OMAHA, Neb. – If the College World Series is like the first two rounds of this year’s NCAA baseball tournament, fans in the outfield seats at Charles Schwab Field are going to take home lots of souvenirs.
The 424 home runs hit in regionals and super regionals already are a tournament record, and at least 14 games remain to be played in the CWS.
The eight-team event opens Friday with No. 5 national seed Texas A&M (42-18) playing Oklahoma at 2 p.m. Eastern, and No. 9 Texas (47-20) meeting Notre Dame (40-15) at 7. Saturday openers match No. 2 Stanford (47-16) against Arkansas (43-19) at 2, and Ole Miss (37-22) against No. 14 Auburn (42-20) at 7.
Two double-elimination brackets will set up the best-of-three championship series that starts June 25.
Omaha’s cavernous ballpark hasn’t surrendered many homers since it opened in 2011. There were 28 in last year’s CWS, the most since the move from the old Rosenblatt Stadium. Based on what has happened across college baseball through super regionals, that number is in jeopardy even though the wind is forecast to blow in toward home plate during most of the CWS.