Six of eight teams have punched their ticket to Omaha's Men's College World Series
The GIST: Baseball knows it’s the only NCAA sport still playing, so they dialed the drama to 11 this weekend. Six teams won their best-of-three Super Regionals to advance to next weekend’s Men’s College World Series (MCWS), with the last two Supers bestowing their tickets to Omaha today. Visiting Nebraska has never felt so urgent.
The juggernauts: Wake Forest showed why they’re the No. 1 seed, taking a narrow Game 1 dub over No. 16 Alabama before obliterating the Crimson Tide 22–5 to advance yesterday. Likewise, No. 5 LSU is back to their dominant midseason form, sweeping No. 12 Kentucky with two massive wins, while No. 7 Virginia overcame a Game 1 stumble to annihilate Duke twice.
The dark horses: Cinderella lives! After trading one-run wins with host Oregon, Oral Roberts exploded in yesterday’s Game 3 to crush the Ducks 11–6 and advance to the MCWS for the first time since 1978. Not not saying it’s the gummy worms…
- On the other hand, unseeded TCU swept their way to Omaha, beating No. 14 Indiana State without much trouble both Friday and Saturday. It was technically an upset, but only a fool would bet against this scorching-hot TCU squad.
Today’s games: Supers wrap today with two win-or-go-home matchups: Tennessee takes on Southern Mississippi at 6 p.m. ET on ESPN2, and, after senior southpaw Quinn Mathews’ epic 156-pitch, 16-strikeout, complete game dub last night, No. 8 Stanford will host Texas for all the marbles at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN. Winners head to Omaha, losers head home-aha. Game on.
