The 2023 College World Series field has been cut in half with Oral Roberts, Stanford, Tennessee and Virginia having all packed their bags in recent days. This leaves Florida, LSU, TCU and Wake Forest left to contend for the crown on college baseball’s biggest stage.
Wednesday sees two more teams fight for their lives in the semifinals at Charles Schwab Field. LSU and TCU will need to beat Wake Forest and Florida respectively twice in as many days if they want a shot at the championship series. However, the Tigers and Horned Frogs have their tasks cut out for them.
Oddsmakers at FanDuel Sportsbook have the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the nation — the Demon Deacons and Gators — as comfortable favorites in Wednesday’s semifinal contests.
Florida is a -220 favorite over TCU (+168) in the 2 p.m. showdown. The No. 2 team in the country has been dominant on that side of the bracket, but this will be the first time it runs into the red-hot Horned Frogs. The run line is -1.5 in favor of the Gators (-135 to cover) and the over/under is set at 10.5 total runs.
As for the nightcap, Wake Forest is a slight favorite over LSU in a rematch of Monday’s thriller. The Demon Deacons are -150 to win outright with the run line set at -1.5 (+108). The Tigers are getting respect from sharps, though, as they have +118 odds to win. Jay Johnson’s squad is expected to cover with the odds juiced (-140) after it lost by one run in the previous meeting. The total is set at 9.5 in the 7 p.m. contest.
How about the odds to leave Omaha with some hardware?
Wake Forest — who has sat atop the college baseball rankings for a few months now — is now seeing a minus next to its name. The Demon Deacons are -125 favorites to win the 2023 College World Series at FanDuel.
The other undefeated team (as of Wednesday afternoon), Florida, comes in right behind Wake Forest. The Gators are +175 to win its first college baseball championship since 2017.
Florida’s foe in the aforementioned championship and the 2017 runner-up, LSU, has the third-best odds. The Tigers (+500) are getting a lot of respect given their situation. They have to beat the Demon Deacons twice, but the looming threat of Paul Skenes taking the mound again has sharps thinking twice about counting the long-time No. 1 team out just yet.
TCU has the longest odds of all with +1900 odds to conquer the field in Omaha. The Horned Frogs have made it this far, though, behind a resilient and explosive offense.
The College World Series resumes on Wednesday with Florida-TCU (2 p.m.) and LSU-Wake Forest (7 p.m.). Both games can be viewed on ESPN and ESPN+.
