West Virginia, Troy, and Ole Miss Punch Their Tickets to Omaha
Before a few super regionals even got started, we had three teams punch their tickets to the College World Series on Saturday afternoon. Two teams that punched their tickets are going for the very first time in their program’s history, while all three won’t be repeat teams from last year. In fact, all eight teams that will appear in Omaha next week won’t be repeats, as was the case last year as well. With that being said, when each super regional comes to a close, we will have had 24 different teams in Omaha across the last three College World Series fields. That raises the stakes of these super regional match-ups as each program is either snapping some kind of World Series drought, or fighting for a chance to appear in Omaha for the very first time.
West Virginia sweeps Cal Poly in two games
After Cal Poly swept their way through the Los Angeles regional, a group that featured the number one overall seed UCLA (although Cal Poly didn’t have to play them), I felt confident that the Mustangs were at least going to put up a fight in Morgantown. West Virginia had to climb their way out of the loser’s bracket in their own regional last weekend, and were in a position to lose each of their final games against Kentucky. I felt a hot team like Cal Poly could come in and steal one of the first two games to put the Mountaineers on the ropes. That prediction couldn’t have been further from reality as West Virginia absolutely steam-rolled the Big West champions.
As if a 12-2 blowout in game one on Friday wasn’t convincing enough, the Mountaineers followed that up with a 17-1 win on Saturday to seal the deal, outscoring the Mustangs by a score of 29-3 on the weekend - utter dominance. West Virginia recorded 15 extra-base hits between the two games, with junior third baseman Tyrus Hall and senior outfielder Ben Lumsden leading the way as each hit two home runs. Armani Guzman, Sean Smith, Gavin Kelly, Matthew Graveline, and Brodie Kresser all had four hits of their own throughout the series. The offense as a whole walked a total of 15 times while striking out just 12 times, showcasing the disciplined approach of the lineup that should create problems for opposing pitchers in Omaha. They also stole 12 bases without getting caught a single time, with nine of those steals alone coming on Saturday. This offense is firing on all cylinders and couldn't be peaking at a better time.
While the bats stole the show over the weekend, we can’t ignore the efforts from the West Virginia pitching staff in this one. Sophomore right-hander Chansen Cole set the tone on Friday, delivering seven innings while allowing just two earned runs on eight hits, no walks, and eleven strikeouts. His 121 pitches were a career-high while his eleven strikeouts were a season-high. Cole has been lights out during the postseason as he’s also coming off of a six inning performance in their regional opener against Binghamton in which he allowed just one run while striking out ten and walking none. He also squeezed in a scoreless relief appearance against Kentucky in the regional final.
While it wasn’t the same level of dominance as Chansen Cole, junior southpaw Maxx Yehl delivered a solid start of his own on Saturday, allowing just one earned run on four hits, one walk, and four strikeouts across five innings before he handed it off to the bullpen that threw a combined six scoreless innings over the weekend.
Despite this being West Virginia’s third consecutive appearance in a super regional, they are now headed to Omaha for the first time in school history. They already know their opponent in their opener next Friday as they will be taking on Troy who also punched their ticket to Omaha for the first time on Saturday.
Troy sweeps Little Rock in two games
We were treated with a match-up between two “cinderellas” depending on your definition of the term as the Trojans paired up to battle it out in Troy, Alabama over the weekend. Little Rock was a four seed out of the Ohio Valley Conference as tournament champions while Troy was one of the last four teams in the field as an at-large out of the Sun Belt. Neither program had any legitimate steam as Omaha contenders, but that quickly changed after Troy beat Florida in the Gainesville Regional while Little Rock swept their way through Southern Miss and the Hattiesburg Regional last weekend. With the two set to square off, one of these two mid-majors would be making their first ever trip to Omaha. In front of a packed house at Riddle-Pace Field, the Trojans of Troy wasted no time putting away the Trojans of Little Rock.
Troy outscored Little Rock by a score of 19-4 across the weekend, winning in dominant fashion on Friday by a score of 12-2, and then 7-2 on Saturday. Junior designated hitter Jabe Boroff was the top performer on Friday, hitting two home runs while driving in half of Troy’s runs. Senior center fielder Steven Meier was the leader of the hit parade, logging five hits on the weekend while Drew Nelson and Houston Markham had four hits across the series as well.
The pitching staff can’t go unnoticed either as they allowed just four earned runs between the two games. Senior left-hander Benjamin Stubbs got the start in game one where he allowed just two earned runs on six hits and five strikeouts while he walked none. Senior right-hander Tommy Egan followed on Saturday with a 7.1 inning performance in which he allowed two earned runs on five hits, two walks, and eight strikeouts. Between his two appearances against Miami in Gainesville, Egan allowed a total of nine earned runs across just five innings of work, so it was great to see him put together a strong outing in what was arguably Troy’s biggest game in program history. Between Stubbs, Egan, and the offense, the bullpen was granted with the luxury of a light workload - one in which they capitalized on as they didn’t allow a run or a walk across a combined 4.2 innings.
Troy is headed to Omaha for the first time in their program’s history, and they will be taking on the red-hot offense of West Virginia in their opener.
Ole Miss sweeps Auburn in two games
While West Virginia and Troy are new to the College World Series, Ole Miss is not far removed from their last appearance in Omaha. In fact, it was their last appearance in 2022 that resulted in their one and only national championship. There might not be a more dangerous team (not named Georgia) remaining in the tournament than Ole Miss. Not only did they sweep the Lincoln Regional that was widely regarded as the toughest regional to get out of, but they also went into Auburn and put the fourth overall seed Tigers away in two games. It’s tough to beat the resume Ole Miss has put together thus far in the tournament.
This was a far closer series than the previous two as the Rebels won by just two runs in each game. Despite the fact that Auburn’s Andreas Alvarez struck out ten hitters across 5.2 innings on Friday night, the Rebels tagged him for five runs which included home runs off the bats of Judd Utermark and Colin Reuter. After Hunter Elliot gave up two runs across 4.1 innings, relievers Hudson Calhoun and Walker Hooks pieced together the rest of the game, each surrendering a run but managing to close out the 6-4 win.
The Rebels would get a lot more length from their starter on Saturday as junior right-hander Taylor Rabe managed to get through seven innings while allowing just two earned runs before handing a tie game off to the bullpen in the eighth. The lineup came through in the clutch with back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the eighth, the first a two-run shot off the bat of senior first baseman Will Furniss who was followed by senior right fielder Tristan Bissetta with a solo shot to extend the lead to 5-2. Walker Hooks got the chance to close the game for the second day in a row, and although Auburn would get him for one run, he did add his ninth save of the season to send the Rebels back to Omaha. Sophomore center fielder Hayden Federico deserves his flowers as well as he secured a game-saving catch in the top of the eighth on a fly ball over his head at the warning track that he leapt for to keep at least two runs off the board as the game remained tied.
With a head coach in Mike Bianco that has been to Omaha twice along with a recent championship under his belt and an experienced roster, Ole Miss might be the team best suited to come out of their side of the bracket regardless of what happens between USC and North Carolina on Sunday.
