2025 Hattiesburg Regional Team Preview: No. 4 Seed Columbia

Columbia baseball beat Alabama in a 2023 series at Sewell-Thomas Stadium. Two seasons later, the schools are grouped together in the Hattiesburg Regional and would play each other for the first time since that series if victorious in their respective opening games.

The Lions are the No. 4 seed in the regional hosted by Southern Miss, a regular foe of the Crimson Tide. Columbia is 29-17 overall against a difficult nonconference schedule: the Ivy League champions played two eventual regional hosts, Oregon and Georgia.

A 3-0 sweep in the Ivy League Baseball Tournament granted the Lions (16-5 Ivy) the league's automatic NCAA Tournament bid. The program last made the field of 64 in 2022 but has won the Ivy League's regular season crown in three of the past four years.

Brett Boretti, a four-time Ivy League Coach of the Year, is in his 20th season in charge. That makes Boretti, once a two-sport collegiate athlete, by far the most experienced head coach in the Hattiesburg Regional. The other three are all in their second seasons at their schools.

Columbia's offensive leader in 2025 is junior shortstop Sam Miller, who leads the squad with 16 home runs and a .342 batting average in 46 starts. Outfielder Anton Lazits is the only other Lion to have hit double-digit home runs this year. Miller's 16 would place him at second on Alabama behind Crimson Tide shortstop Justin Lebron; both players are their rosters' RBI leader.

Miller was also the 2025 Ivy League Player of the Year. He and teammates Jack Kail (second base) and Cole Fellows (outfield) earned First Team All-Ivy recognition.

While the Ivy League is certainly not lacking in prestige, midmajor college teams don't tend to be as deep on the mound as those in the Power Four. Southern Miss, the tournament's No. 16 national seed and Columbia's opponent on Friday night, is a strong pitching team.

The Lions' two best pitchers by ERA among those with 10 overall appearances or more are relievers. Southpaw Jagger Edwards (5.27) has the lowest earned run average of the three regular starters. Right-hander Baylor Hicks' 3.60 across 17 relief outings leads the staff. Junior Thomas Santana has the most innings pitched (beating Joe Sheets by a third of a frame) with a 5-3 record and 5.43 ERA.

Santana was one of four starting pitchers named to the All-Ivy Second Team. Columbia had seven individuals named to the first and second teams in eight different spots. Two-way senior Griffin Palfrey was on the second team as a third baseman and as a utilityman for his pitching work.

It's historically tough sledding for a No. 4 seed to make it from a regional to the College World Series. This has happened only three times, and just twice since 2010. 2023 Oral Roberts was the most recent club to hold this ultra-rare distinction. Evansville made it to supers last summer out of the Greenville (N.C.) Regional, taking eventual national champion Tennessee to three games.

Columbia is scheduled for a 6 p.m. CT first pitch against the Golden Eagles Friday on ESPN+. The game takes place after Alabama and Miami (Fla.) finish playing the No. 2 vs. No. 3 contest, set for 2 p.m. CT on ESPN2.

2025 NCAA Baseball Tournament bracket. | NCAA Baseball

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