NCAA Tournament 2025: Which Eight Teams Will Punch Their Ticket to Omaha?

The Hurricanes and the Cardinals advanced to the super-regional round after knocking off the respective #1 seeds in the Nashville and Hattiesburg regionals. Miami, while a historic program with 25 trips to the CWS, is aiming to return to Omaha for the first time in almost 10 years. Despite both teams performing at an average level in the regular season, both programs got some help in their regionals from players who returned from injury.

Louisville catcher, Matt Klein, returned to action for the Cardinals adding a consistent bat to an already dangerous lineup. Klein went 4 for 12 in the Nashville regional with two homeruns and 4 RBIs. On the flip side, the Hurricanes saw Derek Williams return to the lineup to give Miami some power at the plate. Williams played a massive role in the win against Southern Miss to advance to the super regional round with a solo homerun.

Louisville and Miami didn't matchup with each other in the regular season, meaning that both teams will likely go all-in on winning the series opener. The Cardinals and their ability to create chaos on the basepaths is really appealing when picking a series winner.

Carson's Pick: Louisville
JD's Pick: Louisville

Los Angeles Super-Regional

UTSA @ UCLA

The UTSA Roadrunners shocked the country when they walked into the Austin Regional and knocked off the #2 Texas Longhorns. That enough automatically makes them a considerable threat to UCLA's path to Omaha this coming weekend. With a balanced lineup and a defense that has seemingly gotten better throughout the season, the Roadrunners are now considered by many to be America's team.

UCLA has the advantage of being regulars in the NCAA Tournament. John Savage has coached the Bruins for 20 seasons now and has a national title (2013) under his belt as well. UTSA, on the other hand, only made the tournament for the 4th time this year.

For the Bruins, Roch Cholowsky headlines the offense and is currently hitting .370 on the season with 19 doubles, 23 homeruns, and 72 RBIs. The Roadrunners have multiple hitters that can deliver with Mason Lytle, James Taussig, and Drew Detlefsen, who all have 65 or more RBIs on the season. As for the pitching, UTSA appears to have a slight advantage with their starters lasting a little longer than UCLA's.

Carson's Pick: UTSA
JD's Pick: UTSA

Corvallis Super Regional

Florida St. @ Oregon State

Oregon State homered their way to a regional victory in Corvallis eliminating TCU, USC, and Saint Mary's in the process. Florida St. advanced to the round of 16 with an intense win against Mississippi State on Sunday evening. Jamie Arnold is the ace on the mound for the Seminoles, while the Beavers have rotated with their Sunday starter pick throughout the season.

Ethan Kleinschmit and Dax Whitney have recently been lights out for Oregon State combining for 13.2 IP allowing 4 runs total. While the pitching in this series could prove to be extremely good, both teams have a knack for the long ball. The Beavers hit 14 homeruns over 5 games in the Corvallis regional which included a 20-3 win against the Gaels.

Sidenote: The home-field advantage at Goss Stadium is incredibly real.

Carson's Pick: Oregon State
JD's Pick: Oregon State

Durham Super Regional

Murray St. @ Duke

Murray St. is another wild card that enters the super-regional round as an underdog. The Racers caused chaos in the Oxford regional knocking off Ole Miss twice to advance to their first super-regional round. Murray State will look to pull off the impossible, while the Blue Devils look to end their Omaha drought of over 60 years.

The Racers offense headlines the weekend as the team is hitting .306 as a team with Dustin Mercer leading the way batting .351 with 84 hits this season. Duke has offensive firepower of their own with Ben Miller hitting .325 with 20 homeruns. The pitching will be interesting in this series as both teams have gone about getting innings in different ways. Murray State relied on their starters for quality innings in Oxford, while Duke seems to rely on their bullpen to do the brunt of the work.

Carson's Pick: Duke
JD's Pick: Murray St.

Chapel Hill Super Regional

Arizona @ North Carolina

North Carolina eliminated Oklahoma on Sunday with an offensive routing of the Sooners 14-4, while Arizona handled business sweeping their regional on Sunday. The Tar Heels and the Wildcats are playing some of their best baseball all season at the right time making this a really fun matchup. Frogball fans know firsthand that Arizona is a ballclub that can compete with any team in the country. While many eyes will be focused on the Arkansas/Tennessee matchup later in the afternoon, these two teams will attract a lot of eyes around midday with the stars on each squad.

Game 1 will almost assuredly turn into a pitchers duel with Owen Kramkowski (Arizona) and Jake Knapp (North Carolina) being the projected starters. Aaron Walton and Mason White lead the way offensively for the Wildcats as they cruised their way to a regional win. Walton went 7 for 11 with 8 RBIs in Arizona's last 2 games, while White has been on a tear in the postseason going 11 for 19 with 6 homeruns since the beginning of the Big 12 tournament.

North Carolina has their own superstars at the plate though. Gavin Gallaher has been seeing the ball really well recently and is hitting .323 with 12 doubles and 17 homeruns on the season. The UNC infielder went 13 for 18 in the Chapel Hill Regional with 3 homeruns and 10 RBIs.

Carson's Pick: Arizona
JD's Pick: North Carolina

Baton Rouge Super- Regional

West Virginia @ LSU

After a tight-knit first half of an elimination game against Little Rock, LSU returned to form with their offense dominating the rest of the game to move on to face West Virginia in the super-regional round. The Mountaineers on the other hand swept their regional with a 13-12 shootout victory against Kentucky to advance to their 2nd super-regional in a row. West Virginia is up against a formidable opponent, and especially a program with as much postseason experience as the Tigers have, and will need to start fast against LSU if they want to make a trip to Omaha.

From pitchers Anthony Eyanson and Kade Anderson, to Jared Jones and Ethan Frey, these are just some of the quality arms and hitters that have made a huge impact for this squad down the stretch. The players to watch on the West Virginia squad include Griffin Kirn, the rock for the Mountaineers pitching staff, Jack Kartsonas, and Sam White. Kirn's workload has only gotten higher as he threw a complete game against Cincinnati in the Big 12 Tournament, while White went 3 for 5 with 2 RBIs against a stingy Clemson pitching staff in their 9-6 win over the #11 Clemson Tigers.

Carson's Pick: LSU
JD: LSU

Auburn Super Regional

Coastal Carolina @ Auburn

Coastal Carolina and Auburn emerged as two of the most exciting teams to watch when the NCAA Tournament began. The Chanticleers advanced to the super-regional round with multiple wins against an extremely talented East Carolina squad. Auburn seems to be the more offensive-geared team with guys like Ike Irish, Chris Rembert, and Chase Fralick, who are all batting .340 or higher with Irish having a team-leading 18 homeruns.

Coastal Carolina seems to have more pitching depth with a 3-headed dragon on the mound that includes guys like Jacob Morrison, Riley Eikhoff, and Cameron Flukey. Morisson especially has put together a massive season holding a 2.19 ERA with a WHIP of .90 and 90.1 IP. The RHP has also gone 11-0 in quality starts this year.

Carson's Pick: Coastal Carolina
JD's Pick: Coastal Carolina

Fayetteville Super Regional

Tennessee @ Arkansas

The last time Tennessee and Arkansas met, it ended with the Razorbacks taking the final 2 games to take the series only a few weeks ago. The Volunteers will be looking for blood in one of the most exciting series of the year as they will look to get back to Omaha to defend their championship title. Liam Doyle and Zach Root on the mound for their respective teams should prove to be a tremendous pitching matchup in the series opener.

Offensively, the Razorbacks have been the more consistent team this season with guys like Wehiwa Aloy and Charles Davalan leading the pack batting .350 or higher. Following closely behind is Logan Maxwell (.346), Cam Kozeal (.343), and Wehiwa's brother, Kuhio Aloy (.335). Simply put, Baum Walker Stadium plays host to one of the best teams in college baseball.

While Tennessee has struggled against the Hogs, head coach Tony Vitello brings an intensity this game hasn't seen in a long time. Guys like Andrew Fischer and Gavin Kilen embrace that intensity at the plate as they've been a huge part of why the Volunteers are here in the first place. Kilen leads the team in AVG hitting .363 on the season with 13 doubles and 15 homeruns this season, while Fischer seems to perform when the lights are the brightest hitting .343 on the season including a 2-run homerun in Tennessee's 11-5 win against Wake Forest.

Carson's Pick: Tennessee
JD's Pick: Arkansas

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