Eight regional competitions were held to determine the participants in the final event.
[1] The forty-first tournament's champion was Stanford, coached by Mark Marquess.
The opening rounds of the tournament were played across eight regional sites across the country, each consisting of six teams.
Under the format used from 1950 through 1987, the bracket was often adjusted after the field was pared to four teams in order to avoid rematches from earlier rounds.
Eventually, Freshman outfielder Paul Carey hit a walk off grand slam home run off LSU freshman (and future major leaguer) Ben McDonald to win the game.