the title game in LSU, along side a team from a mid-major that probably should have been a National seed had the committee sniffed their noses at Coastal Carolina’s pedigree, and now they ride a massive 26 win game winning streak heading into the final series that they have no doubt they can win.
Projected 1st Rounder Performance:
We’ll throw this into the next 1-1 conversation, since there’s only a couple 1-1 candidates left in CWS play.
CWS Preview and Prediction:
One big plus here for neutrals: neither of the groups went the “extra game,” so none of the star pitchers got burned. This is in contrast to two years ago, when LSU threw its stud Skenes just to get into the final, and then the national spotlight never got to see him (except for an inning at the end).
Here’s the best i can make out for pitching matchups in the final, based on how the pitchers were used in the playoffs to get here so far. Everyone below is basically on full rest, so no usage concerns here.
The CWS national series starts on Saturday 6/21:
6/21: CCU’s Cameron Flukey (7-1, 3.29 ERA, 109/22 in 95ip) versus LSU’s Kade Anderson (11-1, 3.44 ERA, 170/30 K/BB in 110 IP)
6/22: CCU’s Jacob Morrison (12-0, 2.08 ERA, 102/22 in 104 ip) versus LSU’s Anthony Eyanson (11-2, 2.92 ERA, 143/35 in 101 ip).
6/23 CCU’s Riley Eikhoff (7-2, 3.10 ERA, 71/11 K/BB in 90 ip) versus LSU’s Zac Cowan (3-3, 2.94 ERA, 60/12 in 52 ip).
If you recognize the Eikhoff name, its because he is from NoVa, went to Patriot HS, and is the brother of Nate Eikhoff, who starred for UVA just before Covid.
LSU doesn’t really have a reliable 3rd starter; they’ve given starts to six different guys in that #3 spot this year. They have a super reliever Casan Evans (5-1, 2.05 ERA, 71/19 k/BB in 52ip) who could also slot in to that third start, if necessary.
That being said, I don’t think this series is going three. I think Anderson shuts down CCU in game one and wins a close one in game two to take the title. With all due respect to Coastal, they have not seen a starter like Anderson all year and has managed to make it all the way to the title game without facing a top prospect starter who can easily tame their bats.
Louisville vs Miami: Louisville dominated visiting Miami (note: I thought Miami would get the host) 8-1 in a game where all the scoring happened in the first few innings. Miami took back game two to force the tie-breaker game Sunday. In game three, Louisville clawed back to take a close 3-2 win and advance.
#8 Oregon State v #9 Florida State: FSU let one get away in game one, giving up 3 runs in the ninth to send the game to extras, then watching an RBI single allow OSU to walk them off. Brutal. FSU turned around to win game 2 and force the decider. In the final, both teams ran out of pitching and played to an old-school pre-BBCOR aluminum game score of 14-10 as OSU advances.
#5 UNC v Arizona: UNC Destroyed AZ in game one 18-2. AZ fought back to win game two in a slugfest to force the 3rd game. In the final, Arizona shocked the national seed and top ranked UNC with three runs in the 8th inning to steal a 4-3 win and to claim the CWS spot.
#4 Auburn v #13 Coastal Carolina: Coastal Carolina shocked Auburn in game one, edging them with a run in the 10th to win in extras. They followed it up with a 4-1 game two win to be the first team to punch their ticket to the CWS and to prove naysayers wrong.
#3 Arkansas v #14 Tennessee; Arkansas got a close game 1 win 4-3, got to Doyle easily in game two and cruise into the CWS.
#6 LSU v West Virginia: LSU battered their way to a game 1 win 16-9 and was never troubled in game two to advance easily.
Duke v Murray State: Host Duke opened with a win, taming Murray State’s bats 7-4. Murray State got back to bashing in game two, winning 19-9 and force a Monday finish. There, Murray State persevered, even with a crazy overturned call at the end that forced them to win twice, to advance as a #4 seed, a rarity in the college game.
UT-San Antonio v #15 UCLA: UCLA won 5-2 in the first, then blanked UTSA in the second to move on.
My predictions were awful: I went just 3 for 8 after going 8-for-8 last year in the supers.
Stats/Observations of the 8 Super Regionals.
5 out of 8 Super Regional Hosts to advance.
4 regionals went to the 3rd/deciding game.
Conference Breakdown of the eight Advancers: 2 SEC, 1 ACC, 1 Big10, 1 Big12, 1 Independent, 1 Sun Belt, and 1 MVC. wow. What great distribution. If we were playing by the old rules … there’d be three Pac12 teams here.
Murray State to the CWS as a #4 regional seed is super rare: it’s only happened three other times since the CWS expanded to 64 teams in 1999. Fresno State (2008, who frigging won the CWS), Stony Brook (2012), and most recently, Oral Roberts (2023).
So, your 2024 CWS Field (with original national seeds driving the teams):
Group 1 (1,4,5,8): Louisville, Coastal Carolina, Arizona, #8 Oregon State
Group 2 (2,3,6,7): #15 UCLA, #3 Arkansas, #6 LSU, Murray State
So, we have a pretty lopsided CWS field. Group 1 features just one national seed in OSU, while group two features three National seeds plus the crazy Cinderella Murray State.
RPIs of the CWS field: Here’s the Live/updated RPI of the field, plus the pre-CWS tournament RPI for those teams who were seeds.
Arkansas: #1 (started #5)
Coastal Carolina #3 (Started #8)
Oregon State: #5 (started #7)
UCLA #9 (started #15)
LSU #11 (started #10)
Arizona #19
Louisville #29
Murray State: #53
CCU was pretty underseeded going into the tourney and probably should have been a top 8 seed, and now they’re vindicated with a live RPI of #3, making them the favorite in the group 1.
Performance of 1st Round projected players in the Super Regionals:
I’ll summarize the performance of the few 1-1 candidates we care about in my “check-in” post coming soon.
My CWS Predictions
Top half: I think it comes down to Coastal versus Oregon State, with Oregon State heading to final.
Bottom Half: Hard not to go with an all SEC final here, with things setup for the SEC teams to be on opposite sides of the group. LSU beat Arkansas at home in a series in early May, but on a neutral field I sense Arkansas bashes their way forward. LSU only has one Kade Anderson.
Quick Regional Recaps of the 16 regional action, ordered by National Seed super Regional matchup. that means, the pairs of regionals being reviewed (#1 Vanderbilt regional and #16 Southern Miss regional) will determine that Super Regional. The eventual winning team is bolded.
#1 Vanderbilt Regional Recap: Vanderbilt failed to advance to the Super Regionals as the #1 overall seed for the 2nd time in recent memory (they were #1 overall seed with David Price as their ace and also fell at a home regional), losing twice to Louisville to go home early.
#16 Southern Miss Regional Recap: host Southern Miss inexplicably lost to Ivy League champ Columbia to open the regional, got back to the final and even forced an extra game, but the strain on their resources was too much as they fell to Miami.
#8 Oregon State Regional Recap: Oregon State got upended in game one by a #4 seed in St. Marys, but clawed their way back, crushed St. Marys 20-3 in the loser’s bracket, then beat USC twice to advance. Phew.
#9 Florida State Regional Recap: Florida State advanced in a relatively straight-forward regional, cruising past eventual regional finalist Mississippi State twice, once behind top-5 pick Arnold’s 7ip effort.
#5 UNC Regional Recap: North Carolina got stretched to an extra game but persevered versus Oklahoma to move on.
#12: Oregon Regional Recap: Host Oregon went 2-and-out to finish last as the seed and host, while Arizona beat Cal Poly twice to win the regional and advance. Props to Utah Valley for the win as the #4 seed.
#13 Coastal Carolina Regional Recap: ECU ousted Florida, but Coasal Carolina beat them twice to win the region and advance as one of the few mid-majors remaining.
#4 Auburn Regional Recap: Host Auburn beat all three teams in its region to advance, crushing NC State 11-1 in the regional final.
And, the eventual CWS Bottom Half:
#3 Arkansas Regional Recap: Arkansas handled Big East’s Creighton twice to advance with ease.
#14 Tennessee Regional Recap: Tennessee got stretched by Wake Forest to an extra game but moved on, as 1-1 draft candidate finished off the finale to the horror of the GMs drafting in that range.
#11 Clemson Regional Recap: West Virginia came out on top of a crazy regional that saw host Clemson get whacked by last-team-in Kentucky before WVU topped the SEC team in a wile 16-15 regional final.
#6 LSU Regional Recap: Arkansas-Little Rock as a #4 seed gave LSU everything they could handle, but the Tigers advanced to get another super regional.
#7 Georgia Regional Recap: Everything started great for Georgia, then it fell apart; they lost the winner’s bracket game to Duke, then couldn’t even get back to the regional final, losing to Oklahoma State, to finish 3rd as a national top-8 seed. Not a good look. Duke took out OkState to win the regional.
#10 Ole Miss Regional Recap: holy cow, how about #4 regional seed Murray State?! Beat the hosts 9-6 to open, then score 13, 19, and 12 against SEC and ACC royalty to win the regional and move on. Bravo!
#15 UCLA Regional Recap: UCLA won an offense-first regional by beating all three teams to advance.
#2 Texas Regional Recap: UT-San Antonio shocked the field with two wins over #2 overall seed Texas to win the region and move on.
Thus, your Super Regionals are ...
Louisville vs Miami
#8 Oregon State v #9 Florida State
#5 UNC v Arizona
#4 Auburn v #13 Coastal Carolina
#3 Arkansas v #14 Tennessee
#6 LSU v West Virginia
Duke v Murray State
UT-San Antonio v #15 UCLA
Stats/Observations of the 16 regionals.
9 out of 16: Seeds/Hosts to advance. Three of the top 8 seeds are out, including #1 Vandy, #2 Texas, and #7 Ole Miss.
6 regionals went to Monday extra game; lots of close regionals this year.
Conference Breakdown of the 16 advancers: ACC 5, SEC 4, Big12 2, Big10 1, others 4.
How about the ACC? 9 teams in, 5 going to supers. Versus SEC: 13 teams in, just 4 moving on.
Murray State; holy cow. Usually we’re ecstatic to talk about a #4 seed getting a win, not moving on.
UT-San Antonio; a #2 seed who took out a power house.
Performance of 1st Round projected players in the Regionals:
(we’ll put this content into our 1-1 candidate review post, coming out later this week)
Super Regional predictions: Here’s what i think happens when these Regional champs meetup next weekend:
Louisville vs Miami: two teams with .500 records in ACC conference play are now going to give the CWS a representative from between them. I would guess Miami gets to host based on pedigree. These teams didn’t meet at all this year so no history. Prediction: Miami had a slightly harder SoS and may have a slight advantage here.
#8 Oregon State v #9 Florida State: I’m going FSU just based on having a better arm to throw game 1. FSU faced a better slate of teams all year.
#5 UNC v Arizona: hard to pick against UNC in this position. I think these former Pac12 teams are overrated generally.
#4 Auburn v #13 Coastal Carolina: Auburn will outclass the mid-major former CWS champ here.
#3 Arkansas v #14 Tennessee: They played late in the season, at Arkansas; Tennessee won the first game, then lost the 2nd when Doyle pitched (Arkansas lit him up for 11 hits and 8 runs). I think Arkansas repeats the feat and moves on. If they can get to Doyle that easily, they’ll be tough to beat.
#6 LSU v West Virginia; with all due respect to WVU, LSU isn’t going to lose at home with a top 5 pick throwing one of the games.
Duke v Murray State: Murray State played, nobody, I mean, nobody this year; SoS #222. But they showed up in the Regional and I’ll bet they show up again. Murray State to CWS!
UT-San Antonio v #15 UCLA: UTSA is big-time. Top 20 RPI, 8-4 record against Q1. I think they’re going to beat UCLA.
Its College Baseball post-season time, something we’ve followed in this space for years. Here’s a quick guide to the CWS 2025 post season. The field of 64 was announced on Memorial Day Weekend at Noon, so here’s a preview of this coming weekend’s 16 regional events.
Local teams in the rankings: it’s a really down year for area college: there’s not one Virginia team anywhere near the top 25 this year. In fact, there’s not a single VOTE for a DC/MD/VA college team in the final USA Today poll.
WarrenNolan’s RPI rankings are a very important part of the seeding and selection process, as we’ll discuss in a bit.
Here’s D1Baseball.com’s Tournament Central, my favorite place to track the tourney.
Your top 8 seeds and favorites to make Omaha, in order, along with their RPI and their Strength of Schedule (SoS) denoted:
Vanderbilt (42-16): RPI #1, SoS #2
Texas (42-12): RPI #4, SoS #19
Arkansas (43-13): RPI #5, SoS #14
Auburn (38-18): RPI #3, SoS #1
North Carolina (42-12): #6 RPI, #23 SoS
LSU (43-14): #10 RPI, #36 SoS
Georgia (42-15): #2 RPI, #4 SoS
Oregon State (41-12-1): #7 RPI, #42 SoS
There’s definitely some interesting stuff to digest here. Vanderbilt finished 4th in the SEC regular season but won the post-season title, which vaulted them above Texas for #1. They’ve been RPI #1 for a bit, so no surprise here. Texas won the SEC regular season title by two games over Arkansas, who gets the #3 national seed. UNC finished 3rd in the ACC regular season but won the ACC title, likely cementing their slot as a top 8 seed. Interestingly Georgia Tech was the ACC regular season winner but didn’t even get a hosting spot. LSU sneaks into a regional spot at the expense of #8 RPI Coastal Carolina, likely a nod to the amazing atmosphere at LSU’s home stadium. Lastly the orphaned Oregon State team more than earned its #7 seed with its barnstorming season. There’s no easy outs amongst the top 8 seeds.
The National seeds 9-16 and the other regional hosts go as follows:
#9 Florida State (38-14) : #14 RPI, #24 SoS
#10 Ole Miss (40-19): #12 RPI, #5 SoS
#11 Clemson (44-16): #9 RPI, #16 SoS
#12 Oregon (42-14): #16 RPI, #35 SoS
#13 Coastal Carolina (48-11): #8 RPI, #66 SoS
#14 Tennessee (43-16): #11 RPI, #12 SoS
#15 UCLA (42-16): #15 RPI, #22 SoS
#16 Southern Miss (44-14): #19 RPI, #67 SoS
Unlike 2024, there’s no real hosting shocks here. Oregon remains a host despite losing early in the Big 10 conference tournament. Ole Miss made a huge run to the SEC tourney final and will be a tough out. Alabama ends up being the highest RPI team to not host (#13), likely due to an early exit in the SEC tournament and a 16-14 league record.
Local DC/MD/VA local teams in the tourney:
None. Last year there were three Virginia teams in the field of 64, including UVA as a national seed. This year, not so much. West Virginia is in, along with nearby Carolina schools like ECU and Coastal Carolina that sometimes recruit in the state. This year, nothing.
Quick Regional Thoughts
Here’s one sentence or so on each regional
Vanderbilt (42-16): The #1 seeds get a super easy regional with their #2 as RPI #32 Louisville. No upsets here, but Louisville has a big-time arm that could throw a monkey wrench into the plans.
Texas (42-12) gets a really easy regional, with three mid-majors and no real threats.
Arkansas (43-13) gets the Big East champ Creighton as a #3 seed, a bit troubling, but may not even see them. Their #2 seed is Kansas, not exactly a baseball powerhouse this year.
North Carolina (42-12) was not done any favors by the committee, getting #2 Oklahoma and the big10 tourney champs Nebraska as a #3. Ouch.
LSU (43-14) will have Dallas Baptist to contend with (#20 RPI), but otherwise has an easy draw.
Georgia (42-15) gets two storied programs in Duke and Oklahoma State, but both programs struggled this year against Quadrant-1 schools.
Oregon State (41-12-1) has a pretty manageable regional that includes TCU and USC in down years.
Florida State (38-14) gets the team with the best record in the land in Northeastern (48-9 with a 25-2 in-confernece record), but they have almost no Q1 experience.
Ole Miss (40-19) comes in red-hot, having made the SEC tourney final. For their troubles they get ACC regular season champ Georgia Tech, but being hosts will make the difference here.
Clemson (44-16) struggled at season’s end and has a tricky regional that includes West Virginia and the controversial Kentucky, who squeaked into this draw as the last of 13 SEC teams in the tourney.
Oregon (42-14): Upset watch here: Oregon has two tough teams in Arizona and Cal Poly to contend with.
Coastal Carolina (48-11): They’ll have to prove their lofty RPI here; they have to deal with Florida. Florida is certainly battle tested: 28 of their 58 games were against Q1 schools.
Tennessee (43-16): probably saves their Ace for Wake Forest in game two and should cruise in a relatively easy regional.
UCLA (42-16): gets three other West Coast teams, any of whom seem to be possible to win here. UC Irvine, Arizona State, and Fresno State all have major college baseball pedigree, and California college baseball is just different.
Southern Miss (44-14); the mid-major has to contend with both Alabama, who arguably should have had a host, AND Miami. Ouch.
Prospect Watch. We’ve talked the top guys to death, but here’s where they’re playing. By region, here’s some guys to watch that are like top 50 college prospects in this year’s draft:
Vanderbilt Regional: Vandy could have to contend with Supp-1st projected Alabama ace Patrick Forbes in game 2 of their regional.
Texas Regional: Texas’ speedy OF Max Belyeu is a late 1st round projection.
Arkansas Regional: their transfer SS Wehiwa Aloy projects as back of 1st round now, and they have a big left in Zach Root who’s a supp-1st rounder projection.
Auburn Regional: their big hitter is Ike Irish a C/OF type.
North Carolina Regional: UNC’s catcher Luke Stevenson projects as a late 1st rounder. Oklahoma’s ace Kyson Witherspoon could face UNC in game 2.
LSU Regional: left ace Kade Anderson will lead the way for LSU.
Georgia Regional: Georgia is really a team effort; they only have one top 200 projected draft player in OF/1B Tre Phelps
Oregon State Regional: top-5 projected pick Aiva Arquette stars for OSU.
Florida State Regional: FSU’s ace Jamie Arnold likely goes game 2.
Ole Miss Regional: Ole Miss’ big arm is Mason Morris, a likely 3rd rounder.
Clemson Regional: their leading hitter Cam Cannarella was on upper 1st round watch early, but has faded.
Oregon Regional: Arizona’s leading hitter Brendan Summerhill leads their attack.
Coastal Carolina Regional: Their leading prospect is C Caden Bodine, who has seen his star really fade this season.
Tennessee Regional: top-5 projected Liam Doyle will have scouts out for sure. Tennessee also has mid-1st rounder Gavin Kilen and supp-1st round Andrew Fischer in the lineup. Wake’s Marek Houston has top-5 buzz and would be a great matchup when Doyle pitches. Wake also has late 1st rounder Ethan Conrad in the OF.
UCLA Regional: there’s a slew of 3rd and 4th rounders amongst all the teams here, typical for a California-heavy regional.
Southern Miss Regional: Southern Miss is led by ace RHP JB Middleton, a late 1st round projection. He could face off in game 2 against Alabama’s Riley Quick, a Fastball/Slider guy who also projects in the same range.
Top 1st round prospects whose team outright missed the post season:
TAMU and Jace LaViolette, projected 1-1 to begin the year, now a mid-1st rounder.
UC Santa Barbara and Tyler Bremner: how his stock has fallen this year.
Indiana and Devin Taylor got a couple of shout outs, but he’s pushed back to end of 1st round.
We’ll circle back next week with Regional recaps and Super Regional projections. We probably will also return with a check-in on the 1-1 candidates in our regular series.
So, for as good of a 2023 CWS finals matchup that we had (Florida vs LSU), this year we might have had an even better matchup: #1 Tennessee versus #3 Texas A&M. They were #1 and #2 in RPI, #1 and #4 in D1baseball’s final rankings, and TAMU probably had a better argument to be seeded ahead of Kentucky had they not gone 2-and-out in the SEC tourney. Both mostly cruised through the entire post-season to get here (TAMU went 8-0 in the CWS before the final, Tennessee 8-1 after going 4-1 in the SEC tourney to win it).
So it was fitting that it went three, and that it came down to a nail-biting 9th inning with the tying runs on base before Tennessee took it. Here’s a quick game by game recap.
Game 1: Tennessee’s starter didn’t get out of the first (though I thought it was a quick hook), and it didn’t matter as TAMU put 7 runs up in the first three innings to cruise to an easy win.
Game 2: A close game was opened up with two late homers from Tenn to force the tiebreaker.
Game 3: Tennessee’s starter Zander Sechrist shut down TAMU and the game 2 winner Aaron Combs came back on zero days rest after throwing 60+ pitchers to almost give away the game.
Your 2024 College World Series Champion: Tennessee, the first #1 seed to win it in 20+ years.
Quick recap of top draft prospect CWS finals performance:
TAMU’s Braden Montgomery, injured in the regional, is falling on draft boards and could get to the Nats at #10.
Christian Moore, 2B, Tennessee: 0-5 in the 1st game, 1-3 in the 2nd game and was pulled (not often you see your 1st round prospect replaced), 1-5 in the 3rd. Not a good final.
Billy Amick, 3B, Tennessee: 1-3 with 2 BB in the 1st game, 0-5 with a sombrero in the 2nd, 1-4 in the 3rd. Also not a good final.
Here’s some links to past years of CWS coverage here. I’ve been doing this for more than 10 years now! Each link below is the blog post covering that CWS final.
In the Top Bracket ( #1 Tennessee, #8 Florida State, #12 Virginia, #4 UNC )
In the opening games, UNC tied the game in the 7th and walked-it off on star Vance Honeycutt‘s bottom of the ninth RBI single to win it 3-2. Tennessee came back to score FOUR in the bottom of the ninth, three of them with two outs, to steal a win from Florida State.
In the first elimination game, Florida State cruised past UVA to send the Cavaliers home 2-and-out.
In the winner’s bracket game,#1 Tennessee cruised past #4 UNC 6-1 to take control of the group.
In the play-in game, Florida State took out UNC to earn a rematch with Tennessee for the title game.
In the group final, Tennessee cruised past FSU 7-2 to win the group going away.
Final Group standings: Tennessee, FSU, UNC, UVA
In the Bottom Bracket ( #3 Texas A&M, Florida, #10 NC State, #2 Kentucky)
In the opening games, Seeds held as #3 TAMU and #2 Kentucky held serve to move to the winner’s bracket game. Kentucky continued the trend of late-game comebacks so far, getting a HR in 9th to tie it and send it to extras, and then walking off with a homer to win it in the 10th. TAMU got 3 runs early and made it stick against Florida.
In the first elimination game, Florida eliminated the one ACC team in the group, getting a 3-run homer from its star Caglianone and making the lead stick.
In the winner’s bracket game, TAMU exploded for 5 runs in the sixth to break up a 0-0 game and Kentucky didn’t get a hit until there was 2 outs in the 7th to never challenge.
In the play-in game, which was delayed by weather, Florida destroyed #2 Kentucky with 7 in the first and with a final score of 15-4 to get another crack at TAMU in the regional final.
In the group final, TAMU blanked Florida 2-0 to win the group going away and advance to the final.
Final Group standings: TAMU, Florida, Kentucky, NC State
Analysis/commentary
Well, you can’t ask for much more than #1 versus #3. Both teams dominated this entire off season, with only an 11-10 blip against Evansville being a loss either team has suffered. The CWS was stocked, and the two best SEC teams have advanced to the final (with all due respect to #2 Kentucky of course).
Projected 1st Rounder Performance:
We’ve been tracking the same crew of players since the opening round; there’s a few 1st rounders who were in Omaha; here’s how they performed (note: TAMU is in Omaha but their projected top 5 pick is out with a broken ankle).
Jac Caglianone, 1B/LHP Florida: 2-3 with a dbl and a BB in game one. 1-3 with a 3run HR in game two, which he also started but got pulled at 33 pitches in the first. In game 3; 2-2 with 3BBs and a solo homer in Fla’s destruction of KY. Went 2-4 in Florida’s shutout to exit. What a CWS. Caglianone probably convinced the entire MLB world how good his bat is and how unreliable he is on the mound for the final time
Cam Smith, 3B, Florida State: 1-3 with 3BB in the opener. 1-3 with a dbl in game 2. 0-5 in game 3. 0-4 in Game four. A dud of a CWS.
James Tibbs, OF, Florida State: 1-6 with 4 Ks (ouch) in the opener. 0-2 with 2 BB in game 2. 1-4 with 2BB in game 3. Just 1-4 in the final. After a fantastic super regional, he no-showed the CWS unfortunately.
Vance Honeycutt, CF, North Carolina: Just 1-5 in the opener but that one hit won the game in the bottom of the 9th. Went 1-3 with another HR in game 2. 3-5 with a third straight HR in the last. Honeycutt certainly left scouts with a heck of an impression and probably made himself some last minute money by pushing his draft stock into the mid 1st round.
Christian Moore, 2B, Tennessee: 5-6 and hitting for the cycle in the opener (!!), 1-4 in game 2. 2-4 with 2 runs in the gruop final. Solid CWS
Billy Amick, 3B, Tennessee: 2-4 in the opener. 0-3 in game 2. 2-5 with 2R in the group final. 4-12 for the CWS group stage but with little in the way of power.
CWS Preview and Prediction:
I think i like #1 Tennessee to enter as #1 and win as #1. Normally i focus on pitching matchups, but neither Tennessee or TAMU really is driven by pitching. TAMU’s workmanlike advancing without their best player is impressive for sure, but will probably be the difference maker.
#1 Tennessee vs Evansville: Tennessee won game one 11-6, but the underdog shocked the #1 team in the nation in game two to force the deciding 3rd game. In the decided Tennessee turned it into a laugher, winning 11-1 to move on and avoid a massive upset
#8 Florida State vs UConn: Florida State came to hit in this series, winning the first game by the astounding score of 24-4, then holding on for a 10-8 game two to move on.
Kansas State vs #12 Virginia: UVA, who got hosting privileges as the higher seed, cruised to two straight wins to be the first team to punch their ticket.
#4 UNC vs West Virginia: UNC had a bone-chilling come from behind win in game one, blasting two homers in the bottom of the last to go from a one-run deficit to a walk-off win. In game two, Tar Heel Star Honeycutt scored both runs in a 2-1 squeaker to send UNC to Omaha.
#3 Texas A&M vs Oregon: TAMU held serve in game one despite losing its superstar Montgomery, then cruised to a 15-9 win to head to Omaha. I sense some sports cliche “do it for Braden” stuff going on here.
#6 Clemson v Florida: Florida upset the hosts in game one 10-6, then the two teams played an epic 13-inning thriller that featured a 3-run rally in the top of the 9th by Clemson to send it to extras, then a walk-off double from Florida in the 13th to send them to the CWS.
#7 Georgia v #10 NC State: NC State embarrassed Georgia on its home turf 18-1 in game one. Georgia rebounded to crush the Wolfpack 11-2 in game two, sending it to the decider. There, NC State held on with an 8-5 win to upset Georgia and head to Omaha.
#2 Kentucky v #15 Oregon State: Kentucky blanked OSU in game one 10-0, then won a close one 3-2 to move on.
2 regionals went to the 3rd/deciding game: Tennessee/Evansville, Georgia/NC State
Conference Breakdown of the eight Advancers: Four from the SEC, four from the ACC. Is anyone surprised based on the dominance of these two leagues this year?
So, your 2024 CWS Field (with original national seeds driving the teams):
Clearly this is an ACC-SEC centric tourney, and interestingly the way the brackets bear out its mostly ACC teams in group 1 (except for #1 Tennessee) and its mostly SEC teams in Group 2 (except for NC State).
Performance of 1st Round projected players in the Super Regionals:
Here’s a quick run through just the 1st round projected players who were active, using primarily MLBPipeline’s draft rankings for candidates. They’re listed in rough order of the way they’ll likely go in the 1st round in July.
Charlie Condon: 3B/OF, Georgia: 0-3 with a BB in game one blowout loss. 1-4 in game 2, 1-4 with a solo HR in game 3.
Travis Bazzana 2B/SS: Oregon State: 0-3 with a BB in game one. 1-4 with a BB and 2Ks in game 2.
Jac Caglianone, 1B/LHP Florida: 2-4 with 3-RBI and HR in game one. 1-3 but with 3BB and another HR in game two while also getting the start and giving up 4ER in 5 2/3rds. Great super, but his bat is clearly playing more than his arm (consistent with scouting).
Braden Montgomery, OF, Texas A&M: Walked in his first AB, then suffered a really bad-looking ankle injury trying to score later on in the inning. Twitter reports called it a “clean break” of his ankle. What a dagger of an injury for the player, a projected top-5 pick who likely falls in the draft because of this.
J.J. Wetherholt, 2B/SS, West Virginia: 1-4 with a R in game one. 0-4 with nothing in game 2.
Cam Smith, 3B, Florida State: 3-4 with 2R in game one blowout, 2-5 with 2R and 2BB in game 2.
James Tibbs, OF, Florida State: 2-5 with 2BB and 4RBI in game one blowout, 5-6 (!!) with 3R, 6RBI and a HR in the 12th inning in game two to win it. Talk about a performance.
Vance Honeycutt, CF, North Carolina: What a super regional for Honeycutt. 2-5 with 2R, 2RBI and the walk-off game winning HR in game one, then a leadoff HR
Christian Moore, 2B, Tennessee: 1-3 with 2R, 2RBI and a HR in game one. 0-4 with 2BB in game 2.
Billy Amick, 3B, Tennessee: 3-4 with 3R and a solo HR in game one. 1-5 with a R in game 2.
Kaeleen Culpepper, SS, Kansas State: 1-4 with a 2RBI double in game one. 1-3 with a Sac fly in game two. Couldn’t do much to help.
Top half: Tennessee should get by FSU in the opener, while UNC-UVA seems like a coin-flip to open (UVA took 2 of 3 against UNC in regular season play, but it was on home turf). I’m a little worried about Tennessee’s struggles to get by Evansville, but UVA doesn’t scare me. I think Tennessee wins the upper half.
Bottom Half: TAMU lost 2 of 3 at Florida in the regular season and I sense Florida has a chip on their shoulder this entire post-season. NC State also seems like a destiny team, so i can see those two advancing early, with Florida surprising and coming out of the bottom-half.
(see the CWS field analysis post for top 25 ranks and what not; this is more about tournament tracking)
Quick Regional Recaps of the 16 regional action, ordered by National Seed super Regional matchup. that means, the pairs of regionals being reviewed (#1 Tennessee regional and #16 East Carolina regional) will determine that Super Regional. The eventual winning team is bolded.
#1 Tennessee Regional Recap: top overall seed Tennessee won their first two games without much fan fare to move to Sunday’s regional final. They cruised to the regional win by crushing Southern Miss in the regional final.
#16 East Carolina Regional Recap: this regional didn’t go anywhere close to the way people expected, with both top seeds ECU and Wake Forest losing to unheralded teams to open. This left us with Yesevage vs Burns in a loser’s bracket game unexpectedly, one where Yesevage outpitched his higher-ranked 2024 draft prospect to shockingly eliminate Wake Forest and its three-projected 1st round players 2-and-out. Meanwhile, #4 regional seed Evansville outslugged VCU to take control of the regional. ECU won twice on Sunday, including a 19-6 blitzing of Evansville to force the Monday winner-take-all game Monday, but Evansville held on to win 6-5 and move on as the rare 4th regional seed.
#8 Florida State Regional Recap: FSU held serve as expected, while Alabama shockingly went 2-and-out. In the final, Florida State won a winner’s bracket rematch against state-rival UCF to move on. They’ll host a super regional next weekend as a top 8 seed.
#9 Oklahoma Regional Recap: Host Oklahoma was shocked by #3 seed UConn and had to drop to the loser’s bracket, but they came back out and topped UConn late Sunday to force the Monday game. In that final, UConn showed up and Okla did not, winning 7-1 for the big upset.
#5 Arkansas Regional Recap: Arkansas was edged by unheralded Kansas State in the winner’s bracket, then went out meekly to Southwest Missouri State to become the first top=8 seed to lose. Kansas State took control and advanced to the Super Regionals without losing a game.
#12: Virginia Regional Recap: Virginia ground out close wins to advance to the winner’s bracket final, then dominated #2 regional seed Mississippi State to become the first team to advance to the super Regionals. They’ll have a great shot at hosting there too, thanks to Arkansas’ upset.
#13 Arizona Regional Recap: Host Arizona unsurprisingly went 2-and-out as the least-deserving host as West Virginia (led by 1-1 draft candidate Wetherholt) cruised into the regional final. West Virginia wasn’t really threatened the whole weekend and dumped Grand Canyon in the final to move on.
#4 North Carolina Regional Recap: UNC controlled red-hot LSU to get to the regional final, but the defending CWS champs would not go quietly, winning Sunday night to force the winner-take-all Monday game. In the final, in just an amazing game, UNC tied it in the 9th and won it in the 10th to oust LSU.
And, the eventual CWS Bottom Half:
#3 Texas A&M Regional Recap: TAMU edged its long-time rival Texas to take control of the regional, then completed a clean sweep of all three teams in the regional by finishing off Louisiana to advance.
#14 UC Santa Barbara Regional Recap: Oregon got a win over host UCSB to take control of the regional, then blanked them again to upset the Big West champs and move on.
#11 Oklahoma State Regional Recap: OSU bashed its way to the regional final, shutting down Florida 7-1 in the winner’s bracket. However, Florida came roaring back out of the loser’s bracket, toped OSU to force Monday winner-take-all. In that game, Florida, who many criticized for even being in the tourney, controlled a tight game and topped the hosts to move on.
#6 Clemson Regional Recap: The hosts edged Coastal Carolina in the winner’s bracket final to take control early. CCU, who had helped the shocking Vanderbilt team go 2-and-out in the post season at the hands of #4 seed High Point, fought back to the regional final but Clemson controlled them again to advance.
#7 Georgia Regional Recap: Host Georgia beat Army and then UNCW to take control of the regional. Georgia Tech had other things in mind though, beating UNCW to force an all-Georgia rivalry game for the super regional spot. The two teams went extras late Sunday Night but Georgia came out on top to advance to a super regional in Athens next weekend.
#10 NC State Regional Recap: South Carolina pulled a victory from the hands of defeat against JMU in the opener, but dropped the winner’s bracket win to host NCSU. JMU got its revenge and topped South Carolina to make the regional final, but dropped it 5-3 to the hosts. NC State moves on.
#15 Oregon State Regional Recap: Host OSU topped the Anteaters of UC Irvine in the winner’s bracket, and then were leading 6-4 in the 4th against the same team for the regional final when the rain came to push the final a day. On Monday when the game resumed, Oregon State pulled away from Irvine to move on.
#2 Kentucky Regional Recap: Kentucky won its first two games easily to move into the regional final. They finished off a neat sweep of its regional rivals and advanced to the super regionals.
Thus, your Super Regionals are ...
#1 Tennessee vs Evansville
#8 Florida State vs UConn
Kansas State vs #12 Virginia
#4 UNC vs West Virginia
#3 Texas A&M vs Oregon
#6 Clemson v Florida
#7 Georgia v #10 NC State
#2 Kentucky v #15 Oregon State
Stats/Observations of the 16 regionals.
10 out of 16: Seeds/Hosts to advance, 7 of the top 8. So a rather Chalky weekend. The upsets weren’t terribly surprising: Arizona losing as the worst host was no shock, Florida moving on not a huge surprise either.
4 regionals went to Monday extra game: ECU, Oklahoma, UNC, OSU,
Conference Breakdown of the 16 advancers: 5 from SEC (TN, TAMU, UGA, KY, Fla), 5 from ACC (FSU, UNC, Clemson, UVA, NC State), 2 from Big12 (KSU, WVA), 2 From Pac12 (Oregon and Oregon State), and 2 from elsewhere (Evansville, UConn). About what we’d expect.
Ten #1 seeds, Zero #2 seeds, Five #3 seeds (West Virginia, Kansas State, UConn, Oregon, Florida) and one #4 seed (Evansville) advance. That’s pretty amazing, but then again all these #3 seeds from major conferences were not exactly your typical 3-seeds.
Performance of 1st Round projected players in the Regionals:
Here’s a quick run through just the 1st round projected players who were active, using primarily MLBPipeline’s draft rankings for candidates. They’re listed in rough order of the way they’ll likely go in the 1st round in July.
Charlie Condon: 3B/OF, University of Georgia: Batting 2nd and playing 3B this weekend he went 3-3 with a double and a homer and 2 walks in the opener, 0-4 against UNCW in game 2, then 2-3 with 3 walks in game 3. That’s an OBP of 10-16 for the weekend.
Travis Bazzana, 2B, Oregon State: from Leadoff spot, he went 2-3 with 2 walks, a solo HR, and 3 runs in game one. 1-4 but with a 2-run HR in game two, 1-4 with a walk in game 3. Not a bad weekend. Power and OBP.
Jac Caglianone, 1B/LHP Florida: On the mound he threw the opener: 5ip 4ER. At the plate hitting out of the #2 hole he went 1-4 with a HR in the opener, 2-4 with 2 walks, a 2b and another HR in game two, 0-4 in game three with a walk and a run, then 2-3 with a walk and a double in the decider. Not a bad series at the plate.
Nick Kurtz, 1B Wake Forest: 0-3 with 2Ks in the opener, 1-4 with 2RBIs in the second game. Very little impact as his team shockingly went 2-and-out.
Braden Montgomery, OF, Texas A&M: Hitting 3rd and 4th and playing RF, Montgomery went 3-5 in game one, 1-4 in game 2, then 2-6 with a homer and 4RBI in the decider to earn regional MVP.
Hagen Smith, LHP starter, Arkansas: gave up 6 ER in 5 innings in a loss to Kansas State, then watched as his team was exited from the tournament despite being the #5 overall seed.
Chase Burns, RHP starter, Wake Forest: Labored through 5 innings (96 pitches) and gave up 4 runs in a no-decision in a highly anticipated matchup with Yesevage.
J.J. Wetherholt, 2B/SS, West Virginia: leading off and playing SS, in game 1 he went 0-2 with a walk and HBP, 0-4 in game 2, 3-6 in game 3. So, not a great regional.
Trey Yesevage, RHP, East Carolina: outpitched fellow 1st rounder Burns in the surprise loser’s bracket meeting between WF and ECU: 7 1/3 innings pitched, 1 hit, 1 run. 6/4 K/BB, 112 pitches. He may have made himself some cash on the weekend, and he’ll get another look next weekend as his team advanced to the Super Regionals.
Seaver King 3B/OF Wake Forest: 0-4 in the opener, 1-5 in the second game with a run. Not much.
Cam Smith, 3B, Florida State: 0-5 in the opener, 3-4 with a HR in game two, 1-2 with another HR in game 3 batting out of the #2 spot. Showed some power for sure.
Tommy White, 3B, LSU: Hitting either #1 or #2: 0-4 in the opener, 2-5 in game 2, 2-5 in game 3, 1-5 in game four, 1-5 in game five. Not a great series.
James Tibbs, OF, Florida State: 0-1 with 4BBs in the opener, 0-4 in game two, 0-4 with a walk in Game 3 batting #3 behind Smith. Not a great weekend for Tibbs, but he’ll get another shot next weekend.
Carson Benge, OF/RHP, Oklahoma State; as #2 hitter: 1-5 in game1, 2-4 with a HR in game2, 0-4 with three Ks in game3, 1-4 in the decider. He also got the start in game 3 (I didn’t know he was a 2-way player): giving up 5er in 5 innings against Florida.
Vance Honeycutt, CF, North Carolina: as leadoff hitter, 0-4 in opener, then 2-4 with HR and 4RBIs in 2nd, 0-5 with 3Ks in game3, 1-4 in the decider. Not very good.
Christian Moore, 2B, Tennessee: 2-5 in opener, 2-4 with 2 Walks in game 2, 0-4 in game 3 but with 2 walks. Batted Leadoff and was all over the base-paths all weekend.
Billy Amick, 3B, Tennessee: 1-3 but with a 3-run HR in the opener, 1-3 with another big HR in game two, 0-5 in game 3. Showed power as the #3 hitter in the lineup.
Dakota Jordan, OF, Mississippi State: hit a 3-run homer in the opener that essentially won the game for his team but also had a sombrero of Ks. Went 2-5 against UVA in a losing effort. Went 5-5 against St. Johns in the elimination game. Lastly went 2-4 and drove in his team’s only two runs in a 9-2 loss that eliminated them. Weekend line: 10-19 and playing a massive part in his team’s success.
Jurrangelo Cijntje, Switch-Pitcher, Mississippi State: had a decent start against UVA in the winner’s bracket final, going 7 and giving up 4 to keep his team in the game. Not a bad effort.
Kaeleen Culpepper, SS, Kansas State: 4-5 with 4R, 4RBI in the opener, 1-4 but with the decisive 3-run HR against Hagen Smith to seal his team’s win against Arkansas, then a 2-3 day with 2 walks in the regional final. 7-12 for the weekend with 5R, 7RBI batting third for his Super Regional team.
Jonathan Stantucci, LHP, Duke: has been on the DL for a month and made the Saturday start, but only went 2 innings. He sustained a rib injury in May.
So, Condon, Bazzana, Caglianone, Montgomery, Yesevage, Moore, Jordan, Culpepper impressed, while Kurtz, HSmith, Burns, King, Wetherholt, Amick, Honeycutt, Benge, and Tommy Tanks White probably cost themselves.
Super Regional predictions: Here’s what i think happens when these heavyweights meetup next weekend:
#1 Tennessee over Evansville. #1 overall team versus a 4-seed just happy to be there spells quick doom.
#8 Florida State vs UConn: UConn beat Duke handily and then Oklahoma twice, but never had to face the ace of either team by virtue of the way the regional worked out. FSU has better pitching.
Kansas State vs #12 Virginia: UVA likely gets the hosting duties here, which gives them a huge leg up and they move on.
#4 UNC vs West Virginia. Tough one to call. UNC looked a little vulnerable, but WVU wasn’t exactly challenged in this regional despite being a 3-seed. UNC to move on.
#3 Texas A&M vs Oregon: TAMU overpowers Pac12 opposition.
#6 Clemson v Florida: Florida has the #1 SoS in the country and gets the upset here.
#7 Georgia v #10 NC State; I like NC State’s chances.
#2 Kentucky v #15 Oregon State: Kentucky all the way .
Its College Baseball post-season time, something we’ve followed in this space for years. Here’s a quick guide to the CWS 2024 post season. The field of 64 was announced on Memorial Day Weekend at Noon, so here’s a preview of this coming weekend’s 16 regional events.
WarrenNolan’s RPI rankings are a very important part of the seeding and selection process, as we’ll discuss in a bit.
Ahead of the full field, they announced the 16 host sites, which left some very solid teams (Indiana State, Mississippi State, Duke, Dallas Baptist) as non-hosts and thus will be #2 seeds to watch out for.
Your top 8 seeds and favorites to make Omaha, in order, along with their RPI and their Strength of Schedule (SoS) denoted:
Tennessee: #1 RPI, #23 SoS
Kentucky: #3 RPI, #6 SoS
Texas A&M: #2 RPI, #13 SoS
North Carolina: #4 RPI, #15 SoS
Arkansas: #5 RPI, #11 SoS
Clemson: #7 RPI, #18 SoS
Georgia: #6 RPI, #9 SoS
Florida State: #8 RPI, #26 SoS
The top 8 seeds also are the top 8 RPI ranked teams, in nearly identical order to their RPI ranking, in case you were wondering how important RPI is to seeding in College Baseball. The top 8 national seeds are entirely from two conferences: SEC and ACC, showing the dominance of those divisions (something we’ll see more of in the regions).
The rest of the Regional Hosts/Top 16 teams are as follows:
#9 Oklahoma: #14 RPI, #10 SoS
#10 NC State: #15 RPI, #3 SoS
#11 Oklahoma State: #11 RPI, #28 SoS
#12: Virginia: #12 RPI, #27 SoS
#13 Arizona: #31 RPI, #31 SoS
#14 UC Santa Barbara: #13 RPI, #100 SoS
#15 Oregon State: #18 RPI, #78 SoS
#16 East Carolina: #22 RPI, #71 SoS
There’s definitely a couple of outliers here, especially #31 RPI Arizona, who won the Pac12’s final title but doesn’t seem to deserve a top 16 spot at the expense of other teams. The 9th ranked RPI team is Wake Forest; I don’t think anyone wants to see Wake Forest in this tournament and they’re not even a seed.
Local DC/MD/VA local teams in the tourney:
UVA: #12 overall seed, has to deal with Mississippi State in their region but at least they host.
VCU: a 3-seed in the ECU regional, which also includes Wake Forest. Tough.
ECU: #16 national seed but stuck with Wake and may be in trouble.
West Virginia is the 3-seed in Arizona’s regional that includes Dallas Baptist. Also tough.
JMU, my alma mater, sneaks in as a 3-seed in the NC State regional. They were definitely a bubble team, and there’s probably 3-4 other teams that merited this spot (TCU, Cincinnati, etc). But, we benefitted this year.
It’s definitely kind of a down year for area teams. Maryland is usually solid but was on the bubble after faltering in their conference tourney. Liberty had a down year, going just 24-34 in CUSA. Virginia Tech went around .500 in ACC play but went 2-and-out in ACC tourney play; one win there and maybe they’re in. ODU was #71 in RPI but really needed to win the Sun Belt to get in. Same with Coastal.
Quick Regional Thoughts
Here’s one sentence or so on each regional.
Tennessee: should cruise through, straight forward regional.
Kentucky: Gets #10 RPI Indiana State, who had a strong case for hosting. No favors here for Kentucky.
Texas A&M: Gets a grudge match against U-Texas as well as a very solid Louisiana team; tough regional, though LA-TX opener burns each team’s ace.
North Carolina: they get last year’s champ LSU, which had an obviously down year but is still no slouch and UNC is close enough to have their fans drive.
Arkansas: Might have the easiest regional of all, at one of the hardest places to play.
Clemson: Of course they get Vanderbilt, plus Coastal. Vandy down this year though so Clemson should move on.
Georgia: Fun possible rivalry game against Ga Tech brewing, but don’t sleep on UNC-Wilmington.
Florida State: A couple of tougher teams in this regional, including the SEC tourney host Alabama.
Oklahoma: Oof, I wouldn’t want to see Duke in my regional. Upset watch here.
NC State: will have to contend with battle-tested South Carolina.
Oklahoma State: They won’t be scared of #2 seed Nebraska, but will be scared of perhaps Florida, who sneaks into the tourney.
Virginia: it all comes down to the under rated Mississippi State in this bracket; upset watch here.
Arizona: If i’m Dallas Baptist, I’m happy as heck here, getting easily the weakest host. DBU is ranked #17 in RPI, more than a dozen slots higher than AZ. It’ll be an upset if DBU loses this one. They also have to deal with WVU for a balanced regional.
UC Santa Barbara: they get an all-west coast group in a down year for West Coast teams, but this division does have the champs of three West Coast conferences all together: The Big West, The WCC, and Mountain West.
Oregon State: As Pac12 runner up, gets Big West runner up UC Irvine. Too close to call.
East Carolina: for their troubles they get Wake Forest and likely 1st rounder Burns in the Saturday winner’s bracket final, but if they save fellow 1st rounder Yesavage we have an early contender for game of the weekend.
Prospect Watch. Nearly every guy projected to go in the first round is playing post season, so this list kinda looks like the projected top 10. We’ll go region by region:
#1 Tennessee: mid 1st round projecting 3B Billy Amick plus a handful of solid 2nd/3rd round hitters
#2 Kentucky has just one top 3-4 round prospect on its team: RHP Travis Smith
#3 TAMU is led by top-5 pick Braden Montgomery. But they have a ton of named picks, as does UT Austin.
#4 UNC is led by Vance Honeycutt, likely 1st rounder who was projected higher earlier in the cycle. LSU is led by Tommy White (aka Tommy Tanks), but has a couple other boppers who should go 1st/2nd rounds.
#5 Arkansas’ top starter is Hagen Smith, who should go top 8 picks.
#6 Clemson’s only top prospect is LHP Tristan Smith. Vandy has a couple of pitchers to watch for in Bryce Cunningham and Carter Holton.
#7 Georgia is led by consensus 1-1 Charlie Condon.
#8 Florida State has a couple of hitters who project end of 1st in Cam Smith & James Tibbs
#9 Oklahoma doesn’t have much in prospect power, while Duke has a 2nd rounder LHP in Jonathan Santucci.
#10 NC State and South Carolina don’t have much in the way of 1st round projections right now.
#11 OK State has a potential late 1st rounder in Carson Benge. Florida is led by top-5 pick Jac Caglianone.
#12 UVA’s top rated star is SS Griff O’Farrell. MSU has a solid 1st round projected hitter in Dakota Jordan.
#13 AZ and DBU don’t have much in the way of star power, but their region’s #3 seed West Virginia team is led by likely top 8 pick JJ Weatherholt.
#14: UC Santa Barbara regional has some lesser known talents but no 1st rounders.
#15 Oregon State is of course led by possible 1-1 pick Travis Bazzanna
#16 ECU, as noted above, is led by top 10 pick RHP Trey Yesavage on the hill, and their regional foe Wake Forest is led by likely top 6 RHP Chase Burns. Wake also has likely top 5 pick Nick Kurtz and likely mid-1st rounder Seaver King for a star-studded lineup.
