Clemson Tigers Begin NCAA Tournament This Weekend

By: Bryce Mitchell

The Clemson Tigers claimed the ACC Baseball Championship title for the first time since 2016 on May 28. With the 11-5 win over the Miami Hurricanes, the Tigers took home their 11th ACC Tournament title. 

Seventh Inning Performance 

The Tigers came out of the gate, with Cam Cannarella scoring the first run of the game in the bottom of the first.

But the Clemson Tigers owe their stellar win to the seventh inning. The team scored eight runs by the end of the inning. 

At the top, Clemson was down 5-3. Jackson Lindley, Clemson’s RHP, only allowed one hit and left Miami runless. 

With Clemson’s turn at bat, infielder Billy Amick hit a double to left field. Will Taylor scored, putting Caden Grice, LHP/1B, in scoring position. Taylor is a sophomore outfielder for the orange, but also is a wide receiver for the Clemson football team. He’s the first football player to play baseball at Clemson since D.J. Reader, who currently plays for the Cincinnati Bengals. 

Riley Bertram stepped up to the plate, and gave the Tigers their twitter-worthy post. Bertram slammed a homer to right field, accompanying Amick and Grice to home plate. 

Bertram is a Michigan transfer and his seventh inning home run was his first homer in Tiger uniform. The lead then stood at 7-5 for the Tigers, and Clemson ran with it. 

Taylor extended the lead and sent a homer to left field, sending himself, Cooper Ingle and Cannarella home. 

With that, the score was 11-5, and the Hurricanes couldn’t recover. 

World Series Host 

The regional brackets were announced on Monday for the upcoming College World Series. The NCAA Baseball Tournament begins Friday, June 2 with the Regional Tournaments. 

After winning their ACC hardware, the Clemson Tigers will host a Regional. The Tigers are top-seed in their regional and have earned the overall national fourth-seed spot.

Wake Forest sits at the top as #1 seed, followed by Florida, Arkansas and then Clemson. 

Clemson’s Regional will host Tennessee (38-19), Charlotte (34-26) and Lipscomb (36-24). Tennessee will prove to be a difficult team for Clemson, as they were a top 15 nationally ranked team during the season. 

Lipscomb, Atlantic Sun champions, will be Clemson’s first opponent of the tournament. The game will air at 12:30pm on Friday on 730 The Game ESPN Charlotte.