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Looking For Baseball? A Guide to Becoming A College Baseball Fan

Image credit: Dudy Noble Field

Hello angry MLB fan. You’re frustrated. You’re upset at baseball right now because the 2022 MLB season is on hiatus. If you want to be angry about the lockout, we understand. But we also know that there’s a lot of other baseball to enjoy right now. Consider this a welcome guide to fans trying to discover college baseball.

If you are willing to dip your toe into another part of the baseball world, right now is a perfect time to dive into college baseball. The Division I season is two weeks old and will be going on from now through May (regular season) with 64 teams advancing to the NCAA Tournament in June.

If you are already a big college baseball fan, our 2022 College Preview has in-depth looks at the best teams and players. But this is a casual fan’s guide for dipping your toe into the college baseball pool.

Fun Players To Watch

1. Tommy White, 1B/DH, N.C. State

Everyone just calls him Tommy Tanks, because everything White hits seems to clear the fence. White is a freshman. In his first college game he hit three home runs including a grand slam. OK, nice start, but that’s one game, right?

 

 

In his next game he homered again.

 

 

 

Sunday’s game brought another homer.

 

 

 

White did manage to go homerless in two midweek games. But when the weekend arrived, he hit two more home runs last Friday against Qunnipiac—that gave him five home runs in two Friday games. 

 

 

 

He hit another on Saturday

 

 

 

And another on Sunday.

 

 

 

White right now has nine home runs in eight college games. The all-time NCAA freshman home run record is held by Georgia Southern’s Todd Greene with 26 in 1990. White still has at least 47 games remaining to play, with the possibility of several more if the Wolfpack make it to the postseason as expected.

2. Ben Joyce, RHP, Tennessee

If you like velocity, the Volunteers have a pitcher who throws harder than anyone currently in major league baseball.

Of the 709,154 pitches thrown in major league baseball in 2021 there were three that were 103 mph—two by Aroldis Chapman and one by Jordan Hicks. Joyce, a redshirt junior, has thrown 36 pitches this year. Four of them have been 103 mph and one was 104.

 

 

 

Joyce’s 104 mph pitch this year is harder than any pitch thrown in the majors in 2020 or 2021. Joyce’s fastball has averaged 100 mph so far.

The Volunteers have dominated their opponents in the early going. Joyce hasn’t pitched a lot, just 2.1 innings in three appearances, but his exceptional fastball makes for a very enjoyable watch. His fast tempo doesn’t hurt either. Joyce regularly takes less than 10 seconds from the time he gets the ball back from the catcher to the time he goes back into his delivery for the next pitch.

3. Tywone Malone, 1B, Ole Miss

Malone isn’t a regular on the Rebels team right now. He’s a freshman with two at-bats. But he’s fascinating because he’s also a defensive tackle for the Rebels football team, and in just his second college at-bat, he hit a home run to finish off VCU last weekend.

 

 

 

Imagine watching an Aaron Donald-sized football player (6-foot-4, 315 pounds) hitting home runs. That’s Malone. There are a lot of other notable players, but it’s hard to find many more fun than watching Malone swing the bat.

Fun Teams

1. Texas

The Longhorns are longtime college baseball royalty. They have won six College World Series titles and they have had a long run of college baseball greats including Roger Clemens, Huston Street and Greg Swindell.

But it’s been 17 years since Texas’ last CWS crown in 2005. The Longhorns have a good chance to try to end that title drought this year thanks to an exceptional pitching staff. Three Longhorn starters (Pete Hansen, Tristan Stevens and Lucas Gordon) have not allowed an earned run in their five combined starts. Texas’ other starters—Andre Duplantier (0.82 ERA) and Tanner Witt (1.64 ERA)—are not far off that mark and the team as a whole has posted a 0.67 ERA in its first nine games.

2. Stanford

The Cardinal made a run to Omaha last season—the proud program’s first since 2008—largely on the strength of a talented, deep lineup and in spite of being a pitcher or two short. Coming into this season, with significant portions of the lineup returning, including a potential first-round pick in center fielder Brock Jones, the thought was that shoring up the pitching staff could make Stanford a national title contender.

Lo and behold, Stanford, which is 6-2 and ranked No. 2, has been excellent on the mound so far. Last weekend in going 3-0 in the Round Rock Classic, Cardinal pitching surrendered one run in 25 innings of baseball, including shutting out a top-10 Arkansas team 5-0 on Sunday. Stanford has Omaha experience, fun individual players like Jones, freshman two-way star Braden Montgomery and sophomore outfielder Eddie Park, whose swing is reminiscent of Ichiro’s, and the kind of balance a team needs to win a national title. 

3. Oklahoma State

The Cowboys have plenty of arms who can bring it—as a staff, their fastballs are sitting at 92.1 mph this year, which means they are throwing harder than the Chicago Cubs staff from 2021. Their lineup hasn’t been as impressive so far this year, but they have had an impressive knack for late-inning heroics.

The Cowboys scored two runs in the ninth inning on the road to beat Vanderbilt, 7-5, in the deciding game of their three-game season-opening series. 

They trailed by four heading into the bottom of the ninth the next week against Wright State, but scored four runs in the ninth and then another run in the 10th for a 7-6 comeback win. And on Tuesday, March 1, they scored six runs in the final two innings to come from behind to beat Arizona State, 7-6.

 

 

 

Great Environments

1. Mississippi State

The Bulldogs have had a rough start to the season, so the fans may be getting a little antsy, but they are still basking in the glow of the team’s first-ever national title last year. And when it comes to college baseball environments there are few better places than Dudy Noble Stadium. The stadium is almost always packed on the weekend—a crowd of 10,000 is normal and it’s shoehorned in more than 14,000 for big games.

But more than just big crowds, it’s the passion of the fans that stands out. They are into the game from the first to the final pitch. But they also are into tailgating to a level that puts most football programs to shame.

 

 

 

And there aren’t many places in baseball where the best seat in the house is in the outfield—everyone loves the Left Field Lounge.

2. Louisiana State

Alex Box Stadium has long been a cathedral in college baseball. The current stadium, still referred to as new Alex Box Stadium even though it has been in use since 2009, was technically a new construction rather than an overhaul, but it is the spiritual successor to old Alex Box Stadium, which was in use from 1938 to 2008, with a number of renovations along the way. 

With an official capacity of just over 10,000—although attendance routinely spills to over 11 and even 12,000 fans—tens of thousands of Tiger fans pack the Box every single weekend, continuing the tradition of giving LSU one of the best home field advantages in college baseball. 

3. Pepperdine

It’s not going to ever draw nearly as many fans as an SEC stadium, but there’s no park in the majors that can compare with the view fans get sitting behind home plate at Pepperdine.

 

 

Fun Moments

College baseball doesn’t take itself too seriously.

1. Liberty’s uniform reveal.

Want to get attention for your new cool powder blue uniforms? How about make a Celine Dion video.

 

 

2. Home run celebrations.

From bat flips to the beer showers at Ole Miss, college baseball isn’t afraid to celebrate big moments.

 

 

 

3. Viral team tweets.

Team Twitter accounts, some managed by members of the staff or students, aren’t afraid to have some fun on official channels.

How to Watch

Joe has written an in-depth guide to college baseball streaming already, but the point to make here is there is more college baseball than anyone could ever dream of watching going on at any time on the evenings on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays or Sundays. If you enjoy bouncing from MLB game to MLB game on any given night, imagine the chance to bounce between dozens of games. At certain times, the choices on a Friday night can almost seem overwhelming, but you can put on as many games as you have screens to put them on.

To read more about college baseball, check out our ultimate preview guide, which includes conference previews, preseason awards, the current Top 25 and more.

RANKINGS/AWARDS

PREDICTIONS

CONFERENCE PREVIEWS

FEATURES

PODCASTS

 

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