Getty Image / C. Morgan Engel
For baseball fans, one of the best events of the season is underway, as the NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament began this week with regional play.
The 64-team tournament starts with sixteen seeded teams that each host a double-elimination four-team regional. The winners of those regionals play a super regional against the winner of the regional from their seed pair (1v16, 2v15, etc etc) and those eight teams head to Omaha, Nebraska for the College World Series.
And, play kicked off this weekend at all sixteen regional sites as college baseball looks to crown a champion. And while Rider is very unlikely to be that champion, they had the play of the tournament thus far to get them an opening-game win.
WHAT A CATCH BY Rider to win their first NCAA tournament game since 1987. Scenes. pic.twitter.com/4drVNaYBoi
— Barstool Sportsbook (@BSSportsbook) June 3, 2023
That was Rider sophomore Richie Sica with the catch. Sica is something of a defensive specialist for the Broncos, and has not made an error all season. He doesn’t swing the bat well at all, and is hitting .202 on the season. But, he was subbed into the game in the 9th inning for defense, and it paid off as he sent tenth-seeded Coastal Carolina to the losers’ bracket.
ESPN misidentified the center fielder who caught the ball.
NCAA Baseball Regionals continue all weekend.