Regionals will cut field from 64 teams to 16
The NCAA Division I baseball tournament opens Friday with play in 16 doubleelimination regionals.
The 16 regional winners advance to the best-of-three super regionals next week, and the final eight go to the College World Series — where a double-elimination bracket sets up a best-of-three championship series — which starts June 16 in Omaha, Nebraska.
Here are some things to know as the 64-team bracket begins the process of being whittled down to a champion.
WHO’S HOT
Oral Roberts (46-11) has won 18 straight games, the longest active streak in the country, and 36 of its past 39. The Golden Eagles won’t be an easy out as the No. 4 regional seed at Oklahoma State’s Stillwater Regional. They won both regular-season meetings with the host Cowboys including 8-5 in Stillwater in April. Dallas Baptist (45-14) and Washington (34-18) are also in Stillwater.
Atlantic Coast Conference tournament champion Clemson (43-17) has won 16 straight games for its longest streak since 2006, and 21 of its past 22. The Tigers’ regional includes Tennessee, which has just five wins in 19 games away from Knoxville this season.
WHO’S NOT
South Carolina (39-19) is a regional host despite losing 13 of 18 games since its 34-6 start. The Gamecocks were rewarded for eight early wins over top-50 RPI opponents and cut slack by the tournament selection committee for dealing with significant injuries to three infielders.
West Virginia (39-18) has dropped five games in a row, the longest losing streak entering the tournament among the 64 teams in the field. Duke (35-21) has fallen in four straight, while Indiana (41-18) has lost four of its past six and LSU (43-15) had dropped three of four.
DOMINANT DEACONS
Overall No. 1 seed Wake Forest (47-10) leads the nation in wins, ERA (2.82) and shutouts (nine) and is seventh in on-base percentage (.428), eighth in runs per game (8.9) and tied for ninth in home runs (110). Projected top-10 draft pick Rhett Lowder leads the nation in pitching wins (13), Sean Sullivan averages better than 14 strikeouts per nine innings, and the Demon Deacons have been boosted by a combined 50 home runs from Brock Wilken (27) and Nick Kurtz (23).
STILL WAITING
The No. 1 national seed has not won the championship since Miami in 1999, the first year of the current tournament format. East Carolina (45-17) has made 32 previous tourney appearances and never reached the College World Series, the longest streak of its kind, but the Pirates are in the field for the seventh time in coach Cliff Godwin’s eight seasons. Clemson has never won a national championship — or even finished as runner-up — in 44 previous NCAA berths.
BEEN A WHILE
There are no teams making tournament debuts for the first since 2001, but three are in for the first time in the 21st century: Penn (first appearance since 1995), Santa Clara (1997) and Nicholls (1998).
FOUR-WAY FIGHT
The Fayetteville Regional hosted by No. 3 national seed Arkansas gets a slight edge over the Stillwater Regional as the toughest foursome. The Razorbacks (41-16) are grouped with Arizona (33-24), Santa Clara (35-18) and TCU (37-22), all of which are on impressive rolls. Arizona knocked off Pac-12 regular-season champion Stanford 14-7 in the conference tournament and has won seven of its past nine games, with Chase Davis and Kiko Romero combining for eight homers and 40 RBIs during the hot stretch. Santa Clara has outscored opponents 85-26 during its current eightgame winning streak. TCU beat Arkansas 18-6 at a neutral site on the season’s opening weekend and scored 48 runs while sweeping four games in the Big 12 tournament.
HE DOES IT ALL
Florida’s Jac Caglianone, the front-runner for the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award, is listed as the No. 11 prospect for Major League Baseball’s 2024 amateur draft. He’s batting .349 with a program-record 28 homers to go with 65 runs and 76 RBIs. As a pitcher, the left-hander has been the Gators’ No. 3 starter all season and is 6-3 with a 4.14 ERA and 74 strikeouts in 63 innings.
LONE CARDINAL
The only regional on the West Coast is at Stanford (38-16), the only program to have hosted in six straight tournaments. The Cardinal are coming off a second straight Pac-12 regular-season title and going for a third consecutive trip to the CWS.
UNDER THE RADAR
Iowa (42-14) finished third in the Big Ten, the weakest of the Power Five conferences this year, and was runner-up to Maryland in the conference tournament. But the Hawkeyes, No. 32 in the RPI, are capable of winning a Terre Haute Regional that includes host Indiana State (42-15), North Carolina (35-22) and Wright State (39-21). Iowa has a top-15 pitching staff, strong defense and an offense averaging better than eight runs per game, and the Hawkeyes have wins this season over Indiana State and LSU, another regional host.
RIDE THE WAVE
As strong as Tulane’s baseball history is, this wasn’t supposed to be a year the Green Wave made the tournament. At 19-40, they have the most losses of any participant in history. The Green Wave were 15-39 in the regular season, but they earned the American Athletic Conference’s automatic bid after becoming the lowest seed (No. 7) to win the league tournament.