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2008 NCAA Division I baseball tournament

American college baseball tournament

Field	Value
Year	2008
Division	Division I
ImageSize	150px
Teams	64
CollegeWorldSeriesBallpark	Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium
City	Omaha, NE
Champions	[Fresno State](2008-fresno-state-bulldogs-baseball-team)
TitleCount	1st
Runner-Up	[Georgia](2008-georgia-bulldogs-baseball-team)
CWSCount	6th
Coach	Mike Batesole
CoachCount	1st
MOP	Tommy Mendonca
MOPTeam	Fresno State
tournament_link	NCAA Division I Baseball Championship

| Runner-Up=Georgia

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.

The 2008 tournament culminated with 8 teams advancing to the College World Series at historic Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska, on June 14.

The Fresno State Bulldogs beat the Georgia Bulldogs in the best-of-three championship series to win the NCAA Men's Division I Baseball Championship. Fresno State became the lowest seeded team (4th in the Regionals) to win the National Championship in NCAA history, 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 only the third national championship of any kind in school history, following the 1968 NCAA Men's Tennis Tournament and the 1998 NCAA Division I softball national champions.

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.

Bids

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.

School	Conference	Record (Conf)	Berth	Last NCAA appearance
	Pacific-10	45–11 (16–8)	Won Pac-10	2007 (College World Series)
	MEAC	36–20 (17–1)	Won MEAC tourney	2007 (Tallahassee Regional)
	Patriot League	29–22 (10–10)	Won Patriot playoff	2003 (Austin Regional)
	Atlantic 10	43–14 (19–8)	Won A-10 tournament	2007 (Columbia, S.C. Regional)
	Big South	47–12 (17–3)	Won Big South tourney	2007 (Myrtle Beach Regional)
	Ivy League	22–28 (15–5)	Won Ivy playoff	1976 (Northeast Regional)
	Ohio Valley	27–28 (13–13)	Won OVC tournament	1999 (Waco Regional)
	Mid-American	25–32 (15–8)	Won MAC tournament	2003 (Lincoln Regional)
	SoCon	43–16 (19–8)	Won SoCon tourney	2006 (Clemson Regional)
[Fresno State](2008-fresno-state-bulldogs-baseball-team)	WAC	37–27 (14–10)	Won WAC tourney	2007 (San Diego Regional)
	C-USA	39–22 (19–11)	Won C-USA tourney	2006 (Norman Regional)
	Horizon	34–20 (17–6)	Won Horizon tourney	2007 (Long Beach Regional)
	Colonial Athletic	38–17 (20–9)	Won CAA tourney	2002 (Columbia Regional)
	A-Sun	32–28 (19–14)	Won A-Sun tourney	First appearance
	Big West	37–19 (16–8)	Won Big West	2007 (Long Beach Reg.)
	Big East	41–19 (16–11)	Won Big East tourney	2007 (College World Series)
[LSU](2008-lsu-tigers-baseball-team)	SEC	43–16 (18–11)	Won SEC Tournament	2005 (Baton Rouge Reg.)
[Miami (FL)](2008-miami-hurricanes-baseball-team)	ACC	47–8 (23–5)	Won ACC tourney	2007 (Columbia, Mo., Regional)
	Big Ten	45–12 (26–5)	Won Big Ten tourney	2007 (Corvallis Super Regional)
	NEC	21–32 (13–11)	Won NEC tourney	First appearance
	Summit	46–12 (24–4)	Won Summit tourney	2007 (Wichita Regional)
	Metro Atlantic	29–25 (13–10)	Won MAAC tourney	1994 (Atlantic I Regional)
	Southland	37–23 (18–12)	Won Southland tourney	2007 (Oxford Regional)
	WCC	41–15 (16–5)	Won WCC playoff	2007 (San Diego Regional)
	America East	34–24 (14–10)	Won AmEast tourney	2004 (Kinston Regional)
	Big 12	37–20 (15–12)	Won Big 12 tourney	2007 (Round Rock Regional)
	MWC	43–17 (19–5)	Won MWC tourney	2007 (Houston Regional)
	SWAC	16–32 (7–17)	Won SWAC tourney	2004 (Houston Regional)
	Sun Belt	33–25 (16–14)	Won SBC tourney	2004 (Oxford Regional)
[Wichita State](2008-wichita-state-shockers-baseball-team)	Missouri Valley	44–15 (19–5)	Won MVC tourney	2007 (Wichita Super Regional)

Bids by conference

Conference	Total	Schools
Southeastern	9	, , [Florida](2008-florida-gators-baseball-team), [Georgia](2008-georgia-bulldogs-baseball-team), [Kentucky](2008-kentucky-wildcats-baseball-team), [LSU](2008-lsu-tigers-baseball-team), , , [Vanderbilt](2008-vanderbilt-commodores-baseball-team)
Atlantic Coast	6	[Florida State](2008-florida-state-seminoles-baseball-team), , [Miami (FL)](2008-miami-hurricanes-baseball-team), [North Carolina](2008-north-carolina-tar-heels-baseball-team), ,
Big 12	6	[Missouri](2008-missouri-tigers-baseball-team), [Nebraska](2008-nebraska-cornhuskers-baseball-team), , , ,
Pacific-10	5	[Arizona](2008-arizona-wildcats-baseball-team), , , [Stanford](2008-stanford-cardinal-baseball-team), [UCLA](2008-ucla-bruins-baseball-team)
Conference USA	5	, , , ,
Big West	4	, , ,
Big East	2	,
Colonial	2	,
Sun Belt	2	,
WCC	2	,
Atlantic Sun	1
Atlantic 10	1
America East	1
Big South	1
Big Ten	1
Horizon	1
Independent	1
Ivy	1
Metro Atlantic	1
Mid-American	1
Mid-Eastern	1
Missouri Valley	1	[Wichita State](2008-wichita-state-shockers-baseball-team)
Mountain West	1
Northeast	1
Ohio Valley	1
Patriot	1
Southern	1
Southland	1
Southwestern	1
Summit	1
Western Athletic	1	[Fresno State](2008-fresno-state-bulldogs-baseball-team)

National seeds

Bold indicates CWS participant.

Miami (FL) (47–8)
North Carolina (46–12)
(45–11)
Florida State (48–10)
(37–19)
**** (42–13)
LSU (43-16-1)
Georgia (35-21-1)

Regionals and super regionals

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.

Day	Game	Teams
Fri. 5/30/08	1	2/3 or 1/4 (host choice)
2	2/3 or 1/4 (host choice)
Sat. 5/31/08	3	Loser Games 1 & 2
4	Winner Games 1 & 2
Sun. 6/1/08	5	Winner Game 3 vs Loser Game 4
6	Winner Games 4 & 5
Mon. 6/2/08	7	if needed, only if winner of game 5 wins game 6

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

Athens Super Regional

Fullerton Super Regional

Tallahassee Super Regional

Cary Super Regional

Baton Rouge Super Regional

Houston Super Regional

Tempe Super Regional

College World Series

Participants

School	Conference	Record (conference)	Head coach	CWS appearances
Not including this year
[Florida State](2008-florida-state-seminoles-baseball-team)	ACC	54–12 (24–6)	Mike Martin	18
(last: [2000](2000-college-world-series))	2nd
([1970](1970-college-world-series), [1986](1986-college-world-series), [1999](1999-college-world-series))	25–36
[Fresno State](2008-fresno-state-bulldogs-baseball-team)	WAC	42–29 (21–11)	Mike Batesole	3
(last: [1991](1991-college-world-series))	3rd
([1959](1959-college-world-series))	4–6
[Georgia](2008-georgia-bulldogs-baseball-team)	SEC	41–23–1 (20–9–1)	David Perno	5
(last: [2006](2006-college-world-series))	1st
([1990](1990-college-world-series))	6–9
[LSU](2008-lsu-tigers-baseball-team)	SEC	48–17–1 (18–11–1)	Paul Mainieri	13
(last: [2004](2004-college-world-series))	1st
([1991](1991-college-world-series), [1993](1993-college-world-series), [1996](1996-college-world-series), [1997](1997-college-world-series), [2000](2000-college-world-series))	29–17
[Miami (FL)](2008-miami-hurricanes-baseball-team)	ACC	52–9 (23–5)	Jim Morris	22
(last: [2006](2006-college-world-series))	1st
([1982](1982-college-world-series), [1985](1985-college-world-series), [1999](1999-college-world-series), [2001](2001-college-world-series))	46–36
[North Carolina](2008-north-carolina-tar-heels-baseball-team)	ACC	51–12 (22–7)	Mike Fox	6
(last: [2007](2007-college-world-series))	2nd
([2006](2006-college-world-series), [2007](2007-college-world-series))	10–13
	C-USA	47–13 (21–3)	Wayne Graham	6
(last: [2008](2008-college-world-series))	1st
([2003](2003-college-world-series))	10–11
[Stanford](2008-stanford-cardinal-baseball-team)	Pac-10	39–22–2 (14–10)	Mark Marquess	15
(last: [2003](2003-college-world-series))	1st
([1987](1987-college-world-series), [1988](1988-college-world-series))	38–27

Bracket

Championship series

Monday, June 23

Game 14, 6:00 PM

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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 College World Series All-Tournament Team.

Position	Player	School
P	Alex White	North Carolina Tar Heels	border=0}}
Justin Wilson	Fresno State Bulldogs	border=0}}	Fresno State
C	Jason Castro	Stanford Cardinal	border=0}}	Stanford
1B	Dustin Ackley	North Carolina Tar Heels	border=0}}
2B	Erik Wetzel	Fresno State Bulldogs	border=0}}	Fresno State
3B	Tommy Mendonca (MOP)	Fresno State Bulldogs	border=0}}	Fresno State
SS	Gordon Beckham	Georgia Bulldogs	border=0}}	Georgia
OF	Tim Fedroff	North Carolina Tar Heels	border=0}}
Steve Susdorf	Fresno State Bulldogs	border=0}}	Fresno State
Steve Detwiler	Fresno State Bulldogs	border=0}}	Fresno State
DH	Ryan Peisel	Georgia Bulldogs	border=0}}	Georgia

Record by conference

Conference	# of Bids	Win %	RF	SR	WS	NS	CS
1	10–4	1	1	1	1	1	1
9	24–21	5	2	2	1	1
6	27–15	5	4	3	1
5	18–11	4	3	1	1
5	14–10	5	1	1
4	10–9	2	2
6	11–13	4	1
1	4–2	1	1
1	3–2	1	1
2	5–4	2
2	3–4	1
2	1–4
2	1–4
	8–36	1

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.

Tournament notes

Oregon State was not invited to the NCAA tournament, marking the first time since 1991 that the defending champion did not return to the following year's tourney (Georgia).
Clemson was not invited to the NCAA tournament, breaking a streak of consecutive appearances for the Tigers that dated back to the 1987 season.
Dallas Baptist made its first appearance. DBU was the first independent institution to qualify for the Division I tourney (other than Miami (Fla.), which kept an independent schedule during its years in the Big East) since Cal State Northridge did so in 1992.
Michigan was the only non-#1-seed selected to host a regional, forcing #1 seed Arizona to play an away regional, as the NCAA organizing committee said it was trying to maintain geographical balance with the host sites.

Round 1

Four No. 1 seeded regional host schools, out of 16 total, lost first-round games to No. 4 seeds:
- Georgia 7, Lipscomb 10
- Stanford 2, UC Davis 4
- Florida St. 0, Bucknell 7
- Long Beach St. 3, Fresno State 7
Five No. 3 seeds upset No. 2 seeds in the opening round.

Round 2

Fresno State was the only #4 seed to register wins in the first two rounds of the tournament.
Tulane was the only #3 seed to register wins in the first two rounds of the tournament.
9 of the 16 #1 seeds registered wins in the first two rounds of the tournament.

Super regionals

Six of the eight national seeds advanced to the College World Series. Only #3 seed Arizona State and #5 seed Cal State Fullerton were unable to make it past super regionals.
Fresno State became the first team in the history of the NCAA tournament to make it to the College World Series as a #4 regional seed.

CWS records tied or broken

Most runs scored in an inning: 11 (tied)(Stanford, 9th inning, Game 1 against Florida State)
Most runners left on base in a nine-inning game: 17 (tied) (Florida State, Game 5 against Miami)
Most doubles hit by a player: 3 (tied) by Rich Poythress Georgia against Stanford, Game 11.
Most losses by a team who won the College World Series: 31 (Fresno State)
Lowest seed to win the College World Series: #4 regional seed, #89 RPI (Fresno State)

Television/radio/online coverage

Regionals

During the regionals, ESPNU showed games from Coral Gables (Karl Ravech and Barry Larkin) and Fullerton (Kyle Peterson), with Mike Gleason and Will Kimmey in the Charlotte ESPNU studios.
CBS College Sports Network was not originally scheduled to show any games, as in years past. However, it aired Nebraska's Friday and Saturday games through a simulcast with Nebraska Educational Telecommunications.
The Baton Rouge regional was shown regionally on Cox Sports Television, the Athens regional on Comcast Sports Southeast/Charter Sports Southeast, and the final two days of the Tallahassee regional aired on Sun Sports.

Super regionals

All super-regional games were shown on ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU on television and ESPN360 through online streaming video. Announcers included Karl Ravech, Pam Ward, Dave Ryan, Brian Jordan, Robin Ventura, and Kyle Peterson.

Mike Gleason and Will Kimmey made up the studio team (in Bristol, Connecticut) for both regional and super-regional rounds.

College World Series

All College World Series games were shown on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, or ESPN Classic on television and ESPN360 through online streaming video.
Westwood One broadcast all CWS championship series games on radio. Participating institutions were allowed local broadcast rights in the earlier rounds, and games were also available on XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio.

References

(April 2019)
"Registration Required".

Info: Wikipedia Source

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