| Year: | 2008 |
| Division: | Division I |
| Teams: | 64 |
| Collegeworldseriesballpark: | Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium |
| City: | Omaha, NE |
| Champions: | Fresno State |
| Titlecount: | 1st |
| Runner-Up: | Georgia |
| Cwscount: | 6th |
| Coach: | Mike Batesole |
| Coachcount: | 1st |
| Mop: | Tommy Mendonca |
| Mopteam: | Fresno State |
| Tournament Link: | NCAA Division I Baseball Championship |
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.[1]
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) | ||
| 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) | ||
| SEC | 43–16 (18–11) | Won SEC Tournament | 2005 (Baton Rouge Reg.) | ||
| 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) | ||
| Missouri Valley | 44–15 (19–5) | Won MVC tourney | 2007 (Wichita Super Regional) |
| Conference | Total | Schools |
|---|---|---|
| Southeastern | 9 | ,, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU,,, Vanderbilt |
| Atlantic Coast | 6 | Florida State,, Miami (FL), North Carolina,, |
| Big 12 | 6 | Missouri, Nebraska,,,, |
| Pacific-10 | 5 | Arizona,,, Stanford, UCLA |
| 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 |
| Mountain West | 1 | |
| Northeast | 1 | |
| Ohio Valley | 1 | |
| Patriot | 1 | |
| Southern | 1 | |
| Southland | 1 | |
| Southwestern | 1 | |
| Summit | 1 | |
| Western Athletic | 1 | Fresno State |
Bold indicates CWS participant.
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.
Bold indicates winner. * indicates extra innings.
Hosted by Miami (FL) at Mark Light Field
Hosted by Georgia at Foley Field
Hosted by Cal State Fullerton at Goodwin Field
Hosted by Florida State at Dick Howser Stadium
Hosted by North Carolina at USA Baseball National Training Complex
Hosted by LSU at Alex Box Stadium
Hosted by Rice at Reckling Park
Hosted by Arizona State at Packard Stadium
| School | Conference | Record (conference) | Head coach | CWS appearances | Best CWS finish | CWS record Not including this year | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 54–12 (24–6) | 18 (last: 2000) | 2nd (1970, 1986, 1999) | 25–36 | ||||
| 42–29 (21–11) | 3 (last: 1991) | 3rd (1959) | 4–6 | ||||
| 41–23–1 (20–9–1) | 5 (last: 2006) | 1st (1990) | 6–9 | ||||
| 48–17–1 (18–11–1) | 13 (last: 2004) | 1st (1991, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000) | 29–17 | ||||
| 52–9 (23–5) | 22 (last: 2006) | 1st (1982, 1985, 1999, 2001) | 46–36 | ||||
| 51–12 (22–7) | 6 (last: 2007) | 2nd (2006, 2007) | 10–13 | ||||
| 47–13 (21–3) | 6 (last: 2008) | 1st (2003) | 10–11 | ||||
| 39–22–2 (14–10) | 15 (last: 2003) | 1st (1987, 1988) | 38–27 |
The following players were members of the College World Series All-Tournament Team.
| Position | Player | School | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| P | style= | |||
| style= | Fresno State | |||
| C | style= | Stanford | ||
| 1B | style= | |||
| 2B | Erik Wetzel | style= | Fresno State | |
| 3B | Tommy Mendonca (MOP) | style= | Fresno State | |
| SS | style= | Georgia | ||
| OF | Tim Fedroff | style= | ||
| Steve Susdorf | style= | Fresno State | ||
| Steve Detwiler | style= | Fresno State | ||
| DH | Ryan Peisel | style= | Georgia |
| Conference |
| Record | Win % | RF | SR | WS | NS | CS | NC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WAC | 1 | 10–4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| SEC | 9 | 24–21 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||
| ACC | 6 | 27–15 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 1 | ||||
| Pac-10 | 5 | 18–11 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Conference USA | 5 | 14–10 | 5 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Big West | 4 | 10–9 | 2 | 2 | ||||||
| Big 12 | 6 | 11–13 | 4 | 1 | ||||||
| MVC | 1 | 4–2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Big South | 1 | 3–2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| WCC | 2 | 5–4 | 2 | |||||||
| Colonial | 2 | 3–4 | 1 | |||||||
| Big East | 2 | 1–4 | ||||||||
| Sun Belt | 2 | 1–4 | ||||||||
| 8–36 | 1 |
Mike Gleason and Will Kimmey made up the studio team (in Bristol, Connecticut) for both regional and super-regional rounds.