I am probably not the only person who has said this recently, but I don’t think any team wants to play Clemson baseball at the moment.
With the ACC Tournament set to begin on Tuesday, May 23rd, Clemson has found itself as the top seed of Pool C, holding the No. 3 seed in the tournament after finishing the regular season with a 12-game undefeated streak.
The Tigers will be back in action on Wednesday, going up against the No. 10 Virginia Tech Hokies at 7:00 p.m. EDT to open their postseason. On Friday, May 26th, the Tigers will play their second game of the tournament, facing the No. 6 Boston College Eagles at 11:00 a.m. EDT.
If the Tigers have the best record out of those three teams at the end of the week, they will advance to the semifinals, where they would play the winner of Pool B, featuring No. 2 Virginia, No. 7 North Carolina and No. 11 Georgia Tech. If the Tigers tie for the best record, they would be given the spot in the semi-finals with the highest seed moving on in their respective pool given a tiebreaker.
The semi-finals will take place on Saturday and the finals on Sunday. If the Tigers move on to the next stage, they would play at 5 p.m. EDT. The championship game will take place at noon EDT.
Clemson Baseball vs ACC Tournament Opponents
When it comes to their beginning opponents, Clemson has won their respective series against these two teams. Clemson went up against Boston College, they took two out of three games on May 28th and 29th that featured a doubleheader in the series. When the Tigers faced the Hokies during Mother’s Day Weekend, they won all three games, making it their second consecutive sweep at the time. Both of these series were also away, being a slight disadvantage for head coach Erik Bakich and his team at the time.
All games will take place at the same venue, being at Durham Bulls Athletic Park in Durham, North Carolina. The stadium has been the host of the ACC Championship for seven of the past 13 seasons.
The Tigers are going into the tournament as one of the hottest teams in baseball. Being recently placed as the No. 5 seed in the country according to Perfect Game, only Wake Forest holds a higher seed than the Tigers in the conference, who are the No. 1 seed overall and in the ACC Tournament. The Demon Deacons were the last team to win a series against Clemson this season, with Wake Forest completing a sweep at Doug Kingsmore Stadium in late March and early April.
Many Tigers also picked up huge honors heading into the tournament, hoping to use it to kickstart an incredible postseason. Pitcher and first baseman Caden Grice was announced as a Golden Spikes Award semifinalist, which is given to the best amateur baseball player in the country. The junior joins 24 other semifinalists through his two-way success over the course of the season.
Freshman Cam Cannarella was also bestowed with a high ACC honor on Monday, being named the ACC freshman of the year. The outfielder was also named on the first-team All-ACC, batting .393 and stealing 23 bases.
Another Tiger who was named to the first team was sophomore Billy Amick, who also picked up another ACC Player of the Week honor.
With an outstanding starting lineup from top to bottom, as well as the team getting hot at the right time, don’t be surprised if the Tigers are playing for a title on Sunday.
