NCAA Baseball: Arizona Wildcats Advance To College World Series

TUCSON, AZ — The Arizona Wildcats are heading to Omaha for the 18th time in school history.

The Wildcats (45-16) advanced to the 2021 College World Series, thanks to a 16-3 rout of Ole Miss on Sunday.

Arizona's victory in Sunday's rubber match clinched the best-of-three Tucson Super Regional, securing the Wildcats first CWS appearance since 2016.

A seven-run fourth inning that featured a two-run home run by Ryan Holgate, in addition to RBI doubles from Donta Williams, Branden Boissiere and Kobe Kato, propelled the Wildcats to victory on Sunday.

Starting pitcher TJ Nichols earned the victory for the Wildcats, surrendering three hits and a run across 5 1/3 innings pitched.

Here's what to know about the Wildcats CWS schedule as of now:

Who They'll Play: The Wildcats will face off against No. 4 seeded Vanderbilt in the double-elimination round of the CWS. The winner of that contest plays the winner of the North Carolina State-Stanford matchup, while the loser faces the team that loses that contest in an elimination game.

When They'll Play: The formalized CWS schedule has not been released yet, though we know that elimination round action will take place between June 19 and 21, with 2nd round matchups held between June 22 and 24.

Who To Watch: Vanderbilt is loaded with future MLB talent, including likely 1st round draft pick starting pitchers, Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker. Rocker leads all Commodores with 13 wins, while Leiter has a team-low 2.16 ERA and 156 strikeouts. Outfielder Enrique Bradfield is also a likely first-round draft pick, with a .356 batting average and 46 stolen bases.

For Arizona, keep an eye on Berry and Susac, who have 29 home runs and 131 RBIs between them. Additionally, Boissiere has a team-high 92 hits, while Holgate leads all Wildcats with 20 doubles.

Pitching-wise for Arizona, Chase Silseth leads the team in innings pitched (91) and strikeouts (99), with an 8-1 record this season. Keep an eye on whether pitchers Gil Luna and Randy Abshier are reinstated for the series after being suspended for the Ole Miss series. Luna leads all Wildcats in ERA (1.69), with 31 strikeouts in 21.1 innings pitched. Abshier has a 2.91 ERA and 31 strikeouts to his name this season.