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: Evansville (38-24) at No. 1 national seed Tennessee (53-11); UConn (35-24) at No. 8 Florida State (45-15); Kansas State (35-24) at No. 12 Virginia (44-15); and West Virginia (36-22) at No. 4 North Carolina (45-14).
The four series Saturday through Monday: No. 15 Oregon State (45-14) at No. 2 Kentucky (43-14); No. 10 North Carolina State (36-20) at No. 7 Georgia (42-15); Florida (32-28) at No. 6 Clemson (44-14); and Oregon (40-18) at No. 3 Texas A&M (47-13).
The eight winners advance to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, starting June 14.
ABOUT THOSE HOMERS
Home runs per game are on a record pace for the season, but long balls in the national tournament are down so far. There were 257 homers in 100 regional games this year; 299 were hit in 101 games in 2023.
Most of the remaining 16 teams pack a wallop, though. Nine have hit at least 100 homers, and only two have hit fewer than 85.
No. 1 national seed Tennessee has hit a school-record 159, the most since LSU had 188 in 1997. Charlie Condon of No. 7 Georgia leads the nation with 36, the most since Rice’s Lance Berkman had 41 in 1997, and five other players in the top 10 are in supers.
HOME-FIELD ADVANTAGE
Since the tournament went to its current format in 1999, the team hosting a super regional on its home field has won 69.3%. That’s 131 of 189 and does not include three series that were played at neutral sites.
WELCOME TO THE PARTY
Evansville and West Virginia are making their first appearances in super regionals, and both present wonderful storylines.
The Purples Aces, in their own state, play in the shadows of Big Ten programs Indiana and Purdue and Missouri Valley Conference powerhouse Indiana State. Since their previous NCAA appearance in 2006, they’ve won one MVC regular-season title (2014) and finished fourth or lower 14 of the other 17 years. This year’s conference tournament championship, which earned them the automatic NCAA bid, was their first since ‘06.
West Virginia hopes to send coach Randy Mazey into retirement with a trip to the CWS. The Mountaineers went two and out in the Big 12 Tournament before sweeping through regionals.
IT’S KIND OF DRAFTY
Ten players projected by MLB.com to be taken in the first round of the amateur draft are playing in supers.
Among them are the projected top four picks — Condon, the Georgia 3B, Oregon State 2B Travis Bazzana, Florida 1B-P Jac Caglianone and Texas A&M RF Braden Montgomery.