Tiger baseball Crushes Coastal Carolina, Eyes Clemson Regional

Clemson put the finishing touches on a dominant two-game season sweep of #8 Coastal Carolina Wednesday night in Conway, pounding the Chanticleers 13-6. Even that score looked closer than the game actually felt. A seven run third inning, highlighted by Jacob Jarrell’s grand slam, put Clemson up 8-1 and the Tigers never looked back.

In the first game of the series, in Clemson, the Tigers run ruled the Chants. It looked as if the Tigers were going to run rule them again, as Clemson held a 10-run lead going into the bottom of the 6th, but the Chants were able to scratch across 3 runs against Willie Weiss. The game saw 17 pitchers used by both teams (8 from Clemson, 9 from Coastal) and the Tigers were able to take advantage of the early lead by letting some young players get innings against a top 10 team on the road.

The win has Clemson now firmly in the conversation of hosting a regional, something that hasn’t happened at Clemson since 2018. Baseball America has Clemson as the #13 seed overall hosting a regional with Campbell, Alabama, and Sam Houston State. This would have the Clemson regional winner paired with the winner of the Fayetteville, Arkansas regional, hosted by the #4 seed Arkansas Razorbacks.

D1 Baseball has Clemson as the #11 seed, hosting Campbell, Georgia, and Davidson, and paired with the Durham regional hosted by the #6 seed Duke.

These projections were written prior to Clemson’s win over Coastal. The Tigers currently sit at #11 in RPI. Clemson has 7 games left. This weekend at Virginia Tech (#51 RPI), Tuesday vs USC Upstate (#99 RPI), and next weekend hosting North Carolina (#32 RPI). These are not huge games as far as upward mobility and potentially claiming a top 8 national seed (and thus home Super Regional), but definitely games where losses could undermine Clemson’s opportunity to host a regional in Doug Kingsmore Stadium.. The VT and UNC series will also be important for Clemson’s footing going into the ACC tournament, which could be big opportunity for Clemson to boost its NCAA seeding. This final stretch will be exciting, and the Tigers are playing great ball at the right time.