Friday night was stressful for a lot of Clemson baseball fans.
The Tigers were in a tie ballgame heading into the bottom of the eighth inning with No. 4 seed USC Upstate. Before the game head coach Erik Bakich did admit that he believed Upstate was the best 4-seed in the NCAA baseball tournament and it looked like he was right through eight.
Fortunately, TP Wentworth and Cam Cannarella rose up in the bottom of the inning to play hero ball, giving Clemson a late four-run cushion heading into the ninth.
Clemson would close the door and win 7-3, but it wasn't without a sweat.
Apparently, that was the trend in the first game of regionals on Friday around the country. Clemson and West Virginia both avoided a scary trend that popped up on Friday with top two seeds falling in regions everywhere. In fact, four No. 1 seeds lost their regional opener and eighth No. 2 seeds also lost. Only six regionals saw both top two seeds win, per Mickey Plyler on X.
Clemson avoided what turned out to be a trend with No. 1 seeds losing to No. 4 seeds around the country which puts all of those teams in danger of getting bounced on Saturday way earlier than expected at their own host sites. The same goes for eight No. 2 seeds.
This year seems to be a little crazier than most which means that the Tigers just need to focus on one game at a time and they can't get caught looking ahead.
We've seen what happens in that case already.