Clemson Regional: Tigers face tough draw after whiffing on national seed
The 2018 Clemson Regional was announced Monday afternoon. The Tigers missed on a national seed and now face a very tough field ahead of them.
The 2018 Clemson Regional was announced Monday afternoon by the NCAA Selection Committee.
After most Tiger fans and players believed the baseball team would be getting a national seed, Clemson came away with the No. 10 overall seed, being beat out by the likes of Florida State, UNC, and Georgia.
To add on to missing out on a national seed, the Tigers will also face familiar opponents, as the selection committee sent Vanderbilt and St. John’s back to Clemson for the second-straight year.
Here’s a look at the entire regional for the Tigers.
2018 Regional Information, Initial Thoughts:
- Clemson
- Vanderbilt
- St. John’s
- Morehead State
The Tigers will face Morehead State Friday evening at 6 p.m. Vanderbilt and St. John’s will play that same day at noon to open up the regional.
It is, in my opinion, lazy positioning from the committee to place two teams from last year’s regional back in this year’s regional. Vanderbilt won the 2017 regional and Morehead State is no slouch.
Morehead State has a lot of veterans and they are extremely talented offensively. Vanderbilt is still a solid baseball team, but nowhere near the team they were last season behind the pitching they had.
It’s certainly a very winnable region for the Tigers, but it none of these games are give-mes. We will take a closer look at the regional as we get closer to Friday, but this is the hand that’s been dealt to Clemson.
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The Tigers will just have to play with a chip on their shoulder and look to take revenge on Vanderbilt this weekend before maybe looking for revenge on Florida State in a Super Regional.