College baseball opening weekend recap

The 2025 college baseball season kicked off last Friday to the tune of walk-offs and crazy upsets.

On Sunday, we had two high-scoring shockers that opened fans’ eyes to the beginning of a long road to Omaha.

From wacky doubleheaders to heart-stopping finishes, here are all the top moments from the start of the 2025 season.

Louisville upsets No. 19 Texas

Opening Day was not without its shockers, including a ranked upset of the Longhorns in the Shriner’s Children’s College Showdown.

In the bottom of the ninth, pinch hitter Garret Pike drove in two runs on a single to tie the game at 2-2.

Cardinals’ center fielder Lucas Moore drove a liner to left field with the bases loaded in a tied ball game to walk off the Longhorns in extra innings.

The Longhorns were in their first game with new head coach Jim Schlossnagle following a national championship series loss with Texas A&M.

Kling sliding catch keys Nittany Lion win

One of the top plays of the weekend was a running and sliding catch by Penn State center fielder Paxton Kling in the final out of a 7-6 win over UConn.

The Huskies scored three unanswered runs in the bottom of the ninth after being down 7-3.

LSU transfer Paxton Kling spent two years playing for head coach Jay Johnson, including the 2023 season when the Tigers won the national championship.

Kling was known for his speed at LSU, stealing eight bases last season, and he had no shortage of that in the outfield in this game.

He was great defensively all weekend, including the game-winning catch.

Bearcats shock No. 11 Blue Devils

The unranked Cincinnati Bearcats took two of three from the 11th-ranked Duke Blue Devils thanks to a dominant 19-5 victory on Sunday.

Patience was key for the Bearcat batters in the win, drawing 12 walks and garnering three singles off of successful bunts.

This comes just one day after Cincinnati lost a heartbreaker in extra innings via a walk-off solo home run from Duke shortstop Wallace Clark.

The Bearcats started the weekend off with an 8-3 victory on Opening Day.

The series win led to Cincinnati being ranked for the first time ever, being ranked 25th overall in the latest D1Baseball poll.

The Bearcats were fifth in the Big 12 last season with a conference record of 32-25.

Wolverines dominate in Puerto Rico

The Michigan Wolverines kicked off their 4-0 run last weekend with an upset win over second-ranked Virginia on Friday.

The Wolverines followed that up with a nice 5-2 victory over Rice in the Saturday night game.

Michigan woke up early to take down Villanova in dominating fashion by a score of 19-0 on Sunday.

Finally, in a battle of undefeated teams, the Wolverines put the hammer down on the Stetson Hatters, prevailing by a score of 6-1 on Monday.

Two-way player Mitch Voit was the star of the show offensively, batting .471 with two home runs and a team-leading seven runs batted in throughout the weekend.

His slugging percentage spiked to 1.059 after the four victories.

Bryan Portney is a first-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email bep5295@psu.edu.