Coastal the lone SC team in NCAA baseball tournament. Clemson, Wofford not in field
One South Carolina college is in the field of 64 and on the road to start this year’s NCAA baseball tournament.
Coastal Carolina (36-18-1) is a No. 3 seed will face 2-seed Virginia (38-17) on Friday in the Greenville (N.C.) Regional hosted by East Carolina. ECU and Coppin State are the other teams in the regional.
The season is over for NCAA tournament hopefuls Clemson, Wofford and College of Charleston. All three S.C. schools were on the tournament bubble entering their respective conference tournaments a week ago.
The Chanticleers were an at-large selection to the tournament on the strength of being No. 30 in the RPI. CCU defeated Clemson and College of Charleston two times each.
Coastal is making its 18th NCAA regional appearance in program history. The Chants won the 2016 national championship. Gary Gilmore is in his 27th season as coach.
Clemson (35-23) missed out on the postseason for the second straight year. The Tigers finished No. 34 in the Ratings Power Index (RPI) that ranks teams based on their strength of schedule. The Tigers were 13-16 in ACC play this year in the regular season and were 0-2 in last week’s conference tournament.
Wofford (42-16-1) was projected to make the field just days ago but lost twice to UNC Greensboro on Sunday in the Southern Conference tournament finals. UNCG earned the SoCon’s automatic bid, and the Terriers dropped from 30 to 35 in the RPI after the weekend.
Wofford was officially among the “first four” teams that did not make the tournament. Baseball America on Monday listed Clemson in its “next four” teams missing out.
College of Charleston (37-19) was on the NCAA tournament bubble a week ago but fell out of contention after the Cougars went 1-2 in the Colonial Athletic Association Conference tournament. Charleston (RPI 69) needed to win the CAA tournament to qualify for the NCAAs.
The season is over for the South Carolina Gamecocks (27-28).
It’s the first time since 1973 that both South Carolina and Clemson missed the tournament. Since 2000, USC has missed the NCAAs four times, twice under current coach Mark Kingston and twice under his predecessor, Chad Holbrook.
Clemson has missed the tournament three times in the last 36 years, with two of those coming in 2021 and 2022 under current coach Monte Lee.
DII NCAA tournament: North Greenville (50-10) won its super regional to advance to the Division II baseball championship tournament that begins next weekend in Cary, North Carolina.
Coastal Carolina NCAA tournament resume
The Chanticleers were 36-18-1 overall, 21-8-1 in the Sun Belt and 15-10 out of conference this season. They were 14-10 in road games.
▪ RPI: 30
▪ SOS: 46
▪ Non-conference SOS: 2
▪ vs. ranked teams: 6-6
▪ vs. Quad 1 teams: 8-7
▪ vs. Quad 2 teams 14-9
This story was originally published May 30, 2022 at 12:44 PM.
