Batter up! Things to know as NCAA baseball tournament enters super regionals

Hindustan Times

2 days ago

Super regionals are the next stop on the NCAA baseball tournament's Road to Omaha.
Four of the best-of-three series are Friday through Sunday: Miami at Louisville ; No. 9 national seed Florida State at No. 8 Oregon State ; Arizona at No. 5 North Carolina ; and No. 13 Coastal Carolina at No. 4 Auburn .
The four series Saturday through Monday: UTSA at No. 15 UCLA ; Murray State at Duke ; West Virginia at No. 6 LSU ; and No. 14 Tennessee at No. 3 Arkansas .
The eight winners advance to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, starting June 13.
The Southeastern Conference advanced only four of its record 13 tournament teams to super regionals. That ratio doesn't cut it when the metrics say you're the most powerful conference and you've produced the last five national champions, 10 of the last 15 and have had a team in 14 of the last 15 CWS finals.
The top two national seeds, Vanderbilt and Texas, are among the nine eliminated SEC teams. Since 2009, the SEC has failed to get fewer than half its qualifiers through regionals only four times but never fewer than a third until this year.
The Atlantic Coast Conference tied the record it set last year with five of its tournament teams making it through regionals. Miami-Louisville is the only all-ACC super regional, so the league is in position to send four teams to the CWS for a second straight year.
North Carolina is 13-3 since April 27 and has one of the best feel-good stories in ACC pitcher of the year Jake Knapp, who missed 2024 recovering from Tommy John surgery. Florida State, in supers for a record 19th time, has one of the top offensive players in .400 hitter Alex Lodise.
Duke has a 40-win season for the second straight year and third time overall, all under Chris Pollard. Miami is in its first super regional since 2016 after winning at Southern Mississippi as the No. 3 regional seed. Louisville lost six of seven games before going 3-0 in the Nashville Regional.
Defending national champion Tennessee will be playing in its fifth straight super regional, but this year has not been a smooth ride. The Volunteers are 26-17 since starting 20-0. Despite losing key pieces from the 60-win title team to the MLB draft, they remain one of the nation's most talented teams.
The super regionals will feature three left-handers who are projected as the Nos. 2, 3 and 4 picks in the Major League Baseball amateur draft, according to MLB.com's Jim Callis.
Tennessee's Liam Doyle leads the country with 158 strikeouts and pitched nine innings over two appearances in regionals with 16Ks. LSU's Kade Anderson has 156 strikeouts and is coming off seven shutout innings with 11 Ks against Dallas Baptist. Florida State's Jamie Arnold struck out 13 in seven innings against Mississippi State.
Arkansas is the highest remaining national seed and its matchup with Tennessee is sure to draw the most eyes. The Razorbacks won two of three at home against Tennessee three weeks ago.
A national title is about all that's missing from the resume of 23rd-year coach Dave Van Horn. The Razorbacks have a nation-leading 379 wins since 2017 and were a dropped foul ball away from the 2018 championship. They'll be playing for an eighth CWS appearance under Van Horn, and this could be his last best chance to win the title if he makes it to Omaha.
While shaking hands with retiring Creighton coach Ed Servais after the regional final, the 64-year-old Van Horn told him, 'I'm not too far behind you.'
With apologies to UTSA, Murray State earned the lovable underdog label by joining 2023 Oral Roberts and 2024 Evansville as No. 4 regional seeds to make supers.
Murray State beat No. 10 national seed Mississippi to become the 10th advancing No. 4 regional seed since 1999. Afterward, the Racers tweaked the SEC about the league's 'It Just Means More' slogan, posting on X, 'It Just Meant More.'
The Missouri Valley Conference's Racers scored 42 runs over four regional games and have won 27 of their last 32.
UTSA, like Murray State, is a team nobody wants to face right now. The Roadrunners earned their first NCAA bid since 2013 and beat the big-brother Longhorns on back-to-back days to make their first super regional. UTSA entered the season 6-26 all-time against the Longhorns but went 3-0 against them this season.
The hottest team in the nation is Coastal Carolina, which is in its first super regional since the 2016 Chanticleers won the championship under Gary Gilmore.
Kevin Schnall, an assistant on the title team, took over for Gilmore this year and has the Chants poised to make another run. They've won 21 straight, have the nation's best winning percentage and are built on pitching, defense and a versatile offense.
Auburn will be a major challenge. The Tigers held a 28-11 scoring margin while going 3-0 in their regional and will host a super regional for the first time under 10th-year coach Butch Thompson.
West Virginia's only super regional appearances have come in back-to-back years. The Mountaineers were swept at North Carolina in Randy Mazey's final season. Steve Sabins picked up where Mazey left off and led the Mountaineers to their first Big 12 regular-season title and a program-record 44 wins.
They regained their mojo in regionals, going 3-0 in two games against Kentucky and one against host Clemson. They had entered the tournament off losses in nine of their previous 13 games.
The legacy of the Pac-12 is alive and well with Oregon State, Arizona and UCLA in super regionals.
Oregon State is playing two seasons as a baseball independent while it waits for the Pac-12 to reactivate July 1, 2026. The Beavers notably played only 19 regular-season games at home because of scheduling difficulties. They would end up playing eight postseason games in Corvallis if their series with FSU goes three games.
Arizona, now in the Big 12, is in its first super regional since 2016. UCLA, now in the Big Ten, is in supers for the first time since 2019, when it got knocked out by Michigan as the No. 1 national seed.
Since the tournament went to its current format in 1999, the team hosting a super regional on its home field has won 69.5% of the time. That's 137 of 197 and does not include three series that were played at neutral sites.
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