After some Super Regionals concluded over the weekend, the field is close to being set for the 2013 College World Series, which launches this weekend in Omaha with a few old and new faces, including LSU and Indiana.
Five of the eight Super Regionals have concluded. For the most part, the current lineup for the CWS is made up of baseball’s traditional powerhouses: UCLA defeated Cal State-Fullerton, North Carolina State defeated Rice, and Louisville defeated Vanderbilt. All in all, these teams were all numbers one or two in the seedings.
The two big stories of the Super Regional concerned powerhouse LSU and newcomer Indiana. LSU swept Oklahoma to make a return to the College World Series for the first time since 2009. (Believe it or not: LSU has never played a game at the new College World Series ballpark, TD Ameritrade Park; its last CWS game came at Rosenblatt Stadium.) There’s a college arms race going on when it comes to facilities, and Alex Box Stadium is seen as being a big factor in the Tigers’ resurgence.
A home-field advantage wasn’t enough for Florida State, however, with Indiana sweeping to make the College World Series for the first time in school history. It wasn’t totally unexpected — the Hoosiers won the Big Ten and were a number-one seed — but it’s always a story when a Big Ten team makes the College World Series, depite the many murals of the University of Minnesota’s Dave Winfield scattered throughout TD Ameritrade Park. The last time a Big Ten team made the College World Series was 1984’s University of Michigan team.
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