For Clemson and South Carolina, a return trip to the College World Series begins at home. The Tigers and Gamecocks were named as regional hosts Sunday in the NCAA baseball tournament, which begins this week. Both No. 14 Clemson and No. 1 South Carolina will learn which teams will be included in their four-team regionals when the tournament field is announced at 12:30 p.m. today (ESPN).
While Columbia was considered a lock to be one of 16 regional host sites, Clemson (41-18) worked itself into hosting contention with a strong second half of the season capped with a series win at No. 7 Florida State and two ACC tournament wins.
As an SEC regular season co-champion, USC (45-14) also figures to be one of the top eight national seeds, meaning it would host a Super Regional if it can advance through the first round. The national seeds will be announced today.
Some analysts project USC and Clemson to meet in a best-of-three Columbia Super Regional if both advance from regional play. Clemson worried the NCAA would spread hosting sites to northern sites as the tournament field figures to be dominated by southern-based teams. Moreover, the ACC hadn't had more than four hosts in the last decade.
But the ACC was awarded five hosting bids (Clemson, Virginia, Florida State, North Carolina and Georgia Tech) -- two more than the next best conferences: the SEC and Pac-10, which each have three. No Midwestern or Northeastern teams are regional hosts. Clemson reached key milestones, including the 40-win plateau, and was rated seventh in RPI.
USC was Baseball America's No. 1-ranked team last week, but that is sure to change after losses to Vanderbilt and Georgia in the SEC tournament. Still, this year's result was better than a year ago, when it scored one run in 21 innings in two losses. But then the Gamecocks went on to win 11 of 12 NCAA tournament games -- and the school's first men's national title.
South Carolina has overcome a number of injuries this season, including Jackie Bradley Jr.'s wrist, to be in the position to play at home for the first two weekends of the tournament. The Gamecocks have been to the College World Series four times under coach Ray Tanner - 2002, 2003, 2004 and then last year's national championship run.