With college baseball starting this weekend, it is time to get to know some teams that may not come to mind first as contenders. Here are World Baseball’s five sleeper teams for the 2025 college baseball season …
Dallas Baptist Patriots
The Dallas Baptist Patriots are featured on our mid-major team watchlist. So, the fact that they are a mid-major playing in Conference USA makes them a sleeper team in 2025.
Last season, head coach Dan Heefner and his Patriots went 45-15 overall and were 17-7 in conference play. Heading into this season, D1 Baseball ranked them 20th in the country.
Ten straight trips to the NCAA Tournament and a super regional appearance within the last five years paint the picture of Dallas Baptist being a sleeper team this season. The winning culture is there, and teams will not want to end up in the same regional as the Pats in the NCAA Tournament.
Plus, DBU has an all-American potential player, catcher Grant Jay. In his two-year career thus far, he has batted .309 and had 21 home runs. He also has a career on-base percentage of .400+.
Watch out for Dallas Baptist this season. It is a small school in a mid-major conference, but big schools like LSU (the two teams play in Arlington, Texas, on Feb. 26) will have fits playing them.
The Patriots may even be a team that makes a good run at getting to Omaha and the College World Series.
Auburn Tigers
The SEC is loaded with great teams. However, the Auburn Tigers may not be the first team that comes to mind when considering this conference.
Auburn had a top-five transfer portal class, including players at other SEC schools in 2024, like Cade Fisher (Florida) and Samuel Dutton (LSU).
The Tigers also have a first-team All-SEC player in Ike Irish. He received first-team conference honors last season and was periodically on the watchlist for the Buster Posey Award, which goes to the country’s best catcher.
An underrated player for the Tigers to watch is a freshman from Pensacola, Fla., Chris Rembert. He put up great numbers in Auburn’s fall exhibition against Florida State and was an MLB draft prospect in 2024. In high school, he was a top-five shortstop from Florida.
Auburn had a down year in 2024. However, they are shortly removed from a College World Series appearance in 2022, and this team sneakily gets back there again.
Coastal Carolina Chanticleers
The Sun Belt has a lot of sneaky-good talent. However, a sleeper team to invest in is Coastal Carolina.
The Chanticleers came ranked fourth in the Sun Belt’s media preseason poll. They sit behind Southern Miss, Troy, and Louisiana in the survey.
However, Coastal Carolina has a significant weapon in their lineup with Caden Bodine. The former Sun Belt Freshman of the Year was also named a preseason All-American for this upcoming season.
In 2024, he batted .238 and had 71 RBI. This led to the media naming him the season’s preseason Sun Belt Player of the Year.
Trips to five NCAA tournaments in the past six seasons have Coastal Carolina as a team that can return to postseason baseball. Despite being unranked, they are a clear threat for the Sun Belt championship and a possible NCAA Tournament run this season.
South Carolina Gamecocks
In the preseason media poll for the SEC, the South Carolina Gamecocks have a projected finish of 14th place.
Granted, there was a significant head coaching change as former head coach Mark Kingston is now at Creighton. Legendary college baseball coach Paul Mainieri has taken over in Columbia, S.C.
In his long coaching career, he spent time coaching in the SEC for the LSU Tigers from 2007 to 2021.
He won the 2009 national championship, six SEC Tournaments, and four SEC regular season titles during that span.
He is also a two-time SEC Coach of the Year, winning the Skip Bertman Coach of the Year award in 2015.
So, the Gamecocks have a winner as the ball coach for this season.
They also have quite a big-time weapon in their lineup. Ethan Petry returns to possibly be one of the most significant power bats in the SEC, if not the entire country. Last season, he was a second-team All-American who batted .306 and had 21 home runs.
Yes, South Carolina has a new head coach. However, he is one of the best head coaches in college baseball history. They have paired him up with a player with All-SEC potential and a dark horse for the Golden Spikes Award.
Hawaii Rainbow Warriors
The Hawaii Rainbow Warriors can make some splashes this season and return to the NCAA Tournament.
In the Big West preseason media poll, the Bows ranked fourth behind UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine, and Cal Poly.
Head coach Rich Hill has improved his team in his first three seasons in Honolulu. In 2024, Hawaii finished 37-16 overall and was 20-10 in conference play. They finished third in the Big West.
Therefore, it seems to add up that Hawaii could very well be a 40-win team in 2025. That could lead to a conference title and CAA Tournament berth. The Rainbow Warriors haven’t accomplished either in over 10 years.
A lot will depend on All-Big West preseason team member Jordan Donahue. In 2024, he had a .349 batting average and a .458 on-base percentage. He will be a leader on this slept-on Hawaii team.
WBN NCAA: https://worldbaseball.com/league/ncaa/
Dallas Baptist head coach Dan Heefner (21). (AP Photo/Sean Rayford)
