Ahead of the 2025 NCAA baseball tournament’s regional round, NCAA.com’s Michella Chester talked to D1Baseball’s Kendall Rogers and Aaron Fitt about who they think will win the national championship and which teams have the toughest regional.
Below are each person’s picks.
Kendall Rogers’ picks
National champion: North Carolina
After watching them multiple times last week, North Carolina.
If you look at the backend of their bullpen, right-handed freshmen Walker McDuffie and Ryan Lynch — Lynch was electric over the weekend. The No. 1 and No. 2 starting pitchers in the ACC were right-handers graduate Jake Knapp and sophomore Jason DeCaro.
They were ranked 30th nationally in fielding percentage and junior center fielder Kane Kepley can cover a lot of ground in the outfield. Guess where that’s important? Omaha.
UNC looks like a team on a mission and they are playing an incredibly high brand of baseball right now.
Additionally, one side of the MCWS field could feature Texas, Georgia, LSU and Arkansas or Tennessee. Almost unimaginable.
Toughest regional: Oxford
It’s going to be a very offensive regional. Georgia Tech’s offense is ranked No. 13 nationally in batting average (.315), Western Kentucky is No. 14 (.315) and Murray State is No. 45 (.301).
A very offensive quartet.
If you’re Ole Miss, you might have to throw lefty redshirt junior Hunter Elliot. It’s going to be warm, the wind’s probably going to be blowing, that’s going to get pretty exciting.
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Aaron Fitt’s picks
National champion: Arkansas
Arkansas and LSU feel like the most complete teams in the country. If I had to pick one, I still think it’s the Razorbacks.
From top to bottom, they’ve got the best combination of elite arms at the front end and they’ve got powerful offense. Arkansas has had some ups and downs; they’ve lost some series in the second half of the season, but they are a tough team to stop offensively.
The Razorbacks play solid defense — they are the most balanced and complete team and I think it’s their time. They’ve been knocking on the door for a long time, they are due to win a national title.
Still, the field is weirdly wide open and it will be a lot of fun to watch.
Toughest regional: Clemson
The Big 12 champion in TCU is the No. 2 seed, and even though West Virginia faltered down the stretch, the Mountaineers are a Big 12 champion that was in a super regional last year.
Kentucky was a controversial inclusion in the field, but they’ve shown that they can play with anybody. The Wildcats won a series at Tennessee, they swept Oklahoma and had a lot of one-run games against elite teams in the SEC. Kentucky is battle-tested and they play a style that gives teams a hard time if they aren’t used to playing them.
Not to mention, USC Upstate is the best No. 4 seed in the tournament, according to Diamond Sports Ranking. That’s not an easy path for Clemson.
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Michella Chester’s picks
National champion: Arkansas
I’ve had a gut feeling about the Razorbacks all year and I don’t want to go against that at the end of the season.
Even with the matchup against Tennessee in the supers, they can beat anybody at home. They’ve got seven players with double-digit home runs, the Aloy brothers and a really great pitching staff.
Toughest regional: Knoxville
Whoever drew Florida was an unlucky draw — think about what happened last year — and Oregon State was another with TCU and Southern California, but I’m going with Tennessee because of Wake Forest.
The Demon Deacons are a team that can play with anybody. They won a series over Florida State, beat Coastal Carolina and they have players like junior shortstop Marek Houston and sophomore third baseman Kade Lewis.
Cincinnati has one of the hottest players in college baseball with redshirt senior third baseman Kerrington Cross. The Volunteers have to get through that and will most likely face Arkansas in the super regional.
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