USC-Clemson baseball series now includes interesting choice for neutral-site stadium

South Carolina and Clemson baseball on Friday announced the location of the annual in-state rivalry’s neutral-site games from 2019 until 2022, with contests taking place in Greenville in 2019 and 2021 and in Columbia in 2020 and 2022.

Columbia?

As in previous seasons, the series will include one game at each team’s home stadium — Founders Park for USC and Doug Kingsmore Stadium for Clemson. Since 2013, the middle game of the three-contest set has taken place at Fluor Field in Greenville, home of the minor league Greenville Drive, which is just over 30 miles away from Clemson.

Next season and two years after that, the series will return to Fluor Field. In 2020 and 2022, however, the third game will take place at Spirit Communications Park, home of the minor league Columbia Fireflies. While that stadium is less than 4 miles away from USC’s home field, an equal number of tickets will continue to be distributed to both programs for every neutral-site game.

“It was good economically, and I think it was really good from a fan perspective,” Clemson Athletics Director Dan Radakovich said. The two schools “solicited bids from places around the state to host that game. And as we evaluated those, since the last time we did this, a new ballpark has come on board, obviously, in Columbia. So as we evaluated all of those bids, we came down to the fact that from a student-athlete perspective, from a fan perspective, going four years, two in Greenville, two in Columbia, made an awful lot of sense.”

In the years the second game is played in Greenville, the series will start at Clemson and end at South Carolina. In the years when the neutral-site game is in Columbia, the series will begin at Founders Park and end at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.

All time, South Carolina is 0-1 at Spirit Communications Park, losing 9-0 to College of Charleston this past season. Against Clemson, the Gamecocks are 4-4 at Fluor Field.

This past season, USC advanced to the NCAA tournament Super Regionals, coming one win short of the College World Series, while Clemson fell in its own home regional for the third consecutive season. Both teams ended the season ranked in the top 20 nationally.

“Each year, the greatest college baseball rivalry in the nation is played in three different stadiums around the state of South Carolina,” South Carolina Athletics Director Ray Tanner said in a statement “One of these games each year is at a neutral site, and Fluor Field and Spirit Communications Park are among the finest stadiums in minor league baseball. Their staffs are committed to making a first-class environment for our student-athletes.”

Earlier reports had indicated the game might travel to Charleston, North Augusta, Myrtle Beach or Charlotte, all of which also have minor league stadiums.

Radakovich downplayed any concerns about the neutral-site game in Columbia and its proximity to USC.

“We’re going to get half the tickets, so I think we have a lot of fans in the Columbia area, and we’re going to hope for them to come out to Spirit Communications Park and cheer on the Tigers when that game is at that stadium,” he said. “As is the case here and as is the case there, visiting fans have a very difficult time getting tickets inside the home ballpark.”

This story was originally published August 3, 2018 at 2:07 PM.