After last season saw No. 1 Vanderbilt and No. 2 Texas fail to make it out of the baseball NCAA Tournament opening weekend to super regionals, one would think it would be hard to be surprised by the 2026 iteration.
One would be wrong.
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The 2026 tournament is sending a couple of stunners to the next round, including two No. 4 seeds for the first time. And those No. 4 seeds aren’t quirky little flukes either. They both swept their regionals, with St. John’s making it out of Tallahassee undefeated and Little Rock doing the same out of Hattiesburg, a regional where the lower seed won every single game.
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Some regionals were more chalky, but perhaps surprising in how chalky they were. Take the Chapel Hill Regional, quickly coined as the regional of death, saw North Carolina cruise. Or Eugene, where Oregon fought off the zombie Pac-12 and advanced to play Texas.
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But once again, the biggest stunners were at the top of the bracket. No. 1 UCLA was beaten not once, but twice, by Saint Mary’s which was beaten not once, but twice, by Cal Poly, the eventual bracket winners. The Atlanta Regional took seven games to decide, with popular champion pick No. 2 Georgia Tech — a team brimming with MLB talent — falling to Oklahoma, which battled back to make it to supers for the first time since 2022.
Who are the best teams left in the field? Here’s a look at the final 16 now that we have eyes on them in the tournament.
The highest seed left in the field, Georgia did what it was supposed to do in Athens. It throttled Long Island after an interruption from weather, and it beat a tough (and arguably under-seeded) Liberty team twice to advance. Daniel Jackson is one of the best players left in this tournament, having cranked two homers in the regional round. He’ll look to lead the Bulldogs over another SEC foe in Mississippi State.
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When North Carolina’s draw was revealed, there was a lot of hand-wringing about what looked like a regional of death. There was the big name in Tennessee, the sneaky auto-bid in East Carolina, and of course the treacherous No. 4 seed in VCU. The Tar Heels looked unfazed, dispatching VCU with ease behind normal Saturday night starter Ryan Lynch. Even with a less-than stellar outing from Jason DeCaro against ECU, the Tar Heels rallied and won. They’re going to be a tough out moving forward.
Texas caught a huge break in the Austin Regional, as it never had to face Jackson Flora with UC Santa Barbara losing its first game and putting its back against the wall. Even so, Texas absolutely ran through Austin, only really facing resistance against the Gauchos. Jim Schlossnagle’s decision to make Dylan Volantis Friday night starter has been prescient. In fact, the only really weakness the Longhorns show right now is in the depth behind him, having used 12 pitchers over the two games Volantis didn’t start.
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Somehow, Milwaukee was the terror of the Auburn Regional. Until it wasn’t. After dropping its first game against the Panthers, Auburn broke its spirit in the sixth and seventh games of the regional, winning by a combined 16-4 score. The big concern for Auburn is pitching. Jake Marciano is better than his record, and Alex Petrovic has emerged as a viable No. 2. But the Tigers need consistency if they’re going to beat Mississippi.
Oregon looked like it had a lot of problems in its regional. The Ducks were stuck with two teams with grudges. But as it turned out, Oregon State and Washington State were trapped with Oregon. Will Sandford and Miles Gosztola were stellar for the Ducks, and Oregon allowed just three runs all regional. Oregon also has the bats to run with Texas in supers, the question is if the Ducks can continue to outduel the teams they play again.
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We still have a lot to learn about the Crimson Tide, with Alabama getting foisted into a very favorable regional. After dominating Alabama State, SC Upstate nearly battled back from a 7-2 hole before Oklahoma State took Alabama to extras. Even so, Oklahoma State always had that potential from a No. 2 seed, and Alabama weathered that storm. It can’t be docked too much for that.
OK, so now things get a little wonky. Oklahoma entered the tournament as a No. 2 seed in the Atlanta Regional because of a devastating late-season slump where it went 4-9 and lost to a woeful LSU team in the SEC Tournament. Well, the bats woke up in Atlanta. Oklahoma scored 38 runs over its last three games and beat a potent Georgia Tech team twice, including battling back from a 7-2 deficit in the decisive Game 7. The time to sleep on Oklahoma was last Thursday. Now it’s time to take this team serious.
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With the way the Lawrence Regional was being talked about, you’d have thought it was being played in Fayetteville. Never mind the Jayhawks won the Big 12 Tournament for the first time in 20 years, or were Big 12 regular season champs for the first time since it was the Big Eight, or were coming off a tournament appearance in 2025. Well, Kansas got slept on. And now I’m ranking it behind its super regional opponent in the re-rank. So the Jayhawks have another chance to make me look silly in the first super regional hosted at Hoglund Stadium.
While North Carolina made it out of its regional of death, the same couldn’t be said for Nebraska in Lincoln. The Cornhuskers didn’t make their regional championship, with Mississippi and Arizona State predictably playing spoiler. The Rebels never played the No. 4 seed in Lincoln, defeating Arizona State twice and Nebraska once. Ole Miss pitching held out, but if anything does in the Rebels, it will be starting pitching.
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MORE: Why Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco had to eat crow after regional win
PREDICTION: How Ole Miss can upset Auburn, make College World Series
A Los Angeles Big Ten team made it out of regionals, just not the No. 1 seed. The knock against USC was how terrible the Trojans were against good teams, but they beat Texas A&M twice to make it out of College Station. Jack Basseer looks like a star while Augie Lopez brings some thump to the order. This is a USC team build for the tournament, with Mason Edwards and Grant Govel providing one of the country’s tougher Friday-Saturday starting duos. The only reason they aren’t ranked higher is because it takes more than one weekend to beat 1-11 record against Quad 1.
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This might get me yelled at, and I might deserve it. How do you sweep the No. 1 bracket and end up at No. 11? Cal Poly ran roughshod over the Los Angeles Regional, and catcher Ryan Tayman was outstanding. Ultimately, the transitive property doesn’t apply in baseball, and Cal Poly didn’t beat UCLA twice. But it does have a real chance in its super regional showdown in…
… Morgantown! West Virginia scarped through its by the skin of its teeth, and now it gets to host again as a 16-seed. The Mountaineers pulled off a miraculous comeback against Kentucky in Game 6 before walking off the Wildcats in extra innings in Game 7. Whether facing Cal Poly is a boon or not remains to be seen, but West Virginia is dancing onward.
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Mississippi State did its job in a favorable Starkville Regional, cruising through Lipscomb, Cincinnati, and Louisiana. It will now see Georgia, a team it is yet to beat this season. The MSU Bulldogs got good innings out of Tomas Valincius and Ryan McPherson that allowed their order to thump in regionals. But they need even more out of their pitching staff to stave off arguably the best team left in the field.
MORE: How Mississippi State’s Ryan McPherson plan worked perfectly in dominant regional
Hattiesburg was, legitimately, an insane regional. The higher seed didn’t win a single game, and as such, No. 4 Little Rock was able to sweep through. It beat Jacksonville State, a team many thought could have been a No. 2 seed, twice, with the bullpen doing serious heavy lifting throughout. Little Rock faces another Sun Belt team in super regionals now, a team no one expected to host.
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The third and final Trojans team in the field, Troy crushed Florida not once, but twice to get here. The Trojans, who lost 29 games this year and still got in as an at-large thanks to a brutal nonconference schedule, were built for postseason play. Troy capitalized on an exhausted Florida team to steal the Gainesville Regional. Now either it or Little Rock will be making their first CWS appearance.
This is not meant to be a slight toward the Red Storm, who looked dominant in Tallahassee, but that region was… odd. Bizarre weather, rescheduled games, and a Florida State team that often looked scuttled make this team hard to judge. It would be dishonest to call the Johnnies lucky. But now they face an Alabama team that should prove to be a more staunch test.
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Game 1: No. 3 Georgia vs No. 14 Mississippi State | 11 a.m., Saturday (ESPN)
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Game 2: No. 3 Georgia vs No. 14 Mississippi State | Noon, Sunday (ESPN)
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Game 3 (if necessary): No. 3 Georgia vs No. 14 Mississippi State | Time TBD, Monday
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Game 1: No. 5 North Carolina vs USC | 3 p.m., Friday (ESPN2)
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Game 2: No. 5 North Carolina vs USC | 2 p.m., Saturday (ESPN)
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Game 3 (f necessary): No. 5 North Carolina vs USC | Time TBD, Sunday
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Game 1: No. 6 Texas vs No. 11 Oregon | 8 p.m., Saturday (ESPN)
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Game 2: No. 6 Texas vs No. 11 Oregon | 9 p.m., Sunday (ESPN)
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Game 3 (f necessary): No. 6 Texas vs No. 11 Oregon | Time TBD, Monday
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Game 1: No. 7 Alabama vs St. John’s | 9 p.m., Saturday (ESPN2)
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Game 2: No. 7 Alabama vs St. John’s | 3 p.m., Sunday (TBD)
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Game 3 (f necessary): No. 7 Alabama vs St. John’s | Time TBD, Monday
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Game 1: No. 15 Kansas vs Oklahoma | 6 p.m., Saturday (ESPN2)
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Game 2: No. 15 Kansas vs Oklahoma | 6 p.m., Sunday (TBD)
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Game 3 (f necessary): No. 15 Kansas vs Oklahoma | Time TBD, Monday
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Game 1: Troy vs. Little Rock | 5 p.m., Friday (ESPNU)
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Game 2: Troy vs. Little Rock | 3 p.m., Saturday (ESPN2)
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Game 3 (f necessary): Troy vs. Little Rock | Time TBD, Sunday
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Game 1: No. 16 West Virginia vs. Cal Poly | Noon, Friday (ESPN2)
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Game 2: No. 16 West Virginia vs. Cal Poly | Noon, Saturday (ESPN2)
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Game 3 (f necessary): No. 16 West Virginia vs. Cal Poly | Time TBD, Sunday
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Game 1: No. 4 Auburn vs Ole Miss | 8 p.m., Friday (ESPN2)
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Game 2: No. 4 Auburn vs Ole Miss | 5 p.m., Saturday (ESPN)
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Game 3 (f necessary): No. 4 Auburn vs Ole Miss | Time TBD, Sunday
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NCAA baseball super regionals: Who are best teams left? We rank all 16
