Season 2008 | Teams 64 | |
Finals Site Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium
Omaha, NE Champions Fresno State (1st title) Runner-Up Georgia (6th CWS Appearance) Winning coach Mike Batesole (1st title) |
The 2008 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament was held from May 30 through June 25, 2008 and was part of the 2008 NCAA Division I baseball season. The 64 NCAA Division I college baseball teams were selected out of an eligible 286 teams on May 26, 2008. Thirty teams were awarded an automatic bid as champions of their conference, and 34 teams were selected at-large by the NCAA Division I Baseball Committee. Thirty-eight of the 64 selected teams participated in the 2007 tournament.
Contents
- Automatic bids
- National seeds
- Regional schedule
- Brackets
- Coral Gables Super Regional
- Athens Super Regional
- Fullerton Super Regional
- Tallahassee Super Regional
- Cary Super Regional
- Baton Rouge Super Regional
- Houston Super Regional
- Tempe Super Regional
- Monday June 23
- Tuesday June 24
- Wednesday June 25
- All Tournament Team
- Regionals
- Super Regionals
- College World Series
- References
The 2008 tournament culminated with 8 teams advancing to the College World Series at historic Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska on June 14.
On June 25, 2008, the Fresno State Bulldogs beat the Georgia Bulldogs, 6-1, to win the NCAA Men's Division I Baseball Championship. Fresno State was the lowest seeded team (4th in Regional) to win the National Championship in NCAA History.
The Series was won by Fresno State, who became the lowest ranked team ever to win an NCAA Baseball Championship, and the fifth consecutive baseball team to win the title that was not one of the eight national seeds. They were considered a 'Cinderella' team throughout the tournament. This was the second National Championship for Fresno State following the 1998 NCAA Women's College Softball team.
Fresno State sophomore third baseman Tommy Mendonca won the Most Outstanding Player Award. Tommy hit four home runs and had 11 RBIs and also made a number of spectacular plays in the field.
The first day of the 2008 CWS was moved to Saturday (June 14) from the traditional Friday. Also, if all games were needed in the first double-elimination round, it would take eight days to complete rather than seven. The NCAA cited the need to be more flexible in the super-regional round in case of inclement weather. It also allowed for greater potential ticket revenue, in part because the extra "if-necessary" day would now be ticketed separately if both games are played.
Automatic bids
Conference champions from 30 Division I conferences earned automatic bids to regionals. The remaining 34 spots were awarded to schools as at-large invitees.
National seeds
Bold indicates CWS participant.
- Miami (FL) (47-8)
- North Carolina (46-12)
- Arizona State (45-11)
- Florida State (48-10)
- Cal State Fullerton (37-19)
- Rice (42-13)
- LSU (43-16-1)
- Georgia (35-21-1)
Regional schedule
Regional rounds were held Friday, May 30 through Monday, June 2. Each regional followed a similar format, with 2 games played on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and one on Monday if needed.
Best-of-three super regionals were held Friday, June 6 through Monday, June 9. Four series were played Friday-Sunday and four series were played Saturday-Monday.
Brackets
Bold indicates winner. * indicates extra innings.
Coral Gables Super Regional
Hosted by Miami (FL) at Mark Light Field
Athens Super Regional
Hosted by Georgia at Foley Field
Fullerton Super Regional
Hosted by Cal State Fullerton at Goodwin Field
Tallahassee Super Regional
Hosted by Florida State at Dick Howser Stadium
Cary Super Regional
Hosted by North Carolina at USA Baseball National Training Complex
Baton Rouge Super Regional
Hosted by LSU at Alex Box Stadium
Houston Super Regional
Hosted by Rice at Reckling Park
Tempe Super Regional
Hosted by Arizona State at Packard Stadium
Monday, June 23
Game 14, 6:00 PM
Tuesday, June 24
Game 15, 6:35 PM
Wednesday, June 25
Game 16, 6:00 PM
All Tournament Team
The following players were members of the All-Tournament Team.
Regionals
Super Regionals
Mike Gleason and Will Kimmey made up the studio team (in Bristol, Connecticut) for both regional and super-regional rounds.