2025 Year in Review: College Baseball

[Editor’s note: This article is from Athlon Sports’ 2025 “Year in Review” magazine, which celebrates the year’s champions and relives the biggest moments from across the world of sports. Order your copy online today, or pick one up at retail racks and newsstands nationwide.]

The 2025 College World Series ended with its most familiar sight over the past 35 years: the LSU Tigers dogpiling on the infield celebrating yet another national title.

But LSU’s quest for its eighth CWS crown almost came to an end over a tense 24-hour period far away from the emerald green grass of Charles Schwab Field in Omaha.

After opening the NCAA Tournament at LSU with 7-0 and 12-0 shutouts of Little Rock and Dallas Baptist, the Tigers were stunned 10-4 in a rematch with Little Rock, the lowest-seeded team in the four-team regional. That forced a decisive game between the Tigers and Trojans to determine who would advance to the NCAA Super Regional against West Virginia.

For three innings it appeared LSU would suffer another shocking defeat, trailing 5-1 going to the fourth inning. Then the Tigers began to rally, scoring nine runs over the final six innings to pull out a 10-6 victory.

“I told the players tonight is one of the best wins of my entire career because of what they had to do to earn it,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said.

From there, the Tigers resumed their quest to prove they were the nation’s best team. The No. 6 national seed, LSU swept West Virginia out of their best-of-three super regional in Baton Rouge, 16-9 and 12-5, propelling the Tigers to their 20th CWS appearance since 1986.

In Omaha, a battle of the tournament’s top two remaining national seeds awaited as LSU took on No. 3 Arkansas. The Tigers won that game 4-1 then took down UCLA 9-5 in a weather-interrupted contest over two days, setting up a rematch with Arkansas for a berth in the CWS final.

Looking like a team of destiny once more, LSU rallied from a 5-3 deficit in the bottom of the ninth to win, 6-5. Catcher Luis Hernandez tied it with a two-run double off the shoulder of left fielder Charles Davalan and Jared Jones won it with an RBI single that ticked off the glove of second baseman Cam Kozeal to score Hernandez.

In the best-of-three final, LSU ended Coastal Carolina’s 26-game winning streak — the longest active streak in the nation — with a 1-0 victory behind Kade Anderson’s complete-game, three-hit shutout. The next day, the Tigers clinched the title — and capped a 53-15 season — with a 5-1 victory.

Anderson, who would go with the No. 3 overall pick in the Major League draft to Seattle, was named the CWS’ most outstanding player. The title made Johnson, in his fourth year at LSU, the fastest coach to win multiple national titles at the same school.