Clemson, Coastal baseball teams hosting NCAA regionals. Here are the details
The NCAA Tournament path is set for the Clemson and Coastal Carolina baseball teams.
Clemson was announced as the No. 11 overall seed in the field on Monday and will host regional-round games this weekend at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.
The Tigers, the No. 1 seed in their regional, will play their opening game against No. 4 USC Upstate (36-23) at 6 p.m. Friday on ACC Network.
No. 2 West Virginia (41-14) and No. 3 Kentucky (29-24) will play at noon Friday (ESPNU) in the other first-round game of the Clemson Regional. The regional is double elimination and runs through Sunday.
The Tigers defeated USC Upstate 7-0 in a game played in early March. The Spartans, led by first-year coach Kane Sweeney, defeated Charleston Southern on Saturday to win the Big South Tournament title.
“They’ve got a great club,” Clemson coach Erik Bakich said. “A first-year coach taking over to have them back in the tournament. They can really hit. They’ve got a dangerous lineup and a really good team.”
Clemson was ranked as high as No. 2 in the country in mid-April. But after a late-season slide, there was legitimate concern that Bakich’s program could fall out of a regional hosting spot.
The Tigers (44-16) shored up those doubts by sweeping Pittsburgh in their final ACC regular-season series and finishing as the runner-up in the ACC Tournament after a 14-4 loss to UNC on Sunday. They will now be a regional host for the third year in a row under Bakich.
“As disappointing as Sunday was, you’ve just got to flush that and move on,” Bakich said. “And we did that by the time we got on the bus leaving Durham. We already had our attention on what’s next. No sense dwelling on not playing well against UNC.”
Clemson, though, missed out on a top 8 national seed for the first time in Bakich’s tenure. That means if the Tigers advance out of their regional, they don’t automatically earn the right to host a super regional and would likely have to play on the road.
Clemson is paired in the bracket with the Baton Rouge Regional, featuring No. 6 LSU.
Coastal Carolina hosting. Florida Gators headed to Conway
Coastal Carolina locked in the No. 13 national seed and will host a regional this weekend.
Coastal will face Fairfield (39-17) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament’s Conway Regional. That game will be played at 6 p.m. Friday and streamed on ESPN+.
The Florida Gators (38-20) face the East Carolina Pirates (33-25) in the other first round game game in Conway (noon, ESPN2).
The Chanticleers (48-11) defeated Southern Miss on Sunday to win the Sun Belt Tournament championship.
The Chants are hosting a regional in the first season under coach Kevin Schnall. They’ve won 18 games in a row and were No. 8 overall in the latest RPI rankings.
Coastal’s regional is matched up with the Auburn Regional in the NCAA bracket.
This story was originally published May 26, 2025 at 12:31 PM.
