The 1988 NCAA Division I baseball tournament was played at the end of the 1988 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 forty-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 forty-second tournament's champion was Stanford coached by Mark Marquess. The Most Outstanding Player was Lee Plemel of Stanford.

Regionals The opening rounds of the tournament were played across 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. In 1988, for the first time, the NCAA seeded all six teams in each regional. The winners of each regional advanced to the College World Series.

Bold indicates winner.

Northeast Regional at New Britain, CT

East Regional at Tallahassee, FL

Atlantic Regional at Coral Gables, FL

Central Regional at Austin, TX

Midwest Regional at Stillwater, OK

South Regional at Starkville, MS

West I Regional at Fresno, CA

West II Regional at Tempe, AZ

College World Series After 38 seasons as a full double-elimination tournament, the format changed for 1988. Teams were split into two four-team double-elimination brackets, with the winners of each bracket meeting in a one-game championship. This format was used through 2002.

Participants Seeding School Conference Record (conference) Head coach CWS appearances CWS best finish CWS record 1 Arizona State Pac-10 56–11 (21–9) Jim Brock 14(last: 1987) 1st(1965, 1967, 1969, 1977, 1981) 46–23 2 Fresno State PCAA 56–10 (20–1) Bob Bennett 1(last: 1959) 3rd(1959) 3–2 3 Miami (FL) n/a 50–12–1 (n/a) Ron Fraser 9(last: 1986) 1st(1982, 1985) 22–15 4 Wichita State MVC 54–14–1 (16–4) Gene Stephenson 1(last: 1982) 2nd(1982) 3–2 5 SEC 47–17–1 (21–6) Joe Arnold 0(last: none) none 0–0 6 Cal State Fullerton PCAA 41–16 (12–8) Larry Cochell 4(last: 1984) 1st(1979, 1984) 10–6 7 Stanford Pac-10 41–22 (18–12) Mark Marquess 6(last: 1987) 1st(1987) 12–11 8 Pac-10 40–23 (16–14) Bob Milano 3(last: 1980) 1st(1947, 1957) 10–2

Results Of the 15 tournaments in which a single championship game was played, this was the only one where both teams entered the final with a loss.

Bracket

Game results

Date Game Winner Score Loser Notes June 3 Game 1 Arizona State 4–2 Game 2 Wichita State 5–4 June 4 Game 3 Stanford 10–3 Fresno State Game 4 Cal State Fullerton 9–3 Miami (FL) June 5 Game 5 6–5 California eliminated Game 6 Wichita State 7–4 Arizona State June 6 Game 7 Miami (FL) 8–4 (12 innings) Fresno State Fresno State eliminated Game 8 Cal State Fullerton 5–3 Stanford June 7 Game 9 Arizona State 10–1 Florida eliminated Game 10 Stanford 2–1 Miami (FL) Miami (FL) eliminated June 8 Game 11 Arizona State 4–3 (10 innings) Wichita State June 9 Game 12 Stanford 3–1 Cal State Fullerton June 10 Game 13 Arizona State 19–1 Wichita State Wichita State eliminated Game 14 Stanford 9–5 Cal State Fullerton Cal State Fullerton eliminated June 11 Final Stanford 9–4 Arizona State Stanford wins CWS

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

Position Player School P Rusty Kilgo Arizona State Lee Plemel (MOP) Stanford C Doug Robbins Stanford 1B Ron Witmeyer Stanford 2B Mark Standiford Wichita State 3B John Finn Arizona State SS Pat Listach Arizona State OF Ricky Candelari Arizona State Henrique Herman Cal State Fullerton Dan Rumsey Arizona State DH Martin Peralta Arizona State

Notable players Arizona State: Kevin Higgins, Pat Listach, Blas Minor, Tim Spehr Cal State Fullerton: Huck Flener, Brent Mayne California: Jeff Kent, Darren Lewis Florida: Jamie McAndrew, Herb Perry Fresno: Tom Goodwin, Steve Hosey, Erik Schullstrom, Eddie Zosky Miami (FL): Joe Grahe, Kurt Knudsen, Oscar Múñoz Stanford: Paul Carey, Steve Chitren, Brian Johnson, Brian Keyser, Mike Mussina, Stan Spencer, Ed Sprague, Ron Witmeyer Wichita State: Greg Brummett, P. J. Forbes, Dave Haas, Mike Lansing, Pat Meares, Eric Wedge

Tournament notes

Arizona State sets a new tournament record scoring 27 runs in their victory over UNLV surpassing the record set by Arizona in the 1986 tournament when they scored 26 runs.

See also 1988 NCAA Division I softball tournament 1988 NCAA Division II baseball tournament 1988 NCAA Division III baseball tournament 1988 NAIA World Series

References