9 College World Series records that (we think) will never be broken

A scan through the official Men’s College World Series record book unearthed some mind-boggling numbers. Some even seem untouchable.

Here are nine Men’s College World Series records we found that are not likely to fall anytime soon.

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Shortest game length — 1 hour, 13 minutes

A breezy one-hour, 13-minute baseball game. Imagine that. Granted, South Carolina’s hasty 5-1 victory over Eastern Michigan on June 8, 1975 was completed in just six innings, but that’s still good enough for a nine-inning pace of one hour, 50 minutes. In 16 games at the 2018 College World Series, the average game time eclipsed 3.5 hours.

There were a couple notable names to play in that 1975 South Carolina-Eastern Michigan matchup. Among them, future Cy Young Award winner Bob Welch took the loss for EMU. The Gamecocks finished runner-up in that year’s College World Series, falling to Texas in the championship game.

The shortest nine-inning game in CWS history was played on June 18, 1977. Arizona State defeated South Carolina 2-1 in that year’s championship game in just one hour, 35 minutes. Chris Bando had the decisive strike in a pitchers’ duel, hitting a seventh inning homer to deliver the Sun Devils the title.

It would require tremendous efficiency by both pitchers, limited mound visits and pitching changes, and perhaps some divine intervention to come close to either low mark in today’s age of baseball. 

The longest CWS game ever played took a whopping five hours, 40 minutes in a 13-inning affair between UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton in 2013. The nine-inning record was set in the 2018 CWS opener between North Carolina and Oregon State. The Tar Heels defeated the eventual national champion Beavers 8-6 in a steamy four-hour, 24-minute marathon.

Most innings pitched by one pitcher — 15

There’s a reason why Steve Arlin was named to the College World Series Legends Team back in 2010. The former Ohio State pitcher was part of two CWS squads and finished with a 0.96 ERA in 47 career innings of work in Omaha.

Fifteen of those innings came in one appearance. With Ohio State facing elimination in the 1965 College World Series, Arlin tossed a 15-inning complete game shutout with 20 strikeouts (another record we’ll get to next) against Washington State. The Buckeyes won 1-0 and would go on to lose to Arizona State in the championship game.

Four other pitchers have thrown at least 13…