Monday, May 30, 2016

Clemson is No. 7 national seed; state regionals paired; Coastal goes to Raleigh

There wasn't much suspense regarding state teams when the complete NCAA Tournament field was announced at noon on Monday.

Clemson was expected to be rewarded for its torrid finish with a national seed. The Tigers got No. 7.

South Carolina wasn't expected to get a national seed after its yearly debacle at Hoover .. and it didn't.

Coastal Carolina knew it would travel for its NCAA Tournament opener. The Chanticleers were sent to Raleigh, the closest out-of-state regional to the Grand Strand area.

The NCAA paired the Clemson and Columbia regionals for the Super Regionals, so there's no chance of a rematch of the 2010 Clemson-Carolina meetings in Omaha.

The regionals use a four-team double-elimination format and could end on Sunday or Monday. The two paired regional  winners meet in a best-of-three series the following weekend to determine the eight teams for the College World Series.

National seeds will host the Super Regionals if they win their regional. If not the host of the paired regional would be in line to host if it wins.

* Clemson (42-18) opens its regional with a 7 p.m. Friday game against No. 4 Western Carolina (30-29). The Tigers won a home-and-home series with the Catamounts in the regular season. Western won the SoCon Tournament by beating Mercer twice on Sunday in Greenville. The winning run in the second game scored on a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch in the bottom of the ninth.

Oklahoma State (36-20) is the No. 2 seed and will play former Big Eight and Big 12 rival Nebraska (37-20.).

* South Carolina (42-15) is the top seed in its regional and will face No. 4 Rhode Island (30-25) at 7 p.m. Friday. No. 2 UNC Wilmington (39-17) and No. 3 Duke (33-22) will meet in the other game Friday afternoon.

UNCW was the regular season champion of the Colonial Athletic Association and had an 8-1 lead over William & Mary heading into the ninth inning of what could have been the tournament championship game. Instead, William & Mary scored seven runs in the ninth to force extra innings. After a rain delay of more than a day, W&M won that game and then took the "if necessary" game Sunday night to claim the CAA's automatic bid.

South Carolina's story

* Coastal Carolina (44-15) had the highest RPI of any team not selected to host a regional. The Chanticleers will be the No. 2 seed in the Raleigh Regional and will play St. Mary's, Calif., (33-25) in their  opener. Top seed N.C. State (35-20) plays Navy (42-14) in its opener.

Coastal lost to N.C. State, 13-10, in Conway in the second game of the season.
Coastal's story, including links to ticket information

* No other state teams were in contention to be selected.

A few thoughts outside the state:

* South Alabama, coached by former UCS pitching coach Mark Calvi, was awarded an at-large bid and will play Southern Mississippi in the Tallahassee Regional.

* North Carolina failed to make the field despite having the No. 17 RPI. Not making the 10-team ACC Tournament hurt the Tar Heels, but they might still have made the field if UNC Wilmington had won the CAA Tournament. So, a fellow member of the system is to blame.

* Still, all 10 teams to qualify for the ACC Tournament made the NCAA field.

* Not surprisingly (to me), Alabama and Kentucky were left out of the field. The SEC was top-heavy but not very deep this season.

* If all brackets played out in a certain way, either the ACC or the SEC could have seven of the eight teams in Omaha for the College World Series.  There are no ACC teams in the paired regionals in Starkville and Lafayette and no SEC teams in the Charlottesville and Lubbock regionals.

Printable NCAA bracket

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