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Dean Curley (Danny Parker/Four Seam Images)
Midweek baseball might not have the same importance as a weekend series, but the lower-stress games are still good for weekly excitement. Oftentimes, they present look at a team’s younger or lesser-used players, especially behind the plate and on the mound.
This week marked the first with midweek college action, so we’re highlighting 10 standout moments and results from the slate
How Top 25 Teams Fared In The First Midweek Slate Of 2025
It’s important to preface this by saying the following: Midweek games really don’t count for much.
They don’t move the needle in terms of postseason resume and won’t garner much consideration when it comes to seeding. They can be somewhat important in terms of padding a program’s regular-season win totals (see 2024 Florida as an example of a team that probably would have benefited from superior midweek performances), but even still, weekends are where the true value lies.
With that out of the way, let’s take a look at the Top 25 midweek results. Note that this table does not include Monday games tied to Week 1 weekend series:
| Team | Results |
| No. 2 LSU | W 13-1 vs. Southern |
| No. 3 Tennessee | W 29-4 over UNC Asheville |
| No. 5 Florida State | W 6-2 over South Florida |
| No. 6 Florida | W 10-4 over Jacksonville |
| No. 10 North Carolina | W 12-9 over Kansas State |
| No. 11 Georgia | W 6-4 over Kennesaw State |
| No. 13 Vanderbilt | W 3-1 over Air Force; W 5-2 over Air Force |
| No. 14 NC State | L 9-8 to Liberty |
| No. 15 Wake Forest | L 4-0 to UNC Greensboro |
| No. 16 Mississippi State | L 3-0 to Southern Miss |
| No. 17 Oklahoma State | L 4-2 to Texas State |
| No. 18 Duke | W 8-4 over UNCW |
| No. 20 Dallas Baptist | L 15-5 to UTRVG |
| No. 21 UC Irvine | L 5-2 to USC |
| No. 22 UC Santa Barbara | L 5-1 to Saint Mary’s |
Top 25 teams went just 9-7 against their midweek foes. We’ll continue to track that this season.
Tennessee Sluggers Show Out Against UNC Asheville
To be sure, reigning national champion Tennessee has yet to face a team that had a realistic chance to steal a victory. The Volunteers opened their season with a three-game weekend set against Hofstra, which BA picked to finish ninth of 12 teams in the CAA, and followed it with a midweek home game against UNC Asheville, which Big South coaches picked to finish seventh in a nine-team conference.
But that lack of competition shouldn’t dampen the impressiveness of the Volunteers’ start.
After producing the largest scoring margin of any Top 25 team on opening weekend, they bludgeoned UNC Asheville 29-4, marking their largest run total in the Tony Vitello era (since 2018). The landslide victory included multi-homer games from shortstop Dean Curley and and first baseman Dalton Bargo, the latter of whom became the fourth Tennessee player ever to homer twice in the same inning.
Tennessee is outscoring opponents 75-6 heading into its second weekend series, a three-game home set against Samford.
UNC Greensboro Pitchers Posts Career Night Against No. 15 Wake Forest
While midweek games hardly count for much when it comes to postseason selection or seeding, they can be an excellent opportunity for low- and mid-major schools to face vastly superior competition and get a valuable tune up as they aim to secure what is usually a single bid in their respective conferences.
UNC Greensboro on Tuesday took full advantage of its one-off home game against No. 15 Wake Forest thanks to lights-out pitching from sophomore lefty starter Noah Chapman and senior righty reliever Danny Thompson, who combined to throw a two-hit shutout with 12 strikeouts.
Chapman, who works out of a three-quarters slot, leaned on a three-pitch arsenal composed of a low-90s fastball, sweeping slider and a lesser-thrown changeup that drew a few whiffs. Thompson threw the final four innings of the game and struck out seven while utilizing the same three pitches. He grabbed 94 mph a handful of times and drew a 36% whiff rate.
The Spartans will look to win more Power 4 games this weekend with a series at Virginia Tech.
Southern Miss Takes Midweek Rivalry
Southern Mississippi head coach Christopher Ostrander’s squad is off to a hot start in 2025, having won each of its first five games, including a 3-0 Tuesday victory over in-state rival Mississippi State at Pete Taylor Park in Hattiesburg.
The Golden Eagles’ pitching was effectively flawless, as four pitchers combined to allow just three hits while striking out 10 against just one walk. Starter Colby Allen offered four efficient innings of hitless ball and struck out five while closer Landen Payne shut the door by striking out the side in the ninth, his lone inning of work.
Southern Miss is certainly in the rankings conversation for Week 2 and will look to continue its perfect start to the season with a three-game weekend series against a solid Louisiana Tech squad.
Florida Slugger Continues Torrent Pace at the Plate to Open Season
Florida junior catcher and DH Brody Donay entered the season with one of the more unique profiles among draft-eligible college players. The Virginia Tech transfer has two true 70-grade tools—his power and arm—but grades out near the bottom of the scale in hitting and fielding.
With aims at making the 6-foot-5 slugger more well-rounded, the Gators’ coaching staff over the offseason made mechanical adjustments to his set up including having him stand straighter in his stance and widening out his base.
It’s early, but the results have been loud this far.
The reigning SEC player of the week, Donay is 9-for-14 with four home runs, three doubles, six RBIs, nine runs scored and, importantly, just one strikeout. He went 2-for-4 with a homer and double on Tuesday against Jacksonville.
It will be interesting to see how Donay holds up as the quality of opposing pitching increases, but to say the start to his season has been encouraging might even be an understatement.
Auburn Freshman Dominates In Midweek Debut
Auburn’s 6-2 victory over North Alabama on Wednesday night will be reasonably easy to forget in the scope of a long season. However, the night will likely never escape the memory of Tigers freshman righty Andreas Alvarez, who shined in his collegiate debut.
One of the top righties from the state of Florida in last year’s recruiting cycle, Alvarez tossed five innings and allowed two runs on just four hits and two walks while striking out nine, the most by an Auburn freshman since 2014.
Tigers head coach Butch Thompson told Baseball America in the preseason that Alvarez was one of his team’s standout newcomers, and that he would pitch a reasonable number of innings this year as the team looks to return to the postseason.
UTRVG Uses Explosive Ninth To Blow Past No. 20 Dallas Baptist
When Dallas Baptist closer Mason Peters entered the game in the ninth with a 5-4 lead against UTRVG, it seemed as though the 20th-ranked Patriots had done enough to walk away from a competitive midweek game unscathed.
But it was the Vaqueros who ultimately landed the final blow on Tuesday at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, as they scored 11 runs in the ninth inning to secure a ranked victory.
Graduate student Isaac Lopez led the Vaqueros with a 3-for-5 performance and three RBIs, all of which came in the ninth. Sophomore Armani Raygoza went 2-for-4 with a double and a career-high tying four RBIs. Junior Thomas Williams went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs.
USC Off To Perfect Start Behind The Bat Of Ethan Hedges
Picked by Baseball America as one of the last four teams in in our Preseason Field of 64, Southern California has gotten off to a nice start to its 2025 campaign with five straight victories, including a pair of midweek wins over No. 21 UC Irvine and unranked Cal State Bakersfield.
The common denominator in both games? The bat of junior Ethan Hedges.
Against the Anteaters on Tuesday, Hedges blasted what proved to be a game-winning grand slam and then followed it up with a 3-for-4 showing against Bakersfield on Wednesday, which included another home run and three RBIs.
A stunning catch by right fielder Kade Higgins on Wednesday night didn’t hurt, either.
The Trojans are one of several teams that appear positioned to contend for one of the top spots in a wide-open Big Ten conference.
Sluggish Start Continues For No. 17 Oklahoma State
Globe Life Field has been somewhat unkind to Josh Holliday’s Oklahoma State team, as the Cowboys opened their season with a 1-3 record in the park.
Their latest loss in the Rangers’ home stadium came on Tuesday when Texas State stole a 4-2 ranked victory thanks to high-quality pitching and a ninth-inning escape after Oklahoma State threatened to even the game but couldn’t pull it off.
The Cowboys should have a chance to right the ship this weekend when they host UT Arlington.
Look Out For Charleston
Baseball America in the preseason took a look at teams that missed the postseason in 2024 but could return to the field this year and picked Charleston as one of the squads to keep a close eye on.
That has certainly held true through the first round of games, as Charleston won two of three opening weekend games against VCU (and scored at least 10 runs in both games) before blasting Coastal Carolina 15-5 to secure a midweek win.
One reason for Charleston’s early success has been freshman third baseman Landon Penfield, BA’s preseason pick for CAA Freshman of the Year who went 2-for-4 with a homer, triple, five RBIs and three runs scored against Coastal.
Penfield is 5-for-10 at the plate with eight RBIs and three extra-base hits to open his first college campaign.
