A Look at the eight College World Series Teams headed to Omaha

Plenty of potential Top-10 Picks Headed to Omaha for the 2023 College World Series

June 13, 2023 337 4 minutes readMLB Picks & Parlays

Here's A Look at the eight College World Series Teams headed to Omaha — ERIC FRANCIS / GETTY IMAGES

Top-Seeded Wake Forest Is the Heavy Favorite to Win Its First College World Series Title

Top-Seeded Wake Forest Heavy Favorite to Win First College World Series Title Since 1955

There are five ranked teams among the eight teams. However, things get underway in the double-elimination tournament with an unseeded matchup in Omaha between Oral Roberts and Texas Christian on Friday, followed by a Virginia-Florida showdown before some of the pre-tournament favorites hit the field on Saturday as part of the baseball schedule in the most anticipated event of the college baseball season.

While three SEC teams made it through the regionals and the super regionals. However, defending champion Ole Miss and 2021 winner Mississippi State are not in Omaha, meaning South Carolina, the 2010 and 2011 CWS winner, is still the last team to win back-to-back titles.

Here’s a look at the field for the tournament that starts this weekend.

Wake Forest (+260 to win the title)

The top-seeded Demon Deacons emphatically punched their ticket to Omaha by hitting nine home runs in a 22-5 win over No. 16 seed Alabama. Any talk of the College World Series teams in the field has to start with this talented and deep Wake Forest squad.

Brock Wilken, who hit three of those homers, is one of three Division I players with at least 30 HRs. Teammate Nick Kurtz has 24.

The pitching staff is led by junior Rhett Lowder (15-0, 1.92 ERA, 131 strikeouts) and sophomore Josh Hartle (11-2, .80 ERA, 131 strikeouts). Seth Keener (7-1, 2.23 ERA) has started seven times and come out of the bullpen in 14 others, while sophomore Sean Sullivan is one of two Division I pitchers to strike out at least 15 batters per nine innings as Wake Forest is the only Division I team with an ERA under 3.00.

While not as big of a favorite as Oklahoma was on the softball side of things when looking at the World Series odds, it will not be easy to slow down this Wake Forest team.

Louisiana State (+350 to win the title)

Dylan Crews has a .434 batting average, the highest among qualified hitters in the CWS field. He is being touted as a potential No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft. He is one of the players the pro scouts are monitoring when it comes to the College World Series teams headed to Omaha.

Paul Skenes (12-2, 1.77 ERA, 188 strikeouts, 18 walks) gives the Tigers a dominant pitcher to call upon. Skenes leads all Division I hurlers with 15.8 strikeouts per nine innings. He could easily challenge Crews to be the No. 1 pick.

LSU is also second nationally with 133 home runs.

Florida (+375 to win the title)

Jack Caglianone is the national leader with 31 home runs as the Gators are fourth among Division I teams with 129 home runs. Caglianone is also 7-3 as a pitcher.

Six different Gators have at least 10 home runs. Hurston Waldrep leads Florida with nine wins and 142 strikeouts.

Wyatt Langford (.373 batting average, .769 slugging percentage) is another player very much on the radar of the pro scouts.

Virginia (+600 to win the title)

Jake Gelof has 23 home runs while catcher Kyle Teel is in the top 10 nationally with a .418 batting average and Griff O’Ferrall comes in at .398 to go with 16 stolen bases. Don’t be surprised if Teel is a top-10 draft pick.

Virginia leads the country with a .335 team batting average and is fourth with a 3.77 earned run average.

Pitching depth is not an issue led by Connelly Early (12-2, 3.06 ETA), Brian Edington, and Nick Parker (8-0).

Virginia, which won the title in 2015, is the last team from the Atlantic Coast Conference to win it all.

Tennessee (+800 to win the title)

Tennessee is second only to Wake Forest in ERA so that is the calling card for the Volunteers as only one pitcher has a losing record.
Chase Dollander and Chase Burns both have more than 100 strikeouts.

Griffin Merritt leads Tennessee with 18 home runs and Zane Denton has a team-best 58 RBIs.

Texas Christian (+800 to win the title)

TCU is sixth in Division I with 139 stolen bases so expect the Horned Frogs to run early and run often in Omaha.

Starting pitching could be an issue once TCU gets by Kole Klecker as the next three pitchers with the most starts have ERAs between 5.25-6.75.

Karson Bowen has aided the pitching staff by throwing out 13 potential base stealers while hitting a team-best .345.

Stanford (+1000 to win the title)

Led by Alberto Rios’ 18 home runs and 71 RBIs, Stanford has six players with at least 14 homers and seven with at least 47 RBIs.

The 63 errors are a bit concerning, as is the 5.75 team ERA as the Cardinal head to Omaha.

Ace Quinn Matthews made some news with a 156-pitch effort in the super regionals.

Oral Roberts (+2800 to win the title)

Since 2004, the only programs from outside the Power-5 conferences to win the championship are the 2008 Fresno State and 2016 Coastal Carolina teams, so history is not on Oral Roberts’ side.

Jonah Cox (.420, 11 home runs, 28 stolen bases) leads a batting order with seven .300 hitters. Harley Gollert, Jakob Hall, and Brooks Fowler are a combined 27-5, and Cade Denton (15 saves, 78 strikeouts in 58.1 innings) is light’s out closer.

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June 13, 2023

337 4 minutes read