1988 NCAA Division I baseball tournament

The 1988 NCAA Division I baseball tournament was played at the end of the 1988 NCAA Division I baseball season to determine the national champion of college baseball. The tournament concluded with eight teams competing in the College World Series, a double-elimination tournament in its forty-second year. Eight regional competitions were held to determine the participants in the final event. Each region was composed of six teams, resulting in 48 teams participating in the tournament at the conclusion of their regular season, and in some cases, after a conference tournament. The forty-second tournament's champion was Stanford coached by Mark Marquess. The Most Outstanding Player was Lee Plemel of Stanford.

Regionals
The opening rounds of the tournament were played across eight regional sites across the country, each consisting of a six-team field. Each regional tournament is double-elimination, however region brackets are variable depending on the number of teams remaining after each round. In 1988, for the first time, the NCAA seeded all six teams in each regional. The winners of each regional advanced to the College World Series.

Bold indicates winner.

College World Series
After 38 seasons as a full double-elimination tournament, the format changed for 1988. Teams were split into two four-team double-elimination brackets, with the winners of each bracket meeting in a one-game championship. This format was used through 2002.

Results
Of the 15 tournaments in which a single championship game was played, this was the only one where both teams entered the final with a loss.

All-Tournament Team
The following players were members of the All-Tournament Team.

Notable players

 * Arizona State: Kevin Higgins, Pat Listach, Blas Minor, Tim Spehr
 * Cal State Fullerton: Huck Flener, Brent Mayne
 * California: Jeff Kent, Darren Lewis
 * Florida: Jamie McAndrew, Herb Perry
 * Fresno: Tom Goodwin, Steve Hosey, Erik Schullstrom, Eddie Zosky
 * Miami (FL): Joe Grahe, Kurt Knudsen, Oscar Múñoz
 * Stanford: Paul Carey, Steve Chitren, Brian Johnson, Brian Keyser, Mike Mussina, Stan Spencer, Ed Sprague, Ron Witmeyer
 * Wichita State: Greg Brummett, P. J. Forbes, Dave Haas, Mike Lansing, Pat Meares, Eric Wedge

Tournament notes

 * Arizona State sets a new tournament record scoring 27 runs in their victory over UNLV surpassing the record set by Arizona in the 1986 tournament when they scored 26 runs.