baseball-d1 flag

Andy Wittry | NCAA.com | June 15, 2019

Behind the scenes of how baseballs are prepared for the CWS

Florida State players and coaches on Mike Martin's final season

OMAHA, Neb. — Saturday, June 16, 2018. A record-setting four-hour, 24-minute marathon of a game between North Carolina and Oregon State went down at TD Ameritrade Park that required more than seven dozen baseballs. With potentially 16 games left in the College World Series after the Tar Heels held off the Beavers 8-6, was TD Ameritrade Park even remotely in danger of running out of baseballs? Not even close.

There were still more than 2,000 baseballs available, not counting practice balls. NCAA.com toured the top-secret baseball storage room — OK, it's not top-secret, but it is locked — at the stadium and learned about the process of preparing baseballs for use in CWS games.

CWS 2019: Full tournament bracket | Printable CWS bracket | CWS info & tickets | Shop latest CWS gear

The College World Series starts annually with 175 dozen game balls and 96 dozen practice balls, and the number available gradually whittles down inning by inning.

Here's the general breakdown of how the balls are prepared and allocated throughout the CWS:

  • On Friday before the start of the College World Series, each team gets four buckets of practice balls. Each bucket holds three dozen balls.
  • That's 12 dozen practice balls per team and 96 dozen total. Some teams also bring their own practice balls to Omaha.
  • The practice balls are exactly the same as the game balls but without the official 2018 College World Series logo.
  • On Friday, members of the grounds crew will prepare more than 30 dozen game balls by rubbing mud on them to take the sheen and shine off of them.
  • The grounds crew uses Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing Mud, which is based out of New Jersey. Since 2011, the CWS has only used roughly 1 1/3 cans of mud.
  • A typical game at the College World Series requires roughly 60-65 baseballs.
  • When there's roughly 10 dozen baseballs left that have been mudded, the grounds crew will prepare more game balls.
  • Thirty to 50 dozen game balls are saved for the CWS finals.
  • The remaining balls after the end of the CWS are donated to a local charity or given to members of the grounds crew or NCAA staff members as keepsakes.

Here are some more insights from Chad Tolliver, NCAA Associate Director of Championships & Alliances, who is working his 16th College World Series:

  • On the best way to rub mud on baseballs: "Not too thick, rub it on a little bit, sometimes requires a little spit – or water – I like to go old school, and you just kind of rub it in, spread it in, make sure it gets in by the seams a little bit."
  • Umpires are more likely than pitchers to give feedback that a baseball isn't mudded properly: "Most of the time it's not mudded enough, sometimes we'll have families that want to see [the mudding process] and we'll let a little kid rub a ball and it'll be pitch black, usually we'll take that one."
  • On giving baseballs to fans: "We control it a little bit but also want to make it part of the experience."

CWS HISTORY: Coaches with most wins | Most titles | Most appearances | Conferences most represented

Notable college baseball players who starred in the Little League World Series

Hundreds of schools across three divisions of NCAA baseball have fielded teams for numerous years, making it difficult to pinpoint every athlete that's participated on a college program and in the LLWS. But though this compilation isn't comprehensive, we've put together a list of some of the most notable players who stepped on the collegiate and LLWS baseball diamond at some point in their careers.
READ MORE

Former college baseball players who have won the MLB Home Run Derby

Here are all former college baseball players who have won the MLB Home Run Derby.
READ MORE

Here are the DII baseball players selected in the 2023 MLB Draft

This year, 14 DII baseball alum were selected in the draft. Here is each player and what MLB organization they landed with.
READ MORE
Division I
Baseball Championship
June 14 - 24, 2024
Charles Schwab Field Omaha | Omaha, NE

Subscribe To Email Updates

Enter your information to receive emails about offers, promotions from NCAA.com and our partners