College baseball’s regional weekend is in the books for most of the 64 teams in this year’s NCAA Tournament, including a handful led by coaches who are potential candidates to fill the vacancy at Clemson.
While some teams are slated to play if-necessary games tonight, Michigan and East Carolina already have answers as to whether or not their seasons will continue. Michigan and ECU are coached by Erik Bakich and Cliff Godwin, respectively, both of whom are high up on Clemson athletic director Graham Neff’s list of potential replacements for Monte Lee, The Clemson Insider has learned.
Bakich’s squad fell just short of its second super regional appearance in the last three NCAA Tournaments, falling to Louisville, 11-9, in the final game of the Louisville Regional this afternoon. Michigan, the regional’s No. 3 seed after earning the Big Ten’s automatic bid, won its first two regional games to advance to the finals before Louisville beat the Wolverines twice in the double-elimination tournament.
ECU was also pushed to the brink in its regional before ultimately prevailing. The No. 8 overall seed in the tournament, the Pirates went 2-0 to start the Greenville Regional before Coastal Carolina beat them Sunday to set up a winner-take-all rematch. But ECU cruised to its third consecutive super regional appearance with a 13-4 win.
ECU (45-19) will host Texas this weekend with the winner of the best-of-three series advancing to the College World Series. Michigan’s season ended at 34-28.
Meanwhile, Link Jarrett, another coach that has Clemson’s interest, has led Notre Dame to consecutive super regional appearances for the first time in program history. The Fighting Irish went a perfect 3-0 in the Statesboro Regional, edging Texas Tech, 2-1, on Sunday to win another regional title.
Notre Dame (38-14) will stay on the road this week, where the Fighting Irish’s task will be much tougher against Tennessee, the tournament’s top overall seed. The eight super regionals will all begin on Friday or Saturday. Exact dates and game times will be announced later this week.
Neff said following his decision to part ways with Lee last week that his search for a replacement would start with “high-profile, accomplished” college coaches. If Neff has already decided to finish it there, too, last weekend’s results may force him and a Clemson fan base eager for an answer to practice more patience.
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