Clemson is blowing it

By: Will Vandervort

First of all, I want to start off today by giving a shout out to my alma mater, Bamberg-Ehrhardt High School (S.C.), for winning it’s 15th state championship last night in baseball.

The 15 state titles are a national record and 14 of them have been won by legendary head coach David Horton — the best high school coach in America, and I’m not just saying that either. Coach Horton has won 817 career games since becoming the Red Raiders head coach in 1968. I believe that is a national record too.

By the way, he has only been beat 243 times.

At one point, he guided B-E to eight straight state championships from 1974-’81, which is tied for the national record. The Red Raiders beat Chesterfield, 7-1, last night to win their second straight Class A state championship. For more on my high school’s great tradition in baseball check out this article by my friend Bob Gillespie of The State at http://www.thestate.com/sports/story/797027.html, and this one by my other friend Thomas Grant at the Orangeburg T&D at http://thetandd.com/articles/2009/05/23/sports/doc4a1785c1d1106024579986.txt.

Now let’s talk about Clemson’s baseball team. The news isn’t so good for the 13th-ranked Tigers.

This time last week, the Tigers (39-19) were on their way to sweeping N.C. State for their 14th victory in 17 games. Talk was they may have set themselves up to possibly be a top-eight seed in the NCAA Tournament if they put on an equally impressive showing in this week’s ACC Tournament.

But after blowing a four-run lead to Virginia in the first game to suffer a 6-5 loss, Clemson was humbled by a much improved, but still no better than average Duke squad, 10-4, in the second game Friday. As they head into today’s 4 p.m. contest against No. 4 North Carolina, the Tigers might need a win to secure a regional site as a host school, which was thought to be a lock before the ACC Championships.

To make matters even worse, Virginia pounded the Tar Heels, 11-1, in the night game, bolstering its résumé’ to lock up one of the remaining regional sites up for grabs. The 16th-ranked Cavaliers need a win over Duke tonight to secure a second straight trip to the ACC Title game.

“Obviously, we came in here to win ballgames, but we didn’t get it done,” Clemson coach Jack Leggett said. “I thought we played pretty well (against Virginia), but we just went through a quiet period offensively and they pitched pretty well.

“We had a letup in the middle of the game just like (the Duke game). Other than those two or three innings, we’ve played okay. We just have to be able to come out (today) and be able to play a better baseball game against a really good team in North Carolina.”

And if they don’t, the Tigers might find themselves on the road for a regional instead of playing at the comforts of Doug Kingsmore Stadium, where they are 22-1 in the NCAA Tournament since 1999.

“Everybody realizes that baseball is a funny game and you can come in here and score 10 runs or get 10 runs scored on you,” right fielder Kyle Parker said. “I think we’re strong. We can shake it off and come back and play hard.”

I guess we will see. Regional sites will be announced tomorrow by the way.

Big game for the Tigers

By: Will Vandervort

Clemson’s road to the ACC Tournament Championship game got a little harder following Thursday night’s 6-5 loss to Virginia, but there is still a chance for the 13th-ranked Tigers.

First of all, Clemson (39-18) has to take care of business against Duke this afternoon. Not an easy as a task as it sounds. Though the Tigers beat Duke two of three games earlier this season, the Blue Devils are a tough out.

They will send their ace, senior right-hander Andrew Wolcott (7-3, 2.79 ERA), to the mound in hopes of knocking Clemson out of the running for the championship. Wolcott has made 12 starts and one relief appearance for a total of 87.0 innings pitched. He has yielded 81 hits and 18 walks with 67 strikeouts. He has also given up just three home runs and has pitched two complete games.

Wolcott already owns a win against the Tigers this year after pitching six complete innings and giving up three runs (two earned) in a 10-7 victory at Doug Kingsmore Stadium on April 4.

If the Tigers get past the Blue Devils, they then have to hope North Carolina beats Virginia tonight. That would make the Tar Heels 2-0 with Clemson left to play on Saturday, while the Cavaliers will be 1-1 with Duke left to play.

If those two scenarios happen, then Clemson needs to beat the Tar Heels on Saturday, which it has already done once and nearly did a second time before a ninth-inning rally by UNC at Chapel Hill in the third-game of their three-game series back in March. If they do that, then they will need Duke to knock off Virginia in the night game to advance to the championship game on Sunday, where Florida State is already penciled in.

I know that sounds crazy to say Florida State in already in because it’s just Friday, but that’s the ACC Tournament for you. The Seminoles punched their ticket by beating Miami Thursday, coupled with Boston College’s win over Georgia Tech.

Now back Duke. Today’s game is also important for Clemson in regards to hosting a regional in next week’s NCAA Tournament. The Tigers can reach 40 wins with a victory today and in the past that usually nails down a spot for most teams.

Clemson doesn’t want to have to go into Saturday’s game against No. 4 North Carolina needing a win to get 40. Currently 15 teams across the country have recorded 40 or more wins, including Virginia with last night’s win over Clemson. Though I think Clemson is almost assured a regional bid, it would not look good for the Tigers to go 0-3 in the ACC Tournament with one of those losses coming from one of the teams (Virginia) that they are in competition with for a regional site.

So believe it or not, a baseball game against Duke of all teams is probably the biggest one Clemson has had in the last two years.

The ACC Baseball Tournament is a joke

By: Will Vandervort

I ask you this, why does the ACC even have a baseball tournament? There is no advantage to it, especially with it being played at Durham Bulls Athletic Park in Durham, N.C.

The last time it was played at that ballpark, the tournament made little, if any money at all on the event. But that’s just part of the reason for my complaint.

My real complaint is that this format, which they have used now for the third year, really stinks. I mean other than the media and television, it has no advantage for any team. It basically means the entire ACC regular season means little other than deciding the eight teams to get in the tournament. But once the tournament is set, Florida State, the top seed, has little if no advantage at all to fifth seeded Miami.

In fact, the Hurricanes, who beat Georgia Tech in the first game earlier this afternoon, have a better advantage. If Miami beats the Seminoles on Thursday, it will already lock up a spot in Sunday’s ACC Championship game even though there will be two days and seven games left before the second team in the championship game is decided.

How fair is that?

That means Miami, the No. 5 seed and the team Clemson beat two of three times this year, will already be in the championship game before the third seeded Tigers even throw their first pitch to Virginia Thursday night in the ACC Tournament.

What makes it even more unfair, and meaningless, is the fact if North Carolina beats Duke tonight, Clemson will have to win three straight games regardless of what happens in the other games to advance to the championship. What that means is a Miami or Florida State — the Seminoles can lock up a spot in the championship game by Friday depending on the outcomes of their first two games and the Miami and Boston College game on Friday — can rest their pitching and throw anyone they want on Sunday.

In fact, Miami, which will play three straight games before getting Saturday off, can rest their pitching after Thursday if they were to beat Florida State because Friday’s game against Boston College would not mean anything.

That game might not mean anything anyway because if Florida State beats BC tonight and then Miami Thursday afternoon, the Hurricanes will eliminate themselves from the championship by beating BC. That’s right; they can eliminate themselves by winning a game. Since when does that make sense?

If Florida State beats BC tonight, then beats Miami, the Hurricanes cannot play for the ACC title, even if Georgia Tech beats BC and FSU. The reason you might ask? In the event of a three-way tie, tiebreaker goes to the higher seed and in that case FSU will move on.

Finally, the regular season plays into the tournament, but by that time it is still unfair.

There are a whole bunch of scenarios that can play out like that in this format. There are so many, it can make your head spin. Trust me on that. Mine is spinning as I write this.

Anyway, my point is, this format only benefits one thing and that is television. And what makes me mad about this even more — the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament comes from the ACC Tournament.

Does the regular season not many anything? Since when should we award an automatic bid to a team who won the championship, even if that is Clemson, because they won the tiebreaker rule from pool play. Is this Big 12 Football?

What happened to earning it on the field? What happened to double elimination?

If they are going to continue to play this tournament in this format, then fine let them, but take away the automatic bid from it and give it to the school that really won the ACC Championship — the school that had the best record in conference play during the season.

And since I’m complaining, ACC can you please let the team that had the best record in the conference be the home team throughout the tournament. Currently the ACC has a rule in place that each team will be the home team at least once in the tournament.

They say it isn’t fair to be the road team all the time.

Hello! That’s why they play the regular season. They had their chance to earn that right during the regular season. If a team is the No. 8 seed in the tournament, it should be the visiting team as long as it is in the tournament. That’s what they earned.

The team with the better record deserves to have the last at-bat. What’s next, Major League Baseball will play an All-Star game to determine who has home field advantage in the World Series? Oh yeah, Bud Selig has already come up with that great idea.

Tigers stake claim to regional bid

By: Will Vandervort

If Clemson hadn’t already nailed down a regional bid before the weekend series with N.C. State, it has now.

The Tigers were nothing but impressive in a three-game sweep at N.C. State to close the regular season, while earning the ACC’s No. 3 seed in this week’s ACC Tournament which starts Wednesday in Durham, N.C. To make matters even better, Virginia, one of the seven teams they’re battling for one of the remaining regional sites, lost two of three games to Virginia Tech over the weekend.

Clemson (39-17, 19-11 ACC) closed the regular season on a five-game winning streak and were 8-2 in its last 10 games. The Cavaliers on the other hand were 6-4 over the last 10 games.

Again, the reason the Clemson-Virginia battle for a regional site is so important is because it is doubtful both will land regional sites. The ACC will more than likely has regional bids locked up for Florida State, North Carolina and Georgia Tech, and no conference since the current NCAA Tournament format began in 1999 has had five schools host regionals.

Now here is the interesting note, the Tigers will play No. 6 seed Virginia (16-11-1 ACC) in the round-robin pool of the ACC Tournament on Thursday night. It will be the only head-to-head meeting between the two this season. Will the selection committee use this one game as a determining factor in deciding who gets the bid? Odds are, no.

In situations like this, the selection committee will reward a school for its overall body of work and not just one game. When comparing the two schedules, the Tigers 39-17 record is much more impressive than Virginia’s 39-12 record. Here’s why.

Clemson is ranked 7th in the latest WarrenNolan.com RPI rankings and has strength of schedule of No. 8. The Cavaliers, though ranked No. 9 in the RPI rankings, have a strength of schedule of 38.

But the big eye catcher when comparing the two teams is when you break down the non-conference schedule. First of all, Clemson’s out of conference schedule was much more difficult. The Tigers, winners in 14 of their last 17 games, posted a 20-6 mark outside the ACC. Virginia went 23-1 out of the ACC.

But when you examine that 23-1 record, you will notice the Cavaliers did not play a single out of conference opponent ranked in top 140 of the RPI. Radford, ranked 142, was the highest RPI team the Cavaliers played on their non-conference slate. They were supposed to play No. 31 Coastal Carolina, but that game was canceled.

Clemson on the other hand was 7-4 against top 50 RPI out of conference foes and 11-4 against teams ranked in the top 63. In fact, the Tigers played eight games against top 25 non-conference opponents and were 4-4 in those games.

So just based on what has happened on the field during the regular season, thus far, Clemson should be awarded a regional site come Sunday. But it wouldn’t hurt to go ahead and beat the Cavaliers to make its case even stronger.