Clemson 2017 ACC Baseball Tournament Primer

After Clemson’s disappointing weekend against NC State, the Tigers will look to replicate their magical 2016 run in the ACC Tournament this week. The 2017 ACC Baseball Tournament is being held in Louisville, KY, and play starts today.

The 2017 tournament features a few changes from previous years. Now instead of 2 groups of 4 teams the teams are split into 4 groups of 3 teams, increasing the number of tournament teams to 12.

As before each group will play 2 games in group play with the top team from each pod advancing to the semifinals on Saturday. The winner of each semifinal game will meet in the finals on Sunday at noon. The change makes things a little bit easier for pitching staffs. Now teams will only need to play 4 games instead of 5 to win the acc title. This setup will also likely allow a team’s ace to pitch the in the championship game or if needed in the semifinal game.

The downside is that the a single loss is likely fatal. Before losing a game in group play wasn’t the end of things, now losing one game means teams are hoping for a lot of things to go right.

Clemson’s pod in the ACC Tournament includes the Tigers, Duke, and Virginia. The late season slide from Clemson really hurt the Tigers here. Had they played better in the homestretch Clemson could have had Georgia Tech and Miami in their group.

The good news for Clemson is that the Tigers took 2 of 3 from Virginia earlier this year and didn’t play Duke this year. The Blue Devils finished the season 28-27 with a 12-18 ACC record. Ultimately Clemson’s success this week is going to depend on which team turns up. If we see the team that struggled to convert with runners in scoring position then Clemson will not advance out of the group. But if Clemson can get the timely hits we say Saturday and earlier in the year then Clemson can go far in this tournament. To regain a national seed Clemson certainly has to advance out of the group and likely needs to make the championship game.

All games will be on the local Regional Sports Network except for the Championship game which will be on ESPN2.

Tuesday, May 23

#10 Georgia Tech vs. #6 Miami, 11:00 am EST

#11 Boston College vs. #7 NC State, 3:00 pm EST

#9 Duke vs. #5 Clemson, 7:00 pm EST

Wednesday, May 24

#12 Notre Dame vs. #8 Florida State, 11:00 am EST

#2 North Carolina vs. #11 Boston College, 3:00 pm EST

#3 Wake Forest vs. #10 Georgia Tech, 7:00 pm EST

Thursday, May 25

#4 Virginia vs. #9 Duke, 11:00 am EST

#6 Miami vs. #3 Wake Forest, 3:00 pm EST

#1 Louisville vs. #12 Notre Dame, 7:00 pm EST

Friday, May 26

#5 Clemson vs. #4 Virginia, 11:00 am EST

#8 Florida State vs. #1 Louisville, 3:00 pm EST

#7 NC State vs. #2 North Carolina, 7:00 pm EST

Saturday, May 27

Pool A Winner vs. Pool D Winner, 1:00 pm EST

Pool B Winner vs. Pool C Winner, 5:00 pm EST

Sunday, May 28

ACC Championship, 12:00 pm EST (ESPN2)