What started as a 64-team tournament has now been cut to just 16 teams as the college baseball world prepares for another insane weekend. The road to Omaha goes through eight unique campuses. After this weekend, we will have eight teams remaining who will make the pilgrimage to the middle of America for the College World Series. In this sport, reaching the College World Series is everything these players, coaches, and even the fans have dreamed about for years. This year, we have new blood on one side of the bracket, while the right side delivers household names like Georgia, Mississippi State, Texas, Auburn, Alabama, and even Oregon. On the left side, USC, North Carolina, Ole Miss, West Virginia, Cal Poly, and an insane Super Regional matchup between the Troy Trojans and the Little Rock Trojans, giving every style of college baseball fan something to be excited about heading into the weekend. 

So, let’s talk about a few of these matchups that I will be watching with an extra careful eye starting on Friday. 

Starting on Friday afternoon, with Troy hosting Little Rock for a Super Regional, made for the purists of the college baseball world. Neither one of these teams has ever made it this far; Troy obviously has never hosted a Super Regional, and for Little Rock, they look to make it back-to-back years in which a four seed reaches the College World Series. With that said, Troy might not have the trips to the College World Series or a Super Regional, but they do have two D2 National Championships. As far as the matchup goes, you have the gritty, the small ball, and a group of juco bandits in this matchup. This is one of those series that will go all three games, as college baseball fans can expect an all-out war between the two, where every pitch will matter, where patience at the plate will become the deciding factor in who goes on to play in the College World Series. 

On Friday night, an old school SEC West matchup as the Ole Miss heads to Plainsman Park to take on the Auburn Tigers in a massive Southeastern Conference Super Regional. In a weird turn of events due to the sixteen-team league, these two old conference foes did not face each other this season, as they played Mississippi State rather than each other. Friday night, it’ll be Hunter Elliott against Andreas Alvarez in the first round of the heavyweight prize boxing match between the Rebels. Each had a different path to get to this point. Auburn had to come out of the losers’ bracket in the Auburn Regional to reach a Super Regional, while Ole Miss took down Nebraska and Arizona State in the Lincoln Regional last week, showing signs of what many people expected to see out of the Rebels this season. As far as the matchup goes, Auburn is good, but they’ve seemed to have peaked earlier in the season, while Ole Miss has gotten hot at the right time. For Auburn, not only will they have to navigate a deadly Ole Miss offense that has seemingly gotten hot, but the Tigers will have to deal with the one-two punch as Hunter Elliott gets the start on Friday night, and likely one of the best pitchers in college baseball with Taylor Rabe likely the Saturday night. This series will likely go all three games, but Ole Miss has too much for Auburn to overcome, and the Rebels will be heading back to the College World Series. 

In the ACC, the hope of the conference comes down to the Chapel Hill Super Regional as North Carolina welcomes USC, fresh off a stunner College Station Regional Championship upset of the Texas A&M Aggies. However, the end of the road is near for the USC Trojans, as North Carolina has all the pieces to compete for a National Championship. Combined with the home-field advantage of Boshamer Stadium, the Tar Heels have all the mometum heading into the Super Regional matchup with USC. 

Lastly, on Friday, it actually comes first thing in the afternoon with a first pitch slated for noon local time as the West Virginia Mountaineers welcome Cal Poly to Morgantown for another weekend of West Virginia baseball. Last week, it was the Mountaineers of West Virginia taking the college baseball world by storm, with an incredible atmosphere at Kendrick Family Ballpark as thousands of West Virginia fans joined together as one to sing, with great pride, the beautiful song “Country Roads” by John Denver. From a matchup perspective, sure, give Cal Poly credit for winning the UCLA Regional, but West Virginia is next level as they have it all with the pitching, a hard-to-navigate lineup, and middle relief that delivers substantial innings for West Virginia to use for motivation. That, combined with the environment that Cal Poly has no idea about, the Mountaineers will be taking those country roads all the way to the College World Series. 

Out of those four matchups on Friday, the two in the state of Alabama have all the pieces to deliver with an instant classic type day to jumpstart the Super Regional on the right foot, setting the stage for an insane weekend around the country of college baseball. 

Photo credits- School pages on X