NCAA baseball Super Regionals; Louisville notches first win, Racers start today

Super regionals are underway on the NCAA baseball tournament’s Road to Omaha.

On Friday, North Carolina throttled Arizona 18-2; Louisville topped Miami 8-1; Oregon State edged Florida State 5-4; and Coastal Carolina upset Auburn 7-6.

Game 2 in their best-of-three series continue today: Miami (34-26) at Louisville (39-21); No. 9 national seed Florida State (41-15) at No. 8 Oregon State (46-13-1); Arizona (42-19) at No. 5 North Carolina (46-13); and No. 13 Coastal Carolina (52-11) at No. 4 Auburn (41-19).

The other four series open today: UTSA (47-13) at No. 15 UCLA (45-16); Murray State (42-14) at Duke (40-19); West Virginia (44-14) at No. 6 LSU (46-15); and No. 14 Tennessee (46-17) at No. 3 Arkansas (46-13).

The eight winners advance to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, starting June 13.

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.

The Southeastern Conference advanced only four of its record 13 tournament teams to super regionals. The top two national seeds, Vanderbilt and Texas, are among the nine eliminated SEC teams. 

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.

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.

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.

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. 


(Photo David Eaton/MSU Athletics)