The 2018 NCAA Division I baseball tournament began on Friday, June 1, 2018, as part of the 2018 NCAA Division I baseball season. The 64-team, double-elimination tournament concluded with the 2018 College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, starting on June 16 and ended on June 28.[1] The Oregon State Beavers defeated the Arkansas Razorbacks in the best-of-three final series to win the championship.
The 64 participating NCAA Division I college baseball teams were selected out of an eligible 298 teams.[2] Thirty-one teams will be awarded an automatic bid as champions of their conferences, and 33 teams will be selected at-large by the NCAA Division I Baseball Committee.
Teams were divided into sixteen regionals of four teams, which conducted a double-elimination tournament. Regional champions competed in Super Regionals, a best-of-three-game series, to determine the eight participants in the College World Series.[1] For the first time, the Tournament seeded the top 16 teams instead of pairing teams generally along geographical lines.[3]
In the championship series, Arkansas won the first game and held a 3–2 lead entering the top of the ninth inning in game 2. With two outs and a runner on third, Oregon State shortstop Cadyn Grenier popped a foul ball down the right field line that multiple Razorback players appeared to have a play on. Had the ball been caught, Arkansas would have won their first national championship in baseball; instead, the ball dropped between the first baseman, second baseman, and right fielder to continue the at-bat. Two pitches later, with the Beavers down to their final strike, Grenier singled in the tying run, and was followed by Trevor Larnach's two-run homer to give OSU a 5–3 lead and the eventual victory to even the series.[4] The following day, Oregon State freshman Kevin Abel – who threw 23 pitches the previous night[5] – notched a 129-pitch complete game shutout, allowing just two hits and retiring the final 20 Razorback hitters [6] to secure the Beavers' third national title in baseball. Oregon State catcher Adley Rutschman was named College World Series Most Outstanding Player after collecting 13 RBI's and a College World Series record 17 hits.[7]
16 National Seeds were announced on the Selection Show Monday, May 28 at 12 p.m. EDT on ESPNU. The 16 national seeds host the Regionals. Teams in italics advanced to Super Regionals. Teams in bold advanced to College World Series.
Bold indicates winner. Seeds for regional tournaments indicate seeds within regional. Seeds for super regional tournaments indicate national seeds only.
Hosted by Vanderbilt at Hawkins Field
Hosted by Cal State Fullerton at Goodwin Field
The College World Series was held at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska.
Seeds listed below indicate national seeds only
The following players were members of the College World Series All-Tournament Team.[9]
Seeds listed below indicate national seeds only
The columns RF, SR, WS, NS, CS, and NC respectively stand for the Regional Finals, Super Regionals, College World Series Teams, National Semifinals, Championship Series, and National Champion.
Nc is non–conference records, i.e., with the records of teams within the same conference having played each other removed.
NRG Media provided nationwide radio coverage of the College World Series through its Omaha station KOZN, in association with Westwood One. It was streamed at westwoodonesports.com, on TuneIn, and on SiriusXM. Kevin Kugler and John Bishop called all games leading up to the Championship Series with Gary Sharp acting as the field reporter. The Championship Series was called by Kugler and Scott Graham with Bishop acting as field reporter.
ESPN carried every game from the Regionals, Super Regionals, and College World Series across its networks. During the Regionals and Super Regionals ESPN offered a dedicated channel, ESPN Bases Loaded (carried in the same channel allotments as its "Goal Line" services for football), carried live look-ins and analysis across all games in progress.