With the Super Regionals set for the 2024 NCAA Baseball Tournament here were some of the biggest surprises from the Regional round.
#4 Evansville advancing out of Greenville Regional
While everyone watching was aware of the red hot Purple Aces coming into this tournament, it was hard to seriously think they would be able to advance out of Regional including East Carolina and Wake Forest. After losing big to ECU in their second matchup of the Regional, they came back in the Regional finale and showed grit to advance to their first Super Regional.
Two top 10 pitching prospects get shelled in crucial starts
Something many scouts were excited about in this Regional round was a chance to see Chase Burns and Hagen Smith pitch high stakes games. We got just that in Wake Forest against ECU and Arkansas against Kansas State. ECU and Kansas State got to the two star pitchers and both teams would ultimately lose those games and eventually get eliminated. Chase Burns would give up five hits and four earned runs. While a rather uncharacteristic start, Burns still struck out seven. Hagen Smith would give up four hits and six runs in what ultimately gave the Razorbacks their first loss, later to be eliminated by SEMO.Â
Arkansas gets eliminated by Southeast Missouri State
The four seeds gave a lot of teams problems across all Regionals, but one of the biggest surprises was one of the top teams in the country getting eliminated by one. SEMO gave Arkansas issues in their first matchup, but Arkansas prevailed. In their final matchup, SEMO completely outplayed the Razorbacks, out-hitting them 9-6, and taking the elimination game 6-3. Another heartbreaking end to a season that had incredibly high expectations for Arkansas.
Vanderbilt takes back to back losses and quick elimination
A team you can usually never count out in the postseason is Vanderbilt. This year however was not the case. Vanderbilt did not look like their usual selves in this Regional and took a quick exit out of Clemson. The Commodores would give up 23 runs in their two losses, one being a blowout loss to Coastal Carolina and another an extremely disappointing one run loss to High Point. While Vandy should be back, this postseason will undoubtedly haunt Commodores fans for a while.
West Virginia advances out of stacked Tucson Regional
Out of all the teams in the Tucson Regional, West Virginia was not on many people’s radar to advance despite having talent like JJ Wetherholt. With a win over Dallas Baptist, and two wins over Grand Canyon, the Mountaineers advanced to the Super Regional for the first time in program history.