Clemson misses out on national seed, learns its NCAA regional foes
There was some noticeable frustration in the Clemson players’ lounge Monday afternoon as players and coaches gathered for the NCAA tournament selection show and watched the top eight national seeds announced with the Tigers missing out.
The Tigers are now more concerned with advancing out of their own regional than they are with not landing a national seed.
Clemson is set to host a regional for the third consecutive season under third-year coach Monte Lee. The Tigers failed to advance past a regional each of the past two seasons.
Clemson is paired with some familiar foes as No. 2 seed Vanderbilt and No. 3 seed St. John’s are back in the Clemson regional for the second consecutive season. They will be joined by No. 4 seed Morehead State.
Vanderbilt and St. John’s will open play at Doug Kingsmore Stadium Friday at noon. Clemson will face Morehead State on Friday at 6 p.m.
“It’s business as usual. It’s our third year in a row of hosting, so we’re very excited about the opportunity of being one of the 16 teams that gets to host a regional. We obviously drew a very tough field,” Tigers coach Monte Lee said. “Morehead State, a very, very good ballclub. They’re going to be an awfully tough test… Then you look at St. John’s, they’re in it year in and year out, they’ve got a great ballclub and we all know how good Vanderbilt is. So we’ve got a tough regional here but we wouldn’t expect it any other way and we’re excited about the opportunity to see what we can do this weekend here at home.”
Clemson appeared to be right on the bubble for a national seed before earning the No. 10 overall spot. The top eight seeds are coveted because they pave the way for a team to stay at home through the regional and super regional rounds.
The top eight seeds are Florida, Stanford, Oregon State, Ole Miss, Arkansas, North Carolina, Florida State and Georgia.
Clemson beat FSU two out of three games in the regular season at home before losing to the Seminoles in the ACC tournament. Florida State went on to win the ACC tournament and earn a national seed.
If Clemson can advance out of its regional it will likely play at Florida State in a super regional unless the Seminoles are upset this weekend in Tallahassee.
“The bottom line is we always want to be a national seed, but on the other hand, we also want to win a regional, so I think that’s the next step whether you’re a national seed or not. You can’t play in a super regional unless you win a regional,” Lee said. “So let’s worry about what we can control first and foremost, which is trying to play our best baseball this weekend to see if we can find a way to win a regional here at home and then we’ll move on to the next step if we get that far."
Friday Clemson regional schedule
No. 2 Vanderbilt vs. No. 3 St. John’s, noon (SEC Network)
No. 1 Clemson vs. No. 4 Morehead State, 6 pm (WatchESPN)
Tickets info: All-session and single-session tickets will be available for all fans at 8 a.m. Wednesday. All-session ticket is $60 (Games 1-6 and a potential Game 7). Single-session adult ticket is $15. Single-session youth (ages 17 and younger) ticket is $10. And single-session general admission ticket is $10 (only available if all reserved seats sell out).
This story was originally published May 28, 2018 at 12:21 PM with the headline "Clemson misses out on national seed, learns its NCAA regional foes."