Baseball: Tigers slip into ACC tourney

A win against UCF aside, the biggest win Friday comes from Virginia Tech

By PAUL STRELOW - pstrelow@thestate.com

Clemson has survived to play another week.

Duke’s 8-5 loss Friday locked the Tigers into the ACC tournament, which begins Wednesday in Jacksonville, Fla.

Having already finished its conference slate, eighth-place Clemson (11-18-1 ACC) needed the ninth-place Blue Devils (9-18-1) to stumble at least once in this week’s series at last-place Virginia Tech in order to make the eight-team tourney field.

The Tigers won at Central Florida for the second day in a row Friday, getting three RBIs from Jeff Schaus to beat the Golden Knights 7-3.

As the No. 8 seed in the split-bracket, round-robin format, Clemson will face the Nos. 1, 4 and 5 seeds in a four-day stretch (either Wednesday-Thursday-Saturday or Wednesday-Friday-Saturday).

The schedule, dictated by television, is to be released Sunday at 3 p.m.

The team with the best record on each side of the bracket advances to Sunday’s championship. A two-team tie is decided by the head-to-head matchup; the highest seed moves on in a multi-team tie.

In one respect, Clemson might have lucked out by backing into the bottom seed instead of snagging No. 7.

The other side of the bracket will include the Nos. 2 and 3 seeds in a year the ACC boasts three teams ranked in the top four nationally: top-ranked Miami, second-ranked North Carolina and fourth-ranked Florida State.

Clemson will draw Miami, which secured the No. 1 seed after beating UNC on Thursday, coupled with Florida State’s opening loss to N.C. State.

N.C. State will be the fourth seed after losing Friday and thus failing to sweep Florida State.

The winner of the ongoing Georgia Tech/Virginia series will be the fifth seed. The two league rivals split the first two games.