Lower-seeded teams find success on Day 2 of ACC Tournament pool play
DURHAM, N.C. -- A day of chalk on Wednesday turned into a day of upsets on Thursday as two of the higher seeds fell to lower-seeded teams that came into the ACC Tournament hot.
In the first game of the day, No. 6 seed N.C. State (32-20) beat No. 3 seed Notre Dame (35-20). In the afternoon, No. 5 seed Clemson (32-26) knocked off No. 1 seed Louisville (43-15) -- just the Cardinals' sixth loss to an ACC foe in 32 games.
As of May 5, Clemson was 24-24 and had just lost to Wofford. Jack Leggett, who has been Clemson's head coach since 1994, was as much on the hot seat as a coach with that kind of success can be. Fans were growing restless.
Clemson hasn't advanced past regionals for four straight years now, and this year it looked like the Tigers might not get the opportunity to get to regionals at all, sitting at .500 with bad losses.
Since May 5, though, Clemson is 8-2 -- four of those wins have come against Florida State and Louisville, including a surprising sweep of the Seminoles in the final ACC series.
Clemson lost its ACC Tournament opener to Florida State, with the Seminoles eager to avenge being swept the week before. And it looked dire, since Clemson's ace Matthew Crownover took the loss. But on Thursday, they beat Louisville 7-2 in a game the Tigers dominated from start to finish.
Louisville started top draft pick Kyle Funkhouser, and Clemson got to him early and often -- he allowed a stunning nine hits and five earned runs in his 5.0 innings of work. Funkhouser has struggled some lately, but not to that degree. Meanwhile, even though Crownover lost his start, Clemson's Zack Erwin struck out 11 Louisville batters on his way to allowing just six hits and one earned run in eight innings.
But Leggett's team played for their head coach, too -- even if none of them actually said that explicitly.
"Every single game we play at Clemson is a big game. We come to school to play in games like this today," Clemson's Tyler Krieger said. "We have the talent to win every game we play in. I believe in my teammates, I believe in our coaches, I believe in the program, and I think there's a lot of good things in front of us if we continue to play the way we are."
As well as Clemson had been playing entering the tournament, nothing was assured. The loss to Florida State in the opener made things a bit murky. But the win over Louisville all but locked up the Tigers' spot in regionals yet again, even though Clemson is out of ACC title contention with Florida State's win in the nightcap.
Like Krieger, Leggett wouldn't address anything specific. But he alluded to the fact that as much as the fans might have been panicking a month or so ago, he kind of knows what he's doing.
"We've been doing this for a long period of time, and the Clemson baseball program I know always plays tough, always plays hard, plays sometimes better with our back against the wall and when we've got something to prove, a little chip on our shoulder," Leggett said. "I'm proud of our kids. I've always felt very confident in what we're capable of doing and what kind of team we have, but we'll always play tough and we'll always come to play and that's something I'm always been proud of over the years."
Meanwhile, in Pool A, N.C. State put itself in great position with a 3-0 win over Notre Dame. The Wolfpack have won 11 of their last 13 games. After barely sitting above .500, N.C. State climbed out of a hole with series wins over Virginia, Longwood and Wake Forest before taking one game from Louisville in a three-game set.
N.C. State was in complete control of the rain-delayed game against the Irish; not even nearly two hours of sitting around could break the Wolfpack's stride.
"Our guys are so relaxed right now and so confident, I don't think anything bothers them," N.C. State head coach Elliott Avent said.
Freshman starter Brian Brown allowed just two hits and struck out 10 in six innings of work, while reliever Curt Britt closed things out. Notre Dame never really threatened.
Last year, N.C. State's talented team that included the likes of first-round draft picks Carlos Rodon and Trea Turner never really found its stride. An ACC Tournament play-in game against North Carolina was considered by outsiders to be an NCAA Tournament play-in game of sorts as well, and that ended up being the case. N.C. State missed the field a year after reaching the College World Series while North Carolina made it.
"Last year's team was pretty good, I don't want people faulting last year's team. I thought they were pretty good. I think if they win that Carolina game, I think they go to the NCAAs and they may very well go back to Omaha," Avent said. "So last year's team was probably a little better than y'all remember, but this is a good team."
It is a good team, and it's one that, rather than falling a bit short of expectations, instead is well exceeding them.
In the nightcap, one team in Florida State (39-19) that had everything locked up faced an underdog in No. 8-seed North Carolina (33-24) with everything to play for, but the underdog trend didn't continue as the Tar Heels fell 8-4.
North Carolina was officially eliminated from championship contention with the loss, falling to 0-2 in pool play. Florida State is the only team to get to 2-0 so far in either pool, and the Seminoles will have a chance to rest for a day before facing Louisville on Saturday, in complete control.
On Friday, the fate of a few teams will be decided, officially. Virginia and Notre Dame are each 0-1 in Pool A; the two will face off to try to give themselves the best chance to stay alive in the morning. North Carolina is out of contention in Pool B, but the Tar Heels can still pick up a good win for NCAA Tournament purposes with one game left against Clemson in the afternoon. Clemson could use the win for insurance in terms of NCAA selection, too -- the Tigers are 52 in Warren Nolan's up-to-the-minute RPI and the Tar Heels are 28, but the selection committee will factor in how teams are finishing and Clemson has a big edge in that department.
The nightcap will decide quite a bit -- N.C. State will face Miami in front of what is sure to be a partisan crowd, and if N.C. State wins, it puts the Wolfpack in the driver's seat to advance to Sunday's ACC title game at 2-0 in the pool. Miami is 1-0.
At this point in the tournament, often everything is all but officially decided. There's plenty of drama left with two days of pool play to go.
