SOUTH BEND, Ind. — How big was Clemson’s three-game sweep over Notre Dame this weekend? Just look at the ACC Championships schedule for that answer.
Thanks to their sweep of the Irish, the 18th-ranked Tigers will not play a game in the ACC Championships until Thursday, when they play No. 8 Virginia, the third seed in the tournament, at 11 a.m., at Durham (N.C.) Bulls Athletic Park. That means the Tigers, and most importantly their pitchers, get an extra day of rest.
“This was one of the biggest wins of the season,” infielder Chris Williams said. “To be locked into that No. 6 spot, now we don’t have to worry playing on Tuesday or being knocked out early. We can just go in and play on (Thursday) and do our thing.”
The Tigers will play No. 2 seed Louisville on Friday at 11 a.m., and the winner of the Duke vs. Wake Forest first-round game on Saturday at 11 a.m. All three games will be televised live by Regional Sports Network and available on ESPN3 (subject to blackout). The Tigers do not play on Wednesday.
Clemson (38-18, 16-14 ACC) came into Saturday’s final regular-season game needing a win or a Duke and Georgia Tech loss to secure the No. 6 seed and avoid the tournament’s play-in games, which are on Tuesday. Though the Tigers ended up beating the Irish, 6-2, for good measure, they found out before the game was over that Duke’s game at Pitt was washed out and Tech had lost the first-game of a doubleheader to Boston College.
“That’s huge for us. It’s very, very for huge us,” Clemson catcher Chris Okey said. “We have an extra day of rest now, and we don’t have to worry about that. We get to rest our pitching now a little bit. It was a big win for us and we are really excited.”
It’s a well-deserved rest for the Tigers, who just ended a stretch in which they played 16 games in 21 days. Clemson went 12-4 in those 16 games, including wins over top 5 Florida State and NC State teams at the time.
“I think we are a very hot team right now and I think we can do some damage in the ACC Tournament,” second baseman Weston Wilson said. “It’s also huge for what comes after the ACC Tournament, too.”
What comes after the ACC Championships is the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers are already a lock to make the 64-team field, the question is whether they will host a regional or not. With 38 win and a No. 10 RPI ranking, some believe Clemson will host a regional.
“It would be nice to play back in Doug Kingsmore, again, and play in front of the home crowd,” Wilson said. “We will have some energy there, and it would be good to play there again with our team.”
D1Baseball.com’s Aaron Fitt gives Clemson the edge over Florida State and NC State as a potential regional host, despite finishing behind the two in the ACC standings. Of course Louisville, Miami and Virginia are already locks to host.
“The Tigers should be ahead of NC State (15-13) in the pecking order because they are close in the RPI and Clemson won the head-to-head series,” Fitt writes. “Florida State (16-10) is ahead of both teams in the standings but behind in the RPI. Perhaps the Seminoles get squeezed out (especially after losing their last three ACC series), or perhaps NC State gets squeezed out, but Clemson (which won series against both of the other two) should host for sure. And you can make a strong case that all three should host. The ACC tournament could add some clarity to this picture.”
NC State has an RPI of No. 7, while Florida State is ranked No. 17.
“Coming into the season we were just supposed to be a .500 team. We have shocked everyone in the nation, and in my opinion, we should definitely get to host a regional,” Williams said.
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