College World Series Scores and Results: Latest Updates

Notre Dame defeats Texas 7-3. Irish pitchers John Michael Bertrand, Alex Rao and Jack Findlay combined to allow zero extra-base hits on the night. That’s the first time that has happened to the Longhorns in 68 games this season.

Texas takes on rival Texas A&M in an elimination game Sunday at 2 p.m. (ET). Then we get Notre Dame vs. Oklahoma. This side of the bracket, as expected, is going to be fun to watch.

John Michael Bertrand, who allowed three runs in 5 1/3 innings tonight for Notre Dame, transferred from Furman after the 2020 season. Furman eliminated its baseball program in 2020 in the aftermath of the pandemic, providing transfer opportunities for players such as Bertrand. Notre Dame’s pitching success this season is key to their current run; the team ranked 12th nationally in ERA (3.95) and sixth in strikeouts per nine innings (10.8). Bertrand, specifically, posted a 2.69 ERA in 103 2/3 innings.

Texas averaged eight runs per game this season, more than any other team that reached the College World Series. Notre Dame’s John Michael Bertrand put together a really nice outing against this offense, allowing just six hits — and zero extra-base hits — and two runs in 5 1/3 innings. He’s done for the night after 96 pitches, and in comes Alex Rao.

Big call here in Notre Dame-Texas. Pete Hansen made one heck of a play to give Silas Ardoin a chance at getting the out at home plate. After a long review, the crew determined Jack Brannigan did beat the tag and overturned the call, extending the Irish lead to 3-1.

Hall of Famer and two-time Super Bowl champ Peyton Manning is in the house.

It’s only right for Manning to be in attendance in Omaha.

We’re not using to seeing too many home runs at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, but we got a combined four from Oklahoma and Texas A&M and a first-inning shot from Notre Dame. Texas A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle said he noticed the ball was carrying out to right in BP over the past two days, then offered up this take: “The ball has definitely changed. I’m not a big conspiracy theory guy, but there’s a lot of coaches out there who think the ball has changed a lot, this particular season. I don’t know enough about the science to say that’s the case or not. But there’s no question, whether it be older players or a lack of good pitchers, the ball is flying everywhere this year.”

Oklahoma used two big innings to take a big lead and then held off Texas A&M for a 13-8 win Friday in the opening game of the College World Series.

The Sooners scored seven runs in the second inning to grab an 8-0 lead and added four more runs in the fourth to stretch their lead to 12-3. The Aggies fought back with four runs in the seventh to pull within 12-8 but couldn’t get any closer.

Oklahoma will play Saturday against the winner of Texas-Notre Dame, while Texas A&M plays the loser of that contest.

Texas A&M scores four runs in the bottom of the seventh to cut Oklahoma’s lead to 12-8.

We’re watching the highest-scoring CWS game ever at this 11-year-old park. Last game with more runs came in 2008, when Fresno State beat Georgia 19-10 in Game 2 of the championship series.

Oklahoma has been relentless today. The Sooners extended their lead to 12-3 in the fourth inning thanks to a grand slam from Jackson Nicklaus. A&M has already answered with an Austin Bost solo homer to make it 12-4.

Oklahoma has a famous alum in the crowd today in Omaha. Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray is here supporting the Sooners as they take on his other former school and met with the team on Thursday. Don’t forget Murray was a top-10 MLB draft pick who played for Skip Johnson’s ballclub in 2017-18. He left Texas A&M at the end of the 2015 football season before he was able to play a game with the Aggies’ baseball team.

Texas A&M starting pitcher Nathan Dettmer did not escape the fifth inning in any of his previous six starts to enter this opening game of the CWS against Oklahoma.

The Sooners hammered him for seven runs in 1 2/3 IP and lead 8-3 after two innings.

An early slugfest in Omaha.

The eight teams in Omaha have combined for 100 appearances in the College World Series and 11 national championships. Texas leads the way in both categories, with 38 trips and six national titles, followed by Stanford (18 and three). Oklahoma is the only other team in the field that has won a national championship; the Sooners have been to Omaha 11 times and won titles in 1951 and 1994.

Texas outfielder Ivan Melendez leads the nation with 32 home runs — more than 41 Division I teams hit during the entire 2022 season. The fourth-year junior from El Paso, Texas, also leads college baseball in slugging percentage (.888) and RBIs (94) and ranks fourth in on-base percentage (.516) and 17th in batting average (.396).

Melendez has hit at least one home run in 26 of the 65 games he appeared in and went without an RBI in a game only 20 times.

In 2021, his first at Texas after transferring from Odessa (Texas) College, Melendez hit .319 with 13 home runs and 51 RBIs.

Notre Dame scored 19 runs in its shocking Super Regional win over Tennessee in Knoxville. In 10 SEC weekend series, the Volunteers allowed more than 10 total runs only three times, with a high of 15 in a series win over Auburn in late April.

The Fighting Irish hit .272 for the series against a Tennessee staff that led the nation with a .199 batting average against.

The pitching staffs at Texas A&M and Oklahoma have allowed more hits than innings pitched during the 2022 season. That has not been a recipe for success in Omaha. No team has won a national title while allowing more than one hit per inning since the Cinderella Fresno State Bulldogs, a No. 4 seed, in 2008.

Dating back to 1999 — the year the field expanded to 64 — only two such teams have won a national title (that Fresno State team and 2000 LSU) and only three other teams have reached the championship series (2008 Georgia, 2005 Florida and 2002 South Carolina).

The last 10 national champions have combined to allow 0.873 hits per inning during the season while the last 10 runners-up have been slightly better at 0.843.

Oklahoma, which advanced to the CWS by winning two of three games at Virginia Tech, has allowed 1.081 hits per nine innings. Texa A&M, which swept Louisville in College Station, checks in at 1.033.

There’s little doubt that Texas A&M is the most improved team in the nation in 2022. The Aggies earned the No. 5 national seed and advanced to the College World Series just one year after failing to even qualify for the 12-team SEC tournament.

First-year head coach Jim Schlossnagle reshaped the roster with an influx of transfers who have engineered an astounding offensive turnaround. Last year, the Aggies ranked 11th or worse in the SEC in the following categories (league games only): batting average (.249, 12th), on-base percentage (.330, 11th), slugging percentage (.384, 13th) and runs scored (149, 12th). In 2022, they led the league in average (.290), on-base percentage (.398) and runs scored (233) and ranked third in slugging percentage (.481).

So while Tennessee made national headlines for its offensive prowess — and rightfully so — it was actually Texas A&M that had the most productive offense within the nation’s best league.

Shortstop Peyton Graham is arguably the most feared bat in the Oklahoma lineup, but it’s hard to find a hotter hitter — on any team in the College World Series — than center fielder Tanner Tredaway. A fifth-year senior from Justin, Texas, Tredaway is 23 for 46 in 11 postseason games, four in the Big 12 tournament and seven in the NCAA Tournament.

And he has been his best in the biggest games. He went 3 for 5 in a 5-4 regional title win over Florida and 4 for 5 in the Game 3 win at Virginia Tech in the Super Regionals.

Tredaway has raised his batting average from .345 to .373 since the end of the regular season.