Based on what Clemson experienced this weekend, the reports of Florida State's demise were greatly exaggerated.
Florida State entered the weekend with a 19-13 overall record and 7-8 Atlantic Coast Conference mark. There was speculation the Seminoles would be unlikely to qualify for the NCAA Tournament for the first time in Mike Martin's four-decade tenure as head coach.
Fast forward to Sunday: The Seminoles wrapped up a three-game sweep of Clemson (25-11, 11-7) with a 6-4 victory. The Tigers struck out 19, giving them 36 series. Clemson did have its best offensive output of the series, a meager seven hits. The Tigers batted .180 (18-for-100) for the weekend.
With the sweep, Clemson fell into third place in the ACC Atlantic Division. Louisville (28-8, 13-5), which Clemson was in position to sweep a week earlier before losing the series finale in extra innings, bolted into first place by completing a three-game sweep at N.C. State ((29-8, 12-6). And the Seminoles (22-13, 10-8) are hot on the Tigers' heels.
So Clemson, which hadn't lost consecutive games this season, now takes a three-game losing streak into its Tuesday visit to Georgia, another ranked team which is also smarting after losing two of three at Tennessee.
The Tigers try to right the ACC ship next weekend at home against Duke.
Elsewhere:
* South Carolina (21-15, 4-11) suffered another nightmarish weekend in the SEC, missing a chance to get its first conference series win of the season when Florida staged a two-out rally for a walk-off 6-4 win in the series finale on Saturday.
The Gamecocks, who haven't won a series against Florida since 2011, managed to parlay the 1-2 weekend into climbing in the SEC standings because Alabama was swept by Mississippi State. USC is now tied with Alabama and Kentucky for 12th place - the final spot to make the SEC Tournament.
Should Carolina fail to reach the tournament, it would be just the second time in its conference tournament era. USC qualified for the Metro Conference Tournament all eight seasons from 1984-91.
The only season USC didn't qualify for the SEC Tournament since joining the league in 1992 was in 1996, when the Gamecocks lost their final six league games and their last seven overall in June Raines' final season.
Ray Tanner took over the next season and Carolina has made the SEC Tournament every year since.
After a Tuesday game against nationally ranked North Carolina in Charlotte, the Gamecocks play host to Texas A&M - the second-place team in the SEC West - for three games beginning Thursday.
* Spartanburg Methodist (25-15, 13-3) enjoyed a pretty good week even if the Pioneers did get rained out of Sunday's Region 10 home finale twinbill against Florence-Darlington Tech (34-11, 13-5). The Pioneers followed up a midweek split with No. 2 Walters State by winning two over FD Tech on Saturday. That snapped the Stingers' 11-game winning streak and allowed SMC to to take over first place in Region 10 entering the final weekend of league play.
SMC has a one-game lead over Florence-Darlington Tech with four region games to play. The Pioneers are at fifth-place USC Lancaster (26-14, 10-10), while FD Tech has a home series with sixth-place USC Union (9-17, 5-11). USC Lancaster, USC Sumter (23-19, 9-7) and Louisburg (19-16) are are jockeying for the 3-4-5 positions.
* Wofford (23-15, 6-3) won two of three games with VMI (9-27, 5-7) in a Southern Conference series over the weekend. That allowed the Terrieris to remain in a second-place tie with East Tennessee State (25-10, 6-3), which won two of three at Furman (12-23, 5-7). But both Wofford and ETSU lost ground to first-place Samford (25-11, 8-1), which swept The Citadel (10-25, 3-9). Furman fell into a fifth-place tie with Mercer and Western Carolina. East Tennessee State and Wofford go head-to-head next weekend in Johnson City. UNC Greensboro (21-10, 5-4), which was out of the league over the weekend, visits Samford, while Furman is at Western Carolina and Mercer is at VMI.
* Coastal Carolina (23-13-1, 8-6) was washed out of its series finale at Little Rock, but the Chanticleers moved back into first place in the Sun Belt Conference East Division because Georgia Southern (20-16, 8-7) lost its final two games to Texas State. The Chanticleers host the Eagles in a three-game series beginning Thursday. Appalachian State (15-18, 7-7) and Troy (19-17, 7-8) are within striking distance, too, and they go head-to-head at Troy over the weekend.
* The Big South Conference race is shaping up as a good one with all teams having four league series remaining over the final five weeks. First-place Campbell (23-13, 12-3) won two of three with Radford (17-18, 9-6), while Presbyterian (18-18, 10-5) and Winthrop (20-15, 10-5) won series to jump over the Highlanders into second place. None of this week's series match up teams in the top four.
* While College of Charleston (23-13, 7-2) was losing two of three in a nonconference series with Dallas Baptist, Elon (21-15, 10-2) was sweeping Delaware to build a 1 1/2 game lead in the Colonial Athletic Association. Northeastern (17-18, 7-5) lost two of three to UNC Wilmington (20-17, 5-4) to fall 1 1/2 games behind the Cougars. The College visits Northeastern in its next league series.
* The South Atlantic Conference regular-season title comes down to a three-game series in Harrogate, Tenn., beginning Friday. Newberry (36-10, 19-2) needs one win over second-place Lincoln Memorial (30-13, 17-4) to clinch. The Wolves were up to the challenge over the weekend, sweeping Catawba to eliminate the Indians.
* Anderson (16-26, 6-15) stayed in contention for a SAC Tournament bid by winning two of three at Coker (15-24-1, 7-14). Coker is in the eighth in the standings and would qualify if the season ended today. Anderson hosts Mars Hill (16-24, 4-16) and Coker is at Carson-Newman (25-17, 7-11) to end the season.
* While North Greenville (32-9, 19-5) clinched the Conference Carolinas regular-season title by wining its series finale at Mount Olive, there's still some suspense in the league. Erskine (25-18, 13-9) has a chance to move from fourth to second by winning at least two against Mount Olive (26-12, 14-9) and having Barton (27-18 15-9) struggle against Southern Wesleyan (16-26, 7-16).
* Limestone (15-29, 9-15) won two of three at Southern Wesleyan and moved into seventh place with one week remaining. The Saints face King (14-24, 7-15). Southern Wesleyan needs a good showing against Barton and losses from King and Chowan (13-20-1, 8-14) against North Greenville to have a chance to qualify. The fifth-, sixth-, seventh- and eighth-place finishers play single-elimination games to move into the six-team, double-elimination portion of the league tournament.
* Claflin (22-10) pushed its winning streak to eight games with a doubleheader sweep of Clark Atlanta. The Panthers' athletics program left the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference after last season to join the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, which does not sponsor baseball. Claflin does plan to compete in a tournament involving independent teams in May.
* Benedict (14-13, 9-6) missed an opportunity for an SIAC doubleheader sweep when Paine (6-25-1, 1-11) ended a 11-game conference losing streak with a 10-1 victory on Saturday. The teams meet again Monday in Augusta. Benedict is 4 1/2 games behind Albany State (21-17, 13-1) in the East Division standings with six league games remaining.
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