Finally we can talk about the NCAA Regional
By: Will Vandervort
First there is Terrence Oglesby’s news to turn professional and then Barry Humphries arrest and the way it was kept quiet for so long. Both of those news items have dominated the talk so much the last three days in this small college town it is seems as if we all forgot there is a pretty big baseball tournament this weekend.
Finally, I hope, this weekend will be all about the Clemson baseball team which as we all know by now is hosting an NCAA Regional for a 12th time. This is the first time since 2006 — Clemson’s last trip to the College World Series — the Tigers will play at home.
Clemson will play Tennessee Tech at 7 p.m. today inside Doug Kingsmore Stadium, following second seed Alabama and No. 3 Oklahoma State’s 3 p.m. game.
The Tigers (40-19) are 22-1 at home during the current Regional-Super Regional format which began in 1999. Overall, the Tigers are 32-5 under head coach Jack Leggett at home in the NCAA Tournament.
“I think we are very comfortable here,” said Leggett, whose Tigers are 27-8 at home this season. “Usually when you get a regional, it means that you have a good enough team. We have a great atmosphere and fans here. You have to go out on the field and play ball and prove that you earned it.”
The Tigers will try to do that against a pretty strong field the next couple of days. Tennessee Tech is the conference tournament champion of the Ohio Valley Conference and is a very confident team coming in. Then there is Alabama, who is perhaps the best hitting team in the tournament, and then there is Oklahoma State.
Though some might say the Cowboys should not have gotten in the field this year, the point is they are here and they have a track record for being one of the more successful teams in the country when they get in the tournament.
“It hasn’t bothered our guys at all,” said Oklahoma State coach Frank Anderson on the on scrutiny of making the tournament. “A few years ago we got into the tournament as the No. 2 seed in our conference, but we barely made it because our RPI was low. The NCAA parameters are pretty black and white and we have raised our RPI now.”
Anderson, like Leggett, views the Clemson Regional as one of the stronger fields in the tournament.
“Anytime you are playing in an NCAA Regional, there are going to be good teams,” he said. “It is no different here. There are four really good teams playing this weekend.”
Anderson’s team will have his hands full against an Alabama team that is led by National Player of the Year candidate Kent Matthes.
“We were surprised to some degree that he would have as good a season as he is having,” Alabama head coach Jim Wells said. “We did not see it coming. He just started hitting the ball really well and we thought it was just a nice streak, but it is still going.
“He is the kind of player that is good at everything. He runs well and fields well. He is the same guy every day.”
He is a guy that is hitting a team-high .365 and leads the nation with 28 home runs, 81 RBIs and a .883 slugging percentage. He also has 13 steals in 15 attempts.
“He is one of those top 5-to-10 guys in the country that really stands out,” Anderson said. “This year there aren’t players like Buster Posey and (Matt) Weiters, but he is their target guy and we have to watch out for him.”
As for the Tigers, they come into the regional feeling good about themselves. Though they went 1-2 in the ACC Tournament last week, they did close things with an emotional win against No. 5 national seed North Carolina and come into this weekend as winners in 15 of their last 20 games.
“We did a good job coming back. I thought we only had a few bad innings during the tournament,” Leggett said. “The way we played against North Carolina, I couldn’t have been happier to get the win.”
And Clemson can’t be any happier about hosting a regional and finally having people talking about the baseball team again, like it should have been all week long.
What a week it has been at Clemson.
First there is Terrence Oglesby’s news to turn professional and then Barry Humphries arrest and the way it was kept quiet for so long. Both of those news items have dominated the talk so much the last three days in this small college town it is seems as if we all forgot there is a pretty big baseball tournament this weekend.
Finally, I hope, this weekend will be all about the Clemson baseball team which as we all know by now is hosting an NCAA Regional for a 12th time. This is the first time since 2006 — Clemson’s last trip to the College World Series — the Tigers will play at home.
Clemson will play Tennessee Tech at 7 p.m. today inside Doug Kingsmore Stadium, following second seed Alabama and No. 3 Oklahoma State’s 3 p.m. game.
The Tigers (40-19) are 22-1 at home during the current Regional-Super Regional format which began in 1999. Overall, the Tigers are 32-5 under head coach Jack Leggett at home in the NCAA Tournament.
“I think we are very comfortable here,” said Leggett, whose Tigers are 27-8 at home this season. “Usually when you get a regional, it means that you have a good enough team. We have a great atmosphere and fans here. You have to go out on the field and play ball and prove that you earned it.”
The Tigers will try to do that against a pretty strong field the next couple of days. Tennessee Tech is the conference tournament champion of the Ohio Valley Conference and is a very confident team coming in. Then there is Alabama, who is perhaps the best hitting team in the tournament, and then there is Oklahoma State.
Though some might say the Cowboys should not have gotten in the field this year, the point is they are here and they have a track record for being one of the more successful teams in the country when they get in the tournament.
“It hasn’t bothered our guys at all,” said Oklahoma State coach Frank Anderson on the on scrutiny of making the tournament. “A few years ago we got into the tournament as the No. 2 seed in our conference, but we barely made it because our RPI was low. The NCAA parameters are pretty black and white and we have raised our RPI now.”
Anderson, like Leggett, views the Clemson Regional as one of the stronger fields in the tournament.
“Anytime you are playing in an NCAA Regional, there are going to be good teams,” he said. “It is no different here. There are four really good teams playing this weekend.”
Anderson’s team will have his hands full against an Alabama team that is led by National Player of the Year candidate Kent Matthes.
“We were surprised to some degree that he would have as good a season as he is having,” Alabama head coach Jim Wells said. “We did not see it coming. He just started hitting the ball really well and we thought it was just a nice streak, but it is still going.
“He is the kind of player that is good at everything. He runs well and fields well. He is the same guy every day.”
He is a guy that is hitting a team-high .365 and leads the nation with 28 home runs, 81 RBIs and a .883 slugging percentage. He also has 13 steals in 15 attempts.
“He is one of those top 5-to-10 guys in the country that really stands out,” Anderson said. “This year there aren’t players like Buster Posey and (Matt) Weiters, but he is their target guy and we have to watch out for him.”
As for the Tigers, they come into the regional feeling good about themselves. Though they went 1-2 in the ACC Tournament last week, they did close things with an emotional win against No. 5 national seed North Carolina and come into this weekend as winners in 15 of their last 20 games.
“We did a good job coming back. I thought we only had a few bad innings during the tournament,” Leggett said. “The way we played against North Carolina, I couldn’t have been happier to get the win.”
And Clemson can’t be any happier about hosting a regional and finally having people talking about the baseball team again, like it should have been all week long.
posted by Roy Philpott @ 8:10 AM
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