1998 NCAA Division I baseball tournament

The 1998 NCAA Division I baseball tournament was played at the end of the 1998 NCAA Division I baseball season to determine the national champion of college baseball. The tournament concluded with eight teams competing in the College World Series, a double-elimination tournament in its fifty-second year. Eight regional competitions were held to determine the participants in the final event. Each region was composed of six teams, resulting in 48 teams participating in the tournament at the conclusion of their regular season, and in some cases, after a conference tournament. The fifty-second tournament's champion was Southern California, coached by Mike Gillespie. The championship was the Trojans' record 12th, but their first since 1978, the last under coach Rod Dedeaux. The Most Outstanding Player was USC second baseman Wes Rachels.

Regionals

The opening rounds of the tournament were played at eight regional sites across the country, each consisting of a six-team field. Each regional tournament is double-elimination, however region brackets are variable depending on the number of teams remaining after each round. Regional games were scheduled for Thursday, May 21 through Sunday, May 24; however, one final Sunday game (Arizona State vs. Georgia Tech at Wichita) had to be played the next day due to rainout. The winners of each regional advanced to the College World Series.

In the final year of the 48-team tournament, six regionals required the full 11 games. Only Florida State and LSU advanced to the CWS unscathed, while Long Beach State won four games over three days after losing their first to North Carolina St.
Bold indicates winner.

College World Series

The 1998 CWS was infamous for producing several high-scoring games, which was termed by media covering the Series as "Gorilla Ball" (or "Geaux-rilla Ball" among LSU fans), which placed a premium on home runs. LSU, which won the 1996 and 1997 national championships and set an NCAA record in 1997 by hitting 188 home runs, hit eight home runs in its first game (by seven different players) vs. USC, and added six more in its second game vs. Mississippi State to bring its season total to 157. Needing one victory to advance to the championship game for the third consecutive year, LSU fell twice to USC, hitting just one home run in 18 innings. USC and Pac-10 rival Arizona St. set numerous offensive records in the championship game, won by the Trojans 21–14.

Prior to the 1999 season, the NCAA adopted restrictions on aluminum bats, requiring the difference between the length and weight ("drop") of the bat to be no more than three (e.g. a 34-inch bat could not weigh less than 31 ounces). This reduced home run output slightly, but it was not until more sweeping changes in 2011 before aluminum bats would perform more like their wood counterparts.

Participants

Seeding	School	Conference	Record (conference)	Head coach	CWS appearances	CWS best finish	CWS record
1	Florida	SEC	46–16 (21–8)	Andy Lopez	3 (last: 1996)	3rd (1991)	5–6
2	Miami (FL)	n/a	50–10 (n/a)	Jim Morris	16 (last: 1997)	1st (1982, 1985)	34–28
3	Florida State	ACC	53–18 (18–4)	Mike Martin	15 (last: 1996)	2nd (1970, 1986)	19–30
4	Southern California	Pac-10	44–16 (21–9)	Mike Gillespie	18 (last: 1995)	1st (1948, 1958, 1961, 1963, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1978)	67–21
5	Template:CBSB link	SEC	46–17 (21–9)	Skip Bertman	9 (last: 1997)	1st (1991, 1993, 1996, 1997)	23–11
6	Arizona State	Pac-10	38–22 (18–11)	Pat Murphy	17 (last: 1994)	1st (1965, 1967, 1969, 1977, 1981)	52–29
7	Template:CBSB link	Big West	42–21–1 (23–7)	Dave Snow	3 (last: 1993)	3rd (1993)	4–6
8	Template:CBSB link	SEC	41–21 (14–15)	Pat McMahon	6 (last: 1997)	3rd (1985)	6–12

Results

Game results

Date	Game	Winner	Score	Loser	Notes
May 29	Game 1	Arizona State	11–10	Florida State
	Game 2	Miami (FL)	3–1	Template:CBSB link
May 30	Game 3	Template:CBSB link	12–10	Southern California
	Game 4	Template:CBSB link	14–13	Florida
May 31	Game 5	Arizona State	9–2	Miami (FL)
	Game 6	Template:CBSB link	7–4	Florida State	Florida State eliminated
June 1	Game 7	Template:CBSB link	10–8	Template:CBSB link
	Game 8	Southern California	12 – 10 (11 innings)	Florida	Florida eliminated
June 2	Game 9	Template:CBSB link	6–3	Miami (FL)	Miami (FL) eliminated
	Game 10	Southern California	7–1	Template:CBSB link	Mississippi State eliminated
June 3	Game 11	Arizona State	14–4	Template:CBSB link	Long Beach State eliminated
June 4	Game 12	Southern California	5–4	Template:CBSB link
June 5	Game 13	Southern California	7–3	Template:CBSB link	LSU eliminated
June 6	Final	Southern California	21–14	Arizona State	Southern California wins CWS

All-Tournament Team

The following players were members of the College World Series All-Tournament Team.

Position	Player	School
P	Jack Krawczyk	style=Template:CollegePrimaryStyle|USC
	Alex Santos	style=Template:CollegePrimaryStyle|Miami (FL)
C	Eric Munson	style=Template:CollegePrimaryStyle|USC
1B	Robb Gorr	style=Template:CollegePrimaryStyle|USC
2B	Wes Rachels (MOP)	style=Template:CollegePrimaryStyle|USC
3B	Andrew Beinbrink	style=Template:CollegeSecondaryStyle|Arizona State
SS	Michael Collins	style=Template:CollegeSecondaryStyle|Arizona State
OF	Rudy Arguellas	style=Template:CollegeSecondaryStyle|Arizona State
	Cedrick Harris	style=Template:CollegePrimaryStyle|LSU
	Brad Ticehurst	style=Template:CollegePrimaryStyle|USC
DH	Jason Lane	style=Template:CollegePrimaryStyle|USC

Notable players

• Arizona State: Andrew Beinbrink, Willie Bloomquist, Ryan Mills
• Florida: Mark Ellis, Josh Fogg, David Ross, Brad Wilkerson
• Florida State: Kevin Cash
• Long Beach State: Mike Gallo
• LSU: Kurt Ainsworth, Randy Keisler
• Miami (FL): Pat Burrell, Bobby Hill, Aubrey Huff, Jason Michaels
• Mississippi State: Matt Ginter
• Southern California: Morgan Ensberg, Seth Etherton, Jason Lane, Eric Munson

See also

• 1998 NCAA Division I softball tournament
• 1998 NCAA Division II baseball tournament
• 1998 NCAA Division III baseball tournament
• 1998 NAIA World Series