set a course for omaha

The College World Series is the ultimate destination, and the path has been laid out for Ole Miss, Southern Miss and Mississippi State, each of which made the NCAA Tournament field of 64. Each must clear considerable hurdles in the bracket to get to Omaha. Ole Miss, hosting a regional as the No. 10 national seed, will welcome Georgia Tech, Western Kentucky and Murray State to Oxford next weekend. Tech — seeded second in the regional — is 40-17, won the ACC regular season title and was ranked 19th in the final Baseball America poll. Shortstop Kyle Lodise is an MLB draft prospect. Western Kentucky, the 3-seed, is 46-12 and comes in hot, having won the C-USA Tournament title. Should the Rebels win their regional, they’d meet the champion of the Athens Regional, where Georgia — ranked No. 3 by Baseball America — is the favorite to advance. USM, hosting a regional as the 16th national seed, welcomes Alabama, Miami and Columbia to Hattiesburg. Columbia, USM’s first-round foe, won both the regular season and tournament titles in the Ivy League. Alabama, out of the vaunted SEC, is the 2-seed in Hattiesburg and is ranked No. 18 by Baseball America; the Crimson Tide beat USM in early April. Bama’s Riley Quick, a 6-foot-6, 255-pound right-hander, is a prime pro prospect. Worth noting: Miami, the regional 3-seed, claims four national titles — the last in 2001 — and 25 — yes, 25 — CWS appearances. The Hattiesburg Regional is paired with the Nashville Regional, where Vanderbilt, the overall No. 1 seed and the SEC Tournament champ, is lurking as the heavy favorite to make the Super Regional round. Mississippi State, 34-21 in a tumultuous year, heads to the Tallahassee Regional as a 3-seed. First up for the Bulldogs is Northeastern (48-9), the CAA regular season and tournament champion and Baseball America’s No. 24. Reports say the Huskies can really pitch. Regional host Florida State, the No. 9 overall seed, is 38-14 and boasts a host of MLB draft prospects, most notably shortstop Alex Lodise. These are heady times for Magnolia State schools. MSU won the national title in 2021 and Ole Miss in 2022. USM has been in a regional nine of the past 10 seasons (there was no postseason in 2020) but only once has reached Omaha (2009). The path there in 2025 certainly ain’t easy for any of the three — but, as we know, unexpected stuff often happens in baseball.