Teams on homer binge will be challenged at Omaha

OMAHA, NEB. » Home runs — lots and lots of them — have defined the NCAA baseball tournament so far.

A total of 381 have been hit in 123 games, the highest total through super regionals since at least 2005.

History suggests it is unlikely homers will come at the same rate when the stage moves to TD Ameritrade Park for the College World Series beginning Saturday.

When the ballpark opened in 2011, it quickly earned a reputation for being the place where home runs go to die. While the number of CWS homers has increased since the NCAA went to the less air-resistant, flat-seam ball, teams that are most successful find gaps in the expansive outfield for extrabase hits and advancing runners. And, of course, strong pitching and defense help.

After watching Tennessee and LSU combine for 10 home runs in the game’s first 17 hits in a super regional loss to the Volunteers on Sunday, retiring Tigers coach Paul Mainieri said of the CWS: “There might not be 10 home runs hit the entire tournament up there.”

Home runs have been up all season. The rate of 0.87 per team per game through May 30 already was on track to be the highest since 2010. That figure is 1.55 in tournament games.

Teams combined for five or more homers in 33 regional and super regional games, according to Associated Press research. The high was 11 in a Mississippi-Southern Mississippi regional game.

There were 38 instances of a player hitting multiple homers in a game, and there were 13 grand slams.

No team enters the CWS on a bigger home run surge than Tennessee, which hit 16 in five tournament games. The Volunteers have homered at least once in 26 of their past 30 games, including 15 with multiple homers and seven with at least four.

How will that homerheavy offense carry over to Omaha?

“The easy answer would be as much as they’ve leaned on the home run down the stretch, it has potential for them to not be nearly as effective because it’s so much more difficult to get the ball out of TD Ameritrade than most ballparks,” said ESPN analyst Chris Burke, a threetime All-American for Tennessee from 1999-2001.

“However, I do think the ball is carrying much better this year ...”

TD Ameritrade’s dimensions are 335 feet down the lines, 375 to the alleys and 408 to center. The cavernous downtown stadium sits on low ground a few blocks from the Missouri River, and ball flight is suppressed because games this time of year typically are played in high humidity and batters often hit into a south wind.