��ݮ��վ���߿�

Editor's note: The following .

The 2025 ��ݮ��վ���߿� baseball super regionals begin June 6 and run through June 9. Below you will find previews for each super regional, from . This article will continue to be updated with more super regional previews.

Auburn Super Regional preview: No. 4 Auburn vs. No. 13 Coastal Carolina

1. Coastal can't lose

In case you haven’t been following the Sun Belt regular season and tournament champions, Coastal Carolina has won 21 straight games. It’s hard to win that many games against the Etheridge-era third-grade Sweet Water Little League Pirates, much less Sun Belt and regional competition. That streak extends through three regional wins (over East Carolina twice and Fairfield), four Sun Belt Tournament wins (highlighted by a title victory versus Southern Miss), SBC series sweeps over Old Dominion, ULM, Appalachian State, and James Madison, and a midweek win over Clemson. The last loss came at College of Charleston 4-2, on April 22. Friday will be June 6, meaning this team hasn’t lost in six weeks.

2. Irish leads potent attack

Ike Irish leads Auburn in batting, in homers, and is one back in RBIs despite missing six games with a fractured scapula when an errant pitch hit him. The junior (.362/.464/.700) has slugged 18 homers and 57 RBIs this season while adding 12 doubles, two triples, and is 11-for-12 in stolen base attempts. He has split time between catcher, right field, and left field this season, adjusting not only to the injury but to the player availability around him. He has a solid 14.5 K% for a slugger and has drawn 30 walks and 10 hit-by-pitches compared to 36 strikeouts. Our scouting director, David Seifert, is reminded of a player with a similar draft profile at the same age: Kyle Schwarber. Irish is likely to be selected within the top half of the first round.

He’s joined in the lineup by senior first baseman Cooper McMurray (.329/.434/.596), who has 14 homers, 18 doubles, and 58 RBIs. Then there’s a key trio of freshmen who have not looked like first-year players this season. Chris Rembert (.347/.470/.564) has 10 homers and 45 RBIs, splitting time between second base and left field. Catcher Chase Fralick (.340/.433/.478) has been too good to sit and forced his way into the lineup with four homers and 40 RBIs. Outfielder Bub Terrell (.309/.380/.474) is another budding star with five homers and 41 RBIs. Also, keep an eye on third baseman Erik Guevera (.325/.384/.553) with five homers and 29 RBIs in 33 starts, but he was injured this weekend, putting his availability in question.

“We need to travel as a pack if we have any chance,” Thompson said. At this point, Auburn has a pack of hitters that can cause problems for opponents.

Auburn’s rotation is led by senior righthander Samuel Dutton (7-3, 3.84), who has 92 strikeouts and 19 walks in 82 innings. Sophomore Lefty Cam Tilly (3-3, 5.48), freshman righties Christian Chatterton (4-1, 4.47) and freshman Andreas Alvarez (3-1, 5.27) are other starting options. Look for lefty Carson Myers (3-2, 2.90, 3 svs, 49.2 IP), lefty Cade Fisher (1-2, 4.76, 2 svs, 39.2 IP), and Ryan Hetzler (2-0, 3.71, 8 svs, 34 IP) to have extended relief outings along with Parker Carlson (3-1, 4.00, 1 svs, 27 IP) and Dylan Watts (2-1, 7.39, 2 svs, 28 IP).

➡️&�Բ�����;

Baton Rouge Super Regional preview: No. 6 LSU vs. West Virginia

1. Can LSU restore order after avoiding calamity in regionals?

The Tigers are College Baseball Royalty, and, yes, that deserves capital letters. They have won seven MCWS titles, more than any school in this year’s final 16.

Yet, Mighty LSU got beat Sunday — at home no less — by the lowest-ranked RPI team in the field 64, Little Rock, 10-4. Then, on Monday, the Tigers trailed 5-1 after three innings before rallying to win 10-6.

Indeed, there was no parade for LSU following their 27th regional championship. Just a sigh of relief.

Meanwhile, over at Little Rock, there was a watch party for about 200 Trojans fans at Waldo’s Chicken and Beer on Monday night. And on Tuesday, Little Rock fans crammed into the Trojans’ gym to salute the baseball team.

In other words, the Tigers should be highly motivated to restore what they believe to be the natural order of college baseball this weekend. Last weekend provided a scare, but ultimately LSU is still standing, and might be better off for having faced that unexpected test and passing it.

2. From Those Country Roads

For the first time since the 1960s, West Virginia has made the ��ݮ��վ���߿� tournament three straight years.

The Mountaineers have never made it to the Men's College World Series, but they are 124-58 over the past three years.

In addition, they won a Big 12 regular-season title and an ��ݮ��վ���߿� regional in 2024, and they have repeated that feat this year … and they are still looking for more accomplishments.

“I think it’d be fair to say that we’ve been a top 16 program in the country for the last two years, at least. We built something really, really special in Morgantown, West Virginia,” first-year WVU head coach Steve Sabins said after winning the regional. “We’ve had 12 big leaguers in the last 10 years, we won an outright title in the Big 12, and we’ve won two Big 12 titles in the last three years.”

“To say that our program is the upper echelon and the best of the best in the country when it comes to Division I baseball would not be an understatement, I think that was proven this weekend.”

Had Little Rock pulled off the giant upset on Monday, West Virginia would have hosted a super regional for the first time in program history (last year, the Mountaineers fell on the road in Chapel Hill).

Instead, it will be interesting to see how many WVU fans can get tickets to Alex Box Stadium this weekend.

Corvallis Super Regional preview: No. 8 Oregon State vs. No. 9 Florida State

1. Marquee pitching matchups

Statistically, these have been two of the best weekend rotations in the country this season. By ERA in weekend series, Florida State and Oregon State finished 13th (3.83) and 15th (3.87) in the country, respectively. Even with the talented offenses that both teams have, this series will likely be dictated by which team gets better outings of their respective workhorses. That was on display over the past weekend. 

While Seminoles’ starter Joey Volini was held to three innings due to a rain delay, Jamie Arnold and Wes Mendes combined for 15 innings of five-run ball against Mississippi State with 22 strikeouts. Likewise, in Corvallis, the Beavers had a shaky first start from Eric Segura before Dax Whitney and Ethan Kleinschmit spun gems — a combined 13 2/3 innings with just four runs allowed — to make coming out of the loser’s bracket that much easier. Oregon State also showed its depth with strong starts from Wyatt Queen and James DeCremer against USC.

How these rotations match up will be fascinating. While Florida State has stuck with its trio the duration of the year, Oregon State slid Nelson Keljo into the bullpen to make room for Segura down the stretch. Over the last month (and three starts), Whitney has allowed just three earned runs across 17-plus innings with a 29-6 K-BB while Kleinschmit sits at four in 18-plus with a 20-9 K-BB mark. Florida State’s numbers are similarly strong, whether it’s Arnold’s 37 strikeouts to seven walks over 23 innings (four starts) or Mendes’ 3.70 ERA over 24-plus innings. One area to keep an eye on is what do both teams get out of Segura and Volini? Segura’s outing against Saint Mary’s was his third allowing three-plus runs in his last four appearances, while Volini seems to have righted the ship at the ACC tournament after some fatigue down the stretch.

2. Formidable sluggers

If you had to circle two names on the respective lineup cards to keep an eye on, it’d be a pair of heavy hitters in the heart of the lineups. In regionals, Oregon State’s Trent Caraway (2.137) and Florida State’s Myles Bailey (2.067) ranked fifth and sixth by OPS among hitters throughout the country. There are plenty of other hitters throughout these rosters that pack a punch, but I’ll highlight the corner infielders that hit five and two home runs apiece.

Caraway, a sophomore who was limited to 18 games in his first year in Corvallis due to a broken finger, came into the year with lofty expectations after nine extra-base hits and an .811 OPS in 28 games on the Cape. Through mid-March, he was hitting .364 for the Beavers, but cooled off quickly. He hit .186 (26-for-140) over a 37-game stretch entering the final weekend of the regular season against Long Beach State. The middle game of that series provided a glimpse of his upside, going 3-for-5 with a double, home run, and four RBIs. That production has more than carried over to the postseason as he went 9-for-17 with five home runs, 10 RBIs, and more walks (7) than strikeouts (5) in the five games at home. He’d fallen as low as ninth in the order but climbed to fifth over the course of the weekend.

Bailey, on the other hand, has been a steady contributor in the heart of the Seminoles’ order throughout his freshman campaign. While his 31 percent strikeout rate on the year fits the perception of a swing-happy slugger, the 6-foot-4, 257-pound first baseman has dramatically reduced his swing-and-miss over the last few weeks. Since the first game of the North Carolina series — the final set in the regular season — Bailey is 13-for-27 (.481) with 10 walks to just three strikeouts. That’s been against elite arms, including four games against the Tar Heels, and he hasn’t sacrificed power. He’s hit six home runs, including a stretch of five straight games, and provided 17 RBIs over that span. What these two sluggers do for an encore will be fascinating.

Durham Super Regional preview: Duke vs. Murray State

1. History will be made.

No matter who advances to the Men's College World Series out of this super regional, history will be made. Duke hasn’t made it to Omaha in what could fairly be referred to as the modern era of college baseball — its late MCWS appearance came in 1961 — while Murray State has never been there. The Racers are relative neophytes to the postseason, with only four ��ݮ��վ���߿� tournaments in their history, whereas Duke has knocked on the door of the MCWS three different times: in 2018, 2019 and 2023. In all three instances, the Blue Devils won a game in their super regional but were unable to win the clincher. But this will be the first super regional they have played at home, and certainly on paper, the matchup is more favorable compared to previous series with Texas Tech, Vanderbilt and Virginia, all MCWS regulars at the time in which Duke played them.

2. Murray State’s potent lineup.

Murray State winning the Oxford Regional, a run that included two wins against top-seeded Ole Miss, might come off as a fluky result, but there was nothing fluky about the way the Racers swung the bats over the weekend. They scored at least eight runs in all four games in Oxford, including 12 in the regional clincher. The stats also speak for themselves. The Racers are batting .306/.421/.504 as a team, and their top hitter, Dustin Mercer (.351/.432/.490) won Oxford Regional MVP honors thanks in large part to his seven doubles ove the course of the weekend. Duke has a strong pitching staff, with its 4.83 team ERA good for fourth in the ACC and it gave up 10 total runs in three games in the Athens Regional, but Ole Miss has a similarly strong 4.65 ERA and it had all kinds of trouble slowing Murray State down. If the Racers can be that prolific this weekend, they’ll have a chance to pull off another upset.

Fayetteville Super Regional preview: No. 3 Arkansas vs. No. 14 Tennessee

1. Clash of the SEC Titans.

Super regional matchups don’t get any bigger than Tennessee visiting Arkansas, as you know, this series will offer so much more than just the matchup on paper. I’ll dive into some of the juicier storylines that will permeate throughout each game below, but let’s start with the overall success these two programs have enjoyed in recent years.

First and foremost, you have the defending national champion, the Tennessee Volunteers. Tennessee has reached the super regional round each of the last five seasons and has advanced to the Men's College World Series in three of the last four years. Aside from Tony Vitello’s first year with the program in 2018, Tennessee has quickly become a postseason staple, going 341-129 (.726 winning percentage) in eight seasons with a pair of 50-win seasons and last year’s remarkable 60-13, dogpile-in-Omaha finish.

Arkansas hasn’t missed the postseason since 2016, and before that, it was 2001, which happened while head coach Dave Van Horn was still at Nebraska. The Razorbacks’ success has been well documented with seven Men's College World Series appearances during Van Horn’s stead, the most recent of which occurred in 2022. They are still searching for their first national championship, however.

As for the 2025 season, Arkansas (46-13) and Tennessee (46-17) finished with very similar records, although the Razorbacks were four games better in SEC play (20-10, good for second place) than Tennessee (16-14).

2. Marquee Mound Matchups.

When it comes to overall talent, these two teams are loaded, and it’s the pitching that ultimately separates them from everyone else and gives both teams the potential to capture this year’s MCWS championship. Tennessee’s 3.93 cumulative staff ERA is just points ahead of Arkansas’ 3.95, with both ranked among the nation’s top 13 teams, statistically speaking.

It starts with Liam Doyle, Tennessee’s lively lefty who was named the SEC Pitcher of the Year. He was also named the Knoxville Regional’s Most Outstanding Player, picking up a win in Tennessee’s first game against Miami (OH) and recording the save in the regional-clinching victory against Wake Forest with 2 1/3 flawless frames. Thanks to a mid- to upper-90s fastball, Doyle is expected to be selected among the top 10 picks in this year’s draft.

Should the rotations hold, Arkansas will likely counter with fellow lefthander Zach Root in the super regional opener, a transfer from East Carolina who has gone 7-5, 3.78 in 16 starts so far this year. While his stuff isn’t quite on the same level as Doyle’s, it’s not too far behind.

Both teams are loaded with depth and velocity. Almost every mid-90s arm will be replaced with another on both teams. For Arkansas, keep an eye on Gage Wood, who missed two months of the regular season from late February to mid-April. Wood is an experienced arm Van Horn and the Arkansas staff trusts in big moments, mostly recently providing six innings in a win against Creighton to claim the Fayetteville Regional.

For Tennessee, the bullpen trio of Nate Snead, Brandon Arvidson, and Tanner Franklin is especially nasty.

Los Angeles Super Regional preview: No. 15 UCLA vs. UTSA

1. Classic David vs. Goliath — when it comes to history, at least

Who doesn’t love an ��ݮ��վ���߿� tournament showdown between two teams with completely different backgrounds and from two completely different geographic regions? This is a classic mid-major vs. Power Four showdown.

UTSA is in its second season in the American Athletic Conference, which has been around since 2013. UCLA is in its first year as a member of the Big Ten, a Power Four conference which has been around since 1896.

The Roadrunners have been coached by Patrick Hallmark since 2019, and he has 187 wins. The Bruins have been coached by John Savage for 20 seasons and he has 702 wins (and the 2013 national title) in that time. UTSA has played in the ��ݮ��վ���߿� tournament three times previous to this year. UCLA has played in the Big Dance 25 times.

UTSA earned its first win in the ��ݮ��վ���߿�s ever by beating Kansas State back on Friday. UCLA has several wins in the ��ݮ��վ���߿� tournament that occurred before UTSA was even in existence as a baseball program.

But does any of that matter in 2025? UTSA has won 47 games, and just took down mighty Texas (a program that might have the richest history in college baseball) in the Austin Regional. These Roadrunners are really good, and they clearly aren’t scared of anyone. This is gonna be fun.

2. There could be some fencebusting.

The ��ݮ��վ���߿� has announced that the start times for Saturday and Sunday’s games in Westwood will be at 4 p.m. local time and noon respectively. Monday’s “if necessary” game time has not been announced. But the key to those start times is that the conditions for day games and night games can be wildly different at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

During day games, the ball flies out of the stadium like something from the Deep South, especially when it’s warm, which is rare in Los Angeles. Last weekend saw high temperatures in the mid-80s, and home runs were rampant. But after the sun goes down, the air in Westwood gets cool and thick due to the marine layer that creeps in like something out of an Adrienne Barbeau movie (Google it, youngins). Home runs become rarer when the lights are on. So the first two games being day games means sluggers like UTSA’s Drew Detlefsen, James Taussig and Mason Lytle and UCLA’s Roch Cholowsky, Mulivai Levu and AJ Salgado could put on a power show. It will be interesting to see if there is a Game 3 on Monday and what the starting time will be. 

Louisville Super Regional preview: Miami vs. Louisville

1. Back to Glory

Miami was long one of the pre-eminent college baseball programs in the nation, making the College World Series essentially three out of every five years as it made 25 trips to the College World Series from 1974 to 2016 under Ron Fraser and Jim Morris. However, the Hurricanes are closing in on a decade of not ascending to their rightful place in Omaha.

But with two wins this weekend, second-year head coach J.D. Arteaga could erase that nearly decade-long memory of failure (as every season that doesn’t end in Omaha is deemed), joining Fraser and Morris on the list of coaches to take the Hurricanes to the promised land.

While Arteaga took over a storied program, Dan McDonnell became the head man for a program that had made one ��ݮ��վ���߿� tournament appearance in its existence, much less a College World Series trip. But the Cardinals went in McDonnell’s first season in 2007. They made it back to Omaha in 2013, becoming a regular with trips four of the next seven seasons. But it’s been a six-year drought that McDonnell is looking to end.

2. Regional Returns

Both teams saw an impact player come back from an injury during last weekend’s regionals after a lengthy trip to the IL. Louisville catcher Matt Klein hadn’t started since March 22 because of a broken bone in his left hand prior to being behind the dish against East Tennessee State to open the Nashville Regional. He wasted no time making an impact with homers in his first two regional games and then two hits, including a double, and a walk in the finale against Wright State. He scored and drove in at least one run in all three games.

Klein shores up a revolving door the Cardinals had behind the dish for two months. Collin Mowry, Tagger Tyson and George Baker all saw opportunities and batted a combined .211, 2, 24 in 161 at-bats. Klein enters the super regionals hitting .337, 5, 30 in 89 at-bats.

Miami also got a significant piece back with Derek Williams returning to the heart of the order. He had missed the previous six weeks with a broken hamate. He had hits in three of Miami’s four regional games, including homering in the finale against Southern Miss, which the Hurricanes won by a run. Williams is hitting .331,9, 22 for the season and also brings an element of speed with 10 stolen bases.

Chapel Hill Super Regional preview: Arizona vs. North Carolina 

1. Can Kramkowski keep pace with Knapp?

Arizona knows what it’s up against Friday, when ACC Pitcher of the Year Jake Knapp takes the mound for North Carolina. Coming off an elbow injury that sidelined him all of last season, Knapp has been absurdly consistent during the course of his slam-dunk first-team All-America campaign this spring, and once North Carolina built up his endurance early in the year, he has been a lock to pitch deep into games every week. At 6-foot-5, 270 pounds, Knapp is the definition of a workhorse (I’ve taken to calling him a Clydesdale), and he has pitched at least into the seventh inning in each of his last five starts, highlighted by a nine-inning CG at Florida State at the end of the regular season and then 8.1 shutout innings in the regional opener vs. Holy Cross. He doesn’t miss an exorbitant amount of bats, but he can nonetheless dominate with his 94-97 mph fastball and has very good feel for his changeup and slider. He’s a complete pitcher who suffocates opponents with quality strikes.

Owen Kramkowski, the sophomore righthander who has taken over atop the Arizona rotation, doesn’t have the kind of track record Knapp has, but over the last two weeks he has been pitching his very best. Kramkowski turned in six innings of four-hit, shutout ball in the Big 12 tournament against BYU, then turned in seven innings of one-run ball in the regional opener against Cal Poly. He’s now 9-5, 4.73 on the year — which ain’t exactly Knapp’s 13-0, 1.98, but it’s solid. And like Knapp, Kramkowski is a premier strike thrower, with just 15 walks against 82 strikeouts in 85.2 innings. Also like Knapp, Kramkowski’s fastball sits 93-96 and touches 97, but he complements it with a slider and cutter, instead of a slider and changeup. His best secondary pitch is the slider, which averages 82 mph and generates a 79th percentile chase rate. So he’s got the stuff to keep UNC’s offense at bay and trade zeroes with Knapp if he pitches like he has the last two weeks. The Wildcats need him to keep it rolling.

2. Freshman studs on the mound.

Young arms will play a key role in the outcome of this series. Smith Bailey has been a rock in the rotation all season long as a true freshman for the Wildcats, going 3-3, 3.97 in 77 innings over 16 starts. Like Kramkowski, Bailey was money in the regional, delivering six innings of four-hit, shutout ball in the clincher against Cal Poly. A loose-armed 6-foot-5, 200-pound righthander, Bailey looks how you’d draw up a high-end prospect, and he has advanced feel for pitching with a low-90s fastball, quality 76-77 mph curve and a mid-80s changeup.

North Carolina’s bullpen has centered around two standout freshmen all season long in Ryan Lynch and Walker McDuffie, who have identical 3.15 ERAs and identical 54.1 innings totals. Lynch made his first career start in the ACC tournament, and when UNC needed him in Monday’s regional Game Seven, he started again and delivered five strong innings — before handing off to McDuffie, who pitched the final four frames. These two freshmen have nasty stuff, but Lynch’s fastball is a bit more electric and McDuffie’s slider is bit more devastating, so they complement each other well.

Sometimes in the postseason, leaning on freshman arms in key roles can backfire, as fatigue can be a factor for these pitchers shouldering bigger burdens than they have previously in their lives, and nerves can be a factor as they go through postseason pressure for the first time. But at this point, these three freshmen seem impervious to those concerns. All of them are true stars, and they all seem unfazed by the ��ݮ��վ���߿� tournament environment, with no signs of slowing down physically. It will be fun to watch them again this weekend.

But it’s also worth noting that Arizona has the advantage with more experience in the bullpen, anchored by superstar closer Tony Pluta (1.39 ERA, 13 SV) and fellow upperclassmen Julian Tonghini and Casey Hintz. That’s a formidable and battle-hardened bullpen core that offers hitters considerably different looks: Pluta is a 5-foot-9 cutter specialist, Hintz is a low-slot joker, and Tonghini specializes in his feel to spin the breaking ball. This pitching staff has really come together down the stretch, allowing just 10 runs combined over Arizona’s last seven games (all of them wins).