The Seven Faculty Baseball Groups You Want To Know in 2026

For those who’re not already into faculty baseball, I’ll provide the briefest doable type of my annual elevator pitch. It is available in three elements. First: The regional spherical of the NCAA Match isn’t for one more 4 months, however it’s among the best weekends of TV in all of sports activities. That’s true even if you happen to drop in chilly, however it’s higher if you understand a number of the characters concerned. The time to begin one’s homework is now.

Second: For those who watch faculty baseball, you may have opinions in regards to the draft that’ll make you look good in entrance of your folks. For those who’re incorrect, nobody will bear in mind who you had been even speaking about, however if you happen to’re proper, you may dine out on that prediction ceaselessly.

Third: What are you going to do, watch spring coaching? Davy Andrews wrote final week a couple of blurry photograph of a white man with a goatee in a blue uniform. He says that was Nolan McLean, however for all I do know, it was Civil Battle Basic Daniel Sickles. You possibly can watch significant common season baseball tomorrow, or you may delude your self into considering there’s something to be discovered from watching Carlos Correa get walked by a minor league pitcher with a uniform quantity within the 80s.

An precise exhaustive faculty baseball preview takes months of analysis and dozens of articles, even for specialist publications that may commit a full workers to the enterprise. Me? I’m one man with about 3,000 phrases to play with, so I’m supplying you with a quick rundown of seven groups I’m enthusiastic about. These seven groups embrace nationwide championship contenders — particularly the 2 heavy preseason Faculty World Collection favorites — however this isn’t a rating. I attempted to select good, gifted groups from a number of conferences that might find yourself having attention-grabbing seasons. Make of it what you’ll.

Coastal Carolina
Greatest identified exterior the baseball world for its teal soccer subject and proximity to Myrtle Seaside (for higher or worse), Coastal is a university baseball powerhouse. The Chanticleers are the final non-power-conference crew to win the Faculty World Collection, they usually virtually added a second title in 2025, shedding to LSU within the CWS last.

It may’ve been a transition yr below first-year head coach Kevin Schnall; earlier head coach Gary Gilmore had spent 29 years in situ, together with that nationwide championship yr of 2016. However Schnall, his successor, had spent 26 of the earlier 30 seasons in Conway as both a participant or assistant coach. In his first season on the helm, Schnall’s children went 56-13 general and 26-4 within the Solar Belt, and at one level reeled off 26 wins in a row. That 56-win complete blew away the earlier report for wins by a rookie head coach, and Schnall took house extra coach of the yr awards than he can slot in his trophy cupboard.

The Chants misplaced Caden Bodine, winner of the Buster Posey Award as the highest catcher in faculty baseball, to the draft, together with weekend starters Jacob Morrison and Riley Eikhoff. However three of 4 beginning infielders return, together with ace Cameron Flukey and never one however three relievers who made the NCBWA’s Stopper of the 12 months watchlist. Pitching coach Matt Williams led the Chanticleers to the second-lowest ERA within the nation final yr; with Flukey and that bullpen, I’d anticipate a repeat efficiency from the strongest mid-major crew within the nation.

Key Participant: Cameron Flukey, RHP
Flukey fought no. 3 general choose Kade Anderson to a standstill in Sport 1 of the nationwide championship sequence final yr, and with a robust junior season, he may simply go that prime within the draft himself. The thin 6-foot-6 righty from the Jersey Shore will get probably the most out of his top with an over-the-top launch, contrasting a mid-to-upper-90s fastball with a devilish upper-70s hook. He’s one in every of my favourite pitchers to observe in all of faculty baseball.

Georgia Tech
Talking of groups that lately misplaced legendary head coaches. Three of the 25 winningest coaches in faculty baseball historical past — together with Gilmore — known as it quits after 2024; Georgia Tech’s Danny Corridor adopted swimsuit after final season.

Changing Corridor is James Ramsey, whom faculty baseball followers bear in mind as that killer Florida State outfielder with glasses from a number of years in the past. Ramsey, a 2012 first-round choose, made it to Triple-A rapidly however by no means managed to crack the massive leagues. He caught on as an assistant coach below Corridor one season after his taking part in profession ended, and was named Corridor’s successor on the age of 35. You would possibly know Ramsey’s work as a hitting coach: Justyn-Henry Malloy, Kristian Campbell, and Chandler Simpson had been all his college students.

Corridor performed for a nationwide championship in his first yr with the Yellow Jackets, and Ramsey has a shot to do the identical, as a result of this lineup is loaded. D1Baseball ranks the highest gamers at every place earlier than the season; Georgia Tech has the no. 1 outfielder (Drew Burress), no. 2 second baseman (Cal switch Jarren Advincula), no. 2 catcher (Vahn Lackey), top-30 gamers on the different three infield positions, and two different top-50 outfielders. The Jackets hit .314/.415/.539 as a crew final yr, with 81 stolen bases in 92 makes an attempt; that appears like a stable baseline expectation for 2026.

Key Participant: Drew Burress, OF
It is a quick man — 90% of baseball gamers who say they’re 5-foot-9 try to sneak one previous you — with a stable operating again construct who has produced 44 house runs and 86 complete extra-base hits in 118 profession faculty video games. Gamers Burress’ dimension with any type of status for constructive make-up usually get pigeonholed as grinders. It’s meant as a praise, however it hides the truth that a few of these guys, like Burress, have scouting playing cards stuffed with fives and sixes. So right here’s a real praise I’ll pay Burress: The way in which folks discuss him jogs my memory of how folks talked about Alex Bregman in his draft yr.

UCLA
The Bruins celebrated their first yr within the Huge Ten by successful 48 video games and tying for the regular-season convention title, and making their first journey to Omaha since 2025. And whereas most prime groups get shredded each summer season by the draft and switch portal, UCLA solely misplaced one participant to the professionals — Twelfth-round pitcher Cody Delvecchio — and convey again virtually each different participant of import.

Eight of UCLA’s prime 9 gamers final yr in plate appearances had been sophomores, together with star shortstop Roch Cholowsky, the early Golden Spikes frontrunner. (Extra on him in a second.) And whereas the Bruins didn’t lose a lot, they added former Texas outfielder Will Gasparino — a 6-foot-6 slugger who hit 13 house runs final yr — and managed to get Pirates second-rounder Angel Cervantes, a right-handed pitcher, to campus. This needs to be quite a bit just like the crew that went to the Faculty World Collection final yr, solely higher in each method.

D1Baseball and Baseball America have UCLA because the no. 1 crew within the preseason ballot; the coaches’ ballot and the NCBWA ballot have UCLA second behind LSU. So if you happen to miss UCLA early within the season, don’t fear; they’ll most likely nonetheless be taking part in in June.

Participant: Roch Cholowsky, SS
I met Cholowsky on the Draft Mix in 2023; again then, he was a terrific defensive shortstop with magnetic, famous person charisma however minor questions in regards to the bat and general athletic profile. He would’ve gone within the late first spherical or early second if his bonus calls for hadn’t made him borderline unsingable. The son of a longtime main league scout who grew up across the Cactus League complexes, Cholowsky strongly most popular to spend a pair years at UCLA earlier than going professional.

That turned out to be a great determination. Cholowsky began as a freshman and hit properly: .308/.399/.500, with eight house runs, or a 115 wRC+ within the bonkers faculty offensive setting. Then he went berserk in a 66-game sophomore marketing campaign: .353/.480/.710, with 23 house runs, 80 runs scored, 74 RBIs, and half once more as many walks as strikeouts. And once more, he’s a plus defensive shortstop. That is, in brief, your presumptive no. 1 general draft choose come July.

LSU
LSU is both the perfect crew east of the Rockies or the perfect crew within the nation full cease, relying on how you are feeling about UCLA.

Beneath head coach Jay Johnson, LSU has at all times hit the switch market exhausting, and with two nationwide championships previously three years, you may’t actually argue with the outcomes. This yr’s Tigers have some enjoyable transfers as properly: former Oregon State infielder Trent Caraway, and former Grand Canyon first baseman Zach Yorke, who’s listed at 6-foot-2, 295 kilos.

As a longtime supporter of the extensive faculty first baseman, Yorke’s arrival in Baton Rouge excites me. Because it ought to Johnson, who loves a hoss regardless of being a small man himself. He’s coached Paul Skenes and Tommy White at LSU, Bobby Dalbec at Arizona, and Kris Bryant as an assistant on the College of San Diego.

However regardless of the customary inflow of transfers, Johnson’s squad has loads of returning expertise from final yr’s nationwide championship crew. The perfect participant within the lineup is outfielder Derek Curiel, who was an on-base machine (.345/.470/.519) as a freshman, and can be making an attempt so as to add some pop as he matures, alongside transferring from left subject to heart.

Key Participant: Steven Milam, SS
However my favourite participant on this crew is Steven Milam, one other shortstop I interviewed on the 2023 Mix. He’s sufficiently small to slot in Drew Burress’ pocket, however he hits exhausting line drives all around the subject from either side of the plate.

And he performs with tons of aptitude. Milam dyed his hair with purple and gold tiger stripes for the 2024 postseason, which you’d’ve observed after he hit a walk-off house run in his first NCAA Match sport.

I bear in mind asking him how his large leg kick would translate to varsity or the professionals, and he appeared legitimately irritated by the implication that it may not. There’s a ton to nitpick in his scouting profile on the subsequent degree, however Milam is a terrific faculty participant.

Mississippi State
Brian O’Connor is a dwelling legend. An Omaha native who reached the Faculty World Collection whereas pitching for Creighton, there’s an precise statue of him exterior Charles Schwab Subject Omaha, house of the Faculty World Collection. Along with his one journey there as a participant, O’Connor made seven others as head coach at Virginia — the one seven journeys to Omaha in program historical past — and gained a nationwide championship in 2015. In 2027 or early 2028 on the newest, he’ll break the 1,000-win threshold.
O’Connor ran issues in Charlottesville throughout his 22 seasons there, and he may’ve stayed one other 22 years, gained a ton extra, and been extra beloved than Thomas Jefferson when he hung ‘em up. As an alternative, he’s off to Mississippi State, which is the type of high-risk/high-reward transfer I genuinely didn’t suppose O’Connor had in him.

For those who comply with virtually some other sport, you understand Mississippi State as an also-ran on the absolute most, however this is among the marquee applications in faculty baseball. They’ve the Cadillac of faculty stadiums within the 15,500-seat Dudy Noble Subject, and more cash than God. I’ve been requested once in a while what faculty has the perfect ambiance, and I trip between Mississippi State and LSU, relying on whom I’m least afraid of offending on the time. (It’s a alternative between being crushed to demise with cowbells or drowned in a crawfish pot.)

O’Connor is greater than doubling his wage by transferring southwest, however he’s taking up a hell of a problem. His predecessor, Chris Lemonis, made the Faculty World Collection in his first season in Starkville. Then got here the COVID-shortened 2020 season, after which in 2021 Lemonis led the Bulldogs to the primary nationwide championship at school historical past. Not program historical past — Mississippi State had by no means earlier than gained a nationwide championship in any crew sport. That’s legend-making stuff.

Sadly, Mississippi State went 26-30 in 2022, and Lemonis was on the new seat principally from his title protection yr to the second he obtained canned in mid-2025. This isn’t a straightforward crowd to please.

At Mississippi State, O’Connor can have assets the likes of which he couldn’t have imagined even at old-money UVA, however he had higher convert these assets into constant journeys to Omaha. Ask Lemonis how rapidly issues can go sideways right here.

Key Participant: Aidan Teel, OF
One of many issues that outlined O’Connor’s tenure at UVA was his capability to reap the benefits of the truth that the Mid-Atlantic states are a university baseball vacuum. If an elite highschool participant in jap Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, or Delaware had an curiosity in taking part in faculty ball, O’Connor would have him. And if mentioned participant had a youthful brother, O’Connor would recruit the pair.

So it got here to move with Zack and Jake Gelof of Rehoboth Seaside, Dealware, and now Kyle and Aidan Teel of Mahwah, New Jersey. The elder Teel, now of the Chicago White Sox, performed for O’Connor at UVA, the place Aidan, a pitcher, adopted. Aidan Teel took a medical redshirt his freshman yr after tearing his UCL, then posted a 7.88 ERA as a redshirt freshman, at which level O’Connor moved him to heart subject.

It was there that Teel flourished, hitting .317/.442/.538 in his sophomore season, and when his coach moved to Mississippi State, Teel adopted. So did former UVA commit Jack Bauer, the hardest-throwing left-handed pitcher in highschool baseball historical past, and a number of different transfers. Johnson obtained on the nationwide championship scoreboard at LSU with a microwave-ready roster of spectacular transfers; maybe his new convention rival can do the identical.

UConn
The Mid-Atlantic area could be a university baseball vacuum, however New England sometimes produces a great crew. Generally, that’s UConn. Head coach Jim Penders has been round greater than 20 years; he coached a crew led by George Springer and Matt Barnes to an excellent regional in 2011. The Huskies obtained that far once more in 2022 and 2024, however the long-awaited journey to Omaha has nonetheless not materialized.

Final yr, UConn noticed its streak of six straight NCAA Match appearances snapped by as shut a margin as you’ll see. After tying for a fifth straight Huge East common season title, the Huskies misplaced to Creighton in a chaotic convention event last. That left UConn with out the Huge East’s computerized bid and simply barely on the incorrect aspect of the bubble for an at-large spot.

Chilly-weather groups normally begin the season on the street, taking part in tournaments and difficult street sequence. (In case you’re not up within the Northeast proper now, it’s not baseball-playing climate in the intervening time. I don’t bear in mind the final time I noticed my garden.) Final yr, UConn began 1-7 on that run earlier than righting the ship with a win over Vanderbilt and a street sequence win at Miami.

The gauntlet isn’t fairly as powerful this yr, although lots of eyes can be on this weekend’s MLB Desert Invitational and UConn’s street journey by way of Arizona State and Arizona the next week. Surviving that run will go a great distance towards build up a buffer for an at-large event bid. A minimum of, the Huskies should keep away from a loss as unhealthy because the one they took to Missouri final February.

Key Participant: Tyler Minick, OF
UConn had 5 All-Huge East gamers final yr, of which solely two — Tyler Minick and shortstop Rob Rispoli — are returning. Minick performed lots of first base final yr, however he obtained pushed down the defensive spectrum by Rispoli and Ryan Daniels. He’s performed a good quantity of shortstop in summer season ball, and that’s the place we now have him listed on his participant web page. Apparently Minick is on the transfer once more, this time to heart subject.

Wherever he performs, he’ll be capable of deal with the bat; Minick hit .355/.437/.734 in 2025, with 22 house runs in 54 video games. The final individual to return out of the Studying, Pennsylvania space and produce that many hits was Taylor Swift.

East Carolina
The Pirates are probably the most constant mid-major applications within the nation; 2025 was their seventh straight regional look and twenty first previously 26 seasons, relationship again throughout 4 head coaches. (An attention-grabbing little bit of trivia right here: Present head coach Cliff Godwin took over from Billy Godwin. Regardless that each males are from North Carolina and I’ve solely heard of possibly six folks ever named Godwin, they’re not associated.)

Like UConn, ECU has not been in a position to recover from the hump and make it to Omaha within the twenty first century, and like UConn, ECU had a little bit of a tough yr in 2025. The Pirates completed below .500 within the American Convention after successful the convention 5 years in a row, however made it again to a regional by successful the convention event.

A one-year hiccup after that a lot success isn’t price tearing down the entire system over, and the Pirates are largely counting on their returning gamers to mature and enhance. The result’s an skilled lineup, led by on-base machine Braden Burress, who hit .389/.488/.498 with 18 stolen bases. The lineup may use slightly extra pop; the Pirates solely hit 73 house runs final season and positioned 168th within the nation in slugging share. Junior faculty switch Jack Vogele would possibly assist on this respect; he hit .408 with 19 house runs final yr, with 95 RBIs in 64 video games.

Key Participant: Ethan Norby, LHP
ECU doesn’t produce a ton of future large leaguers, however when the Pirates hit on a prospect, they actually hit. Seven ECU gamers drafted since 2014 have made the majors. Six of these gamers had been taken within the first two rounds, and 4 of these — Jeff Hoffman, Gavin Williams, Carson Whisenhunt, and Trey Yesavage — had been pitchers.

Ethan Norby is the newest ace to return from the East Carolina pipeline, and he’s not a giant, bodily dude just like the others. (In contrast to the Godwins, sure, this Norby is the youthful brother of Marlins third baseman Connor, who preceded him at East Carolina.) Norby is a 5-foot-10 lefty whose fastball sits within the low 90s — a legit command-and-guile dude by as we speak’s requirements.

Norby locates properly for a university pitcher, and his low-80s slider is sweet sufficient to overlook bats. He was one in every of 20 certified pitchers in Division I final yr with a Okay-BB% of 25.0% or greater. Is {that a} constructive indicator? Nicely, 5 faculty pitchers went within the prime 15 picks of final yr’s draft — Tyler Bremner, Anderson, Liam Doyle, Jamie Arnold, and Kyson Witherspoon — and all of them had been within the prime 20 in Okay-BB%.

Except he provides 5 ticks to his fastball, Norby isn’t going to get drafted that prime, however I anticipate him to begin Sport 1 of a regional and go within the first 100 picks. And Norby has been engaged on his changeup at Tread Athletics this winter, so extra and higher is feasible.