The 2024 Men’s College World Series is coming up later this week (June 14-23/24) and will occur in Omaha, Nebraska. The MCWS started with Regionals on May 31st and went till June 3rd. The next round, Super Regionals, began June 7th and went to the 10th. If you’re new to college baseball and don’t know how it all works here’s a quick rundown.
It starts with 64 D1 teams split into 16 brackets of four. Thirty of those teams got automatic bids as champions of their conferences and the other thirty-four were selected by the NCAA D1 Baseball Committee. It works via a double-elimination tournament, so teams don’t get eliminated until they lose two games. When Regionals are done,16 teams to continue to Super Regionals. The teams are then split into eight pairings and do best of three. When Super Regionals are done 8 teams are left to go to the MCWS. At this point, the teams get placed in two double-elimination brackets where each bracket has four teams each. Ultimately it will end with 2 teams in the Finals, which will be a best-of-three series and will determine this year’s NCAA champion.
This year the teams that have made it to the MCWS are the North Carolina Tar Heels, Virginia Cavaliers, Florida Gators, NC State Wolfpack, Kentucky Wildcats, Texas A&M Aggies, Tennesse Volunteers, and Florida State Seminoles.
First Round Matchups:
No. 1 Tennessee vs. No. 8 Florida State
No. 4 North Carolina vs. No. 12 Virginia
No. 2 Kentucky vs. No. 10 NC State
No. 3 Texas A&M vs. Florida
So now that you know how it all works, let’s go over some things about each team.
Tennessee Volunteers (No. 1)
This is Tennessee’s 7th appearance in the MCWS, the last time they competed in the MCWS was during the 2023 season. To make it to Super Regionals, the Volunteers knocked out the Evansville Purple Aces. However, the Aces did not go down without a fight and forced a winner-take-all-all situation. This means that Evansville became the first regional No. 4 seed to beat an overall No. 1 seed in tournament history. Though, the third game ended with a score of 12-1, in the Volunteer’s favor. Overall for the season, Tennessee has a record of 55-12.
Florida State (No. 8)
This year marks the Seminoles' 24th appearance in the MCWS, the last time they made it this far was 2019. To make it to MCWS they beat the University of Connecticut (UConn) Huskies. Florida State managed to take down UConn in Game 2 of the Tallahassee Super Regional. They did it in 12 innings and ended with a score of 10-8. While that’s impressive, in Game 1 Florida State beat Uconn 24-4. Of the 18 total hits by FSU, 5 were home runs. This puts FSU at scoring the most runs in any Super Regional game.
North Carolina (No. 4)
This will be the Tar Heels’ 12th appearance in the MCWS, the last time being in 2018. North Carolina beat the West Virginia Mountaineers in two games as well (Game 1 8-6, Game 2 2-1). The win solidifies North Carolinas 47th win of the season which makes it their most winning season since 2009 when they had 48 wins. Vance Honeycutt, an outfielder, homered on the final pitch in Game 1, making it his 26th of the season and the 63rd of his career.
Virginia (No. 12)
This marks Virginia’s 7th appearance in the MCWS, their last being in 2023. Virginia beat the Kansas State Wildcats 2-0 (Game 1 7-4, Game 2 10-4). The final game started with a home run from Casey Saucke and an RBI single from Harrison Didwick. It was back and forth for the most part, with Kansas answering those runs quickly. Despite that, Virginia managed to pull ahead and win it to head to Omaha.
Kentucky (No. 2)
This season is the first time that Kentucky has made it to the MCWS. Kentucky went up against Oregon State and won the series 2-0 (Game 1 10-0, Game 2 3-2). The first game they won in that series was the Lexington Super Regional opener and marked Kentucky’s first Super Regional victory in program history. In the two previous years, Kentucky was in Super Regionals but, they were never able to get a lead.
NC State (No. 10)
NC State is making its 4th appearance in the MCWS, their last time being in 2021. In Super Regionals they went up against Georgia and won in 3 games. The first game with an ending score of 19-1 with NC State taking it. The second game ended with 11-2 Georgia, but NC State won that third game 8-5. Eli Serrano III got a home run in the sixth inning and later in the seventh made a great catch that helped NC State take the win.
Texas A&M (No. 3)
This year marks the Aggies’ 8th appearance in the MCWS, and the last time they made it this far was 2022. In Super Regionals Texas A&M went up against Oregon and won the series 2-0 (Game 1 10-6, Game 2 15-9). In the seventh inning of the second game of the series the Aggies were down 6-9 and it was looking like Oregon was going to take it. Then they managed to pull ahead with 9 runs in the seventh inning alone and won the game and series.
Florida
Florida will be making their 14th appearance in the MCWS this year, the last time they made it to Omaha was just last year in 2023. In Super Regionals Florida went up against Clemson and won the series 2-0 (Game 1 10-7, Game 2 11-10). The second game was a close one, going into 13 innings, but Florida pulled ahead by one and that one point got them into the MCWS.
All of these teams are amazing and have done great things to make it to Omaha. This upcoming week will just prove further how much work each team has put in to be where they are. Each of these teams has a great shot at making it all the way, I can’t wait to see who reigns champion this year.