OMAHA, NE ― Day 1 of the 2025 Men’s College World Series brought two nail-biting finishes, as Coastal Carolina took Game 1 over Arizona, 7-4, with a tie-breaking, three-run eighth inning and Oregon State walked off Louisville, 4-3, after blowing a two-run lead in the top of the ninth.
The Beavers will face the Chanticleers in the winners bracket June 15, while the Cardinals and Wildcats will face off in an elimination game.
Here are the biggest winners and losers of the first day’s action:
Winners
Coastal Carolina
Coastal Carolina won its opening game, of course. But this isn’t just about that victory, but about how things shape up for the Chanticleers going forward. After securing a spot in the winners bracket, Coastal Carolina got to watch the pitchers’ duel between Oregon State’s Dax Whitney and Louisville’s Patrick Forbes. Neither ace will pitch against the Chanticleers − meanwhile, Coastal Carolina will counter with Jacob Morrison, the Sun Belt Pitcher of the Year, who has an 11-0 record and a 2.15 ERA this season.
Pitch framing
The art of pitch framing, or a catcher making pitches look like strikes to the umpire, took center stage in Game 1. The two catchers, Caden Bodine of Coastal Carolina and Adonys Guzman of Arizona, each stole strikes for their pitchers while Bodine also caught a runner stealing.
‘Bodine was fantastic, one of the best players in the country,’ Arizona coach Chip Hale said. ‘I was really impressed. … They’re stealing strikes. He does a beautiful job of it.’
Strikeouts
Three of the four teams that played on Day 1 had double-digit strikeouts. The only team that didn’t strike out 10-plus times was Arizona, which was punched out eight times. Coastal Carolina struck out 10 times, Oregon State 12 times and Louisville 14 times.
Especially impressive was the performance from Oregon State’s pitching staff, which racked up those 14 strikeouts against an offense that came into the game ranked 15th nationally in strikeout avoidance.
Losers
Relief pitchers
In the opening game between Coastal Carolina and Arizona, traditional relievers went by the wayside.
Arizona turned to its bullpen after five innings with a 4-3 lead. But the Chanticleers tied it up in the bottom of the inning and then, with two outs in the eighth, Wildcats reliever Garrett Hicks gave up a double, an intentional walk and a single. Hale chose then to go to closer Tony Pluta, who won the NCBWA Stopper of the Year award for the top relief pitcher in college baseball. He gave up a two-run double and Coastal Carolina secured the 7-4 win.
‘The guy’s the closer (of) the year in the country, and we just wanted to keep it at one run,’ Hale said of the decision to go to Pluta when he did. ‘And that doesn’t happen very often with Tony Pluta. … Tony was ready. He was loose. But he got behind.’
The Chanticleers, on the other hand, eschewed a traditional bullpen strategy in favor of bringing normal starter Cameron Flukey out of the bullpen, a plan they’d made before the game. Flukey had one bad inning in which he gave up two runs, but he held Arizona scoreless after that and secured the win as Dominick Carbone got the final three outs.
Power hitting
Charles Schwab Field in Omaha is notorious for being pitcher-friendly, and low-scoring games are common. But over the past few years, some of the country’s best power-hitters have managed to blast balls out of ‘the Chuck.’
But home runs are down across the board in college baseball this season, and that continued across the first game in Omaha. Arizona’s Mason White hit the lone long ball of the day, and that one was a wall-scraper that Coastal Carolina’s left fielder nearly robbed.
Though the early game saw its fair share of doubles, in the nightcap, neither team had an extra-base hit until Zion Rose led off the top of the ninth with a triple.
Defense
A combined four errors in the second game of the day all led to runs. Oregon State first baseman Jacob Krieg failed to secure a pickoff throw and that runner came around to score. Louisville shortstop Alex Alicea booted a potential double-play ball with the bases loaded and one out that led to a run scoring.
Then there was the ninth inning. The Beavers committed two errors on one play as shortstop Aiva Arquette threw wide to first base and catcher Wilson Weber had the ball slip out of his hand when he went to try to make a throw to second.
‘Aiva Arquette made, what, four errors all year?’ Oregon State coach Mitch Canham said. ‘He was trying to make a really immaculate play for the guys. … Sometimes those things are going to happen.’
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on X @aria_gerson.