Getting to the College World Series requires winning a bunch of games against very good opponents. The eight qualifiers have shown their ability to navigate two weekends’ worth of tough competition with little or no blemishes.

Coastal Carolina broke open a tie game with three runs in the eighth inning and the Chanticleers opened the College World Series with a 7-4 victory Friday.

The Wildcats lost the opener of the College World Series in a game full of quirks — a balk, fan interference, hits batsmen, and what Arizona coach Chip Hale called

The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers and Arizona Wildcasts hope to start off their runs in Omaha on the right foot, as they both open their NCAA Men’s College World Series schedules on Friday afternoon.

With Coastal Carolina and Arizona baseball meeting in the College World Series, here's a look back at the teams' meeting in the 2016 CWS finals.

A 92-year-old made the trek from San Diego to Omaha to watch Arizona, his alma mater, chase a College World Series title.

That move eventually led to three runs that gave CCU a 7-4 victory over Arizona before a Charles Schwab Field crowd of 24,058. Coastal will play the winner of Friday’s second Bracket 1 game between Oregon State and Louisville at 7 p.m. Sunday.

The CWS often boils down to manufactured runs. Arizona will have to hammer out four games worth of them just to make the championship series. Step one: Winning the 1

Arizona debuted in 1954 and made five total appearances in the ‘50s. The Wildcats showed up three times each in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s, while winning the 1976, 1980 and 1986 titles. Then came a slump of just one appearance between 1986 and 2012, though the program has reached the CWS four times since then.

The Chanticleers enter the College World Series on a nation-best 23-game win streak. Coastal boasts the second-best team ERA in the country (3.21), and junior catcher Caden Bodine (.332 batting average, 75 hits) is MLB.com ’s No. 38 draft prospect.