Clemson baseball super regional vs. Florida: Schedule, how to watch, weather

Clemson baseball is in a super regional for the first time in 14 years.

The Tigers are the No. 6 overall seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament and host Florida in a best-of-three series starting Saturday at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.

The stakes, of course, are massive: With two wins, either Clemson or Florida advances to the College World Series starting next weekend in Omaha, Nebraska.

The Tigers (44-14) and coach Erik Bakich haven’t reached that national stage since 2010, while Florida (32-28) and coach Kevin O’Sullivan were last year’s College World Series runners-up to LSU before sneaking into the 2024 field as a No. 3 seed.

Here’s everything you need to know for the Clemson Super Regional, including game times, TV channels, weather and players to watch for both teams.

Clemson baseball super regional schedule

Saturday, June 8

—Game 1: Clemson vs. Florida, 2 p.m. (ESPN)

Starting pitchers: LHP Tristan Smith (Clemson) vs. RHP Liam Peterson (Florida)

Sunday, June 9

—Game 2: Clemson vs. Florida, 2:30 p.m. (ESPN)

Starting pitchers: RHP Aidan Knaak (Clemson) vs. LHP Jac Caglianone (Florida)

Monday, June 10

—Game 3 (if necessary): Clemson vs. Florida, TBD

Starting pitchers: TBD (Clemson) vs. TBD (Florida)

Clemson is the designated home team (batting last) for Game 1, Florida is the designated home team for Game 2 and Clemson will be the designated home team for Game 3, if necessary. The Tigers will occupy their usual first-base dugout for each game of the super regional. All games will be available to stream online via ESPN+.

Weather

Last weekend, all six games of the Clemson Regional chugged along without a single weather delay. So far, it’s shaping up to be a similarly clear (and beautiful) super regional weekend. Here are the current Clemson forecasts for Saturday to Monday, via the National Weather Service:

• Saturday: Sunny with a high of 87 degrees and light winds during the day; partly cloudy with a low of 67 at night

• Sunday: Mostly sunny with a high of 91 and calm winds during the day; mostly cloudy with a low of 70 and a 20% chance of rain at night

• Monday: Mostly sunny with a high of 89 and 30% chance of rain during the day; mostly cloudy with a low of 66 and 40% chance of rain at night

Clemson ‘feeling dangerous’

The first question for Bakich on Thursday: How are you feeling?

“Feeling dangerous,” he said, grinning.

For good reason. After failing to advance out of a 10th straight NCAA regional and fifth straight home regional last year, the Tigers find themselves in a familiar spot: Two wins away from Omaha.

Sure, there are things to nitpick about Clemson’s regional performance, including the sizable number of runners the team left on base in its three wins last week. And the back-to-back homers surrendered by a relief pitcher to make things interesting against Coastal Carolina on Sunday.

But, all in all, this is a team playing worthy of its No. 6 overall seed. The Tigers have been clutch (they won back-to-back NCAA Tournament games by a single run for the first time since 2004). And balanced (they got excellent pitching all weekend plus a 12-run burst on Sunday against Coastal). And supported by a buzzing fanbase (who filled up DKS with 6,000-plus fans three days in a row).

“It’s the best time of the year,” Bakich said.

A Tigers reunion

The Clemson and Florida baseball teams haven’t played each other in 41 years. And the Gators haven’t played a game against the Tigers in Clemson since ... 1930.

Still, there’s a lot of familiarity between the programs. Before starting a decorated career as Florida’s coach, O’Sullivan worked as an assistant for Clemson and then-coach Jack Leggett from 1999-2007. The volunteer coach on that team’s 2002 staff? None other than Bakich.

O’Sullivan on Thursday raved about his time at Clemson and Leggett’s mentorship, which helped propel 2017 national champion O’Sullivan, Clemson’s Bakich and Tim Corbin (a two-time national champion at Vanderbilt) to head coaching stardom.

Even though it’s his first time back since he left in 2007, though, O’Sullivan isn’t planning to do anything special beyond a handshake and pregame chat with Bakich. Or Leggett, his old boss who’s back with the team as a special assistant.

“I can’t even get Jack to go to dinner,” O’Sullivan said with a laugh.

Players to watch

Clemson infielder Jacob Hinderleider: Davidson transfer who became the first Tiger with five hits in a single NCAA Tournament game since Khalil Greene in 2002 and was named regional MVP after recording nine hits across three games.

Clemson pitcher Tristan Smith: Sophomore lefty who made the all-region team after going 5.1 innings (his longest outing since March) and throwing nine strikeouts (one off his season high) in a Friday ace role for Tigers last weekend.

Florida utility Jac Caglianone: The No. 4 overall prospect in the 2024 MLB Draft described as a “6-foot-5 physical beast,” he bats .410, leads the team with 31 home runs and is 5-2 with a 4.57 ERA and 76 strikeouts as a starting lefty pitcher.

Florida pitcher Brandon Neely: Veteran closer who, much like Clemson’s Austin Gordon, was a huge part of his team advancing by throwing eight shutout innings in two relief appearances last weekend (and 11 strikeouts in a single game).

Next up

The winner of the Clemson Super Regional advances to the 2024 College World Series and will play its first game next Friday or Saturday at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska.

For its first-round game in the College World Series, the winner of the Clemson Super Regional will match up with the winner of the Bryan-College Station Super Regional (either No. 3 overall seed Texas A&M or Oregon).

The CWS finals run Saturday, June 22 through Sunday, June 23 or Monday, June 24.

Super regional TV, stream, schedule, scores

Game times and ESPN network subject to change; all games streaming on ESPN+

——Friday-Saturday-Sunday series——

Evansville (38-26) at No. 1 Tennessee (54-12):

• Friday: Tennessee 11, Evansville 6

• Saturday: Evansville 10, Tennessee 8

• 6 p.m. Sunday (ESPNU)

UConn (35-26) at No. 8 Florida St. (46-16)

• Friday: Florida St. 24, UConn 4

• Saturday: Florida St. 10, UConn 8 (FSU advances to CWS)

Kansas St. (35-25) at No. 12 Virginia (45-15)

• Friday: Virginia 7, Kansas St. 4

• 3 p.m. Saturday (ESPNU)

• 3 p.m. Sunday, if necessary (ESPNU)

West Virginia (36-23) at No. 4 North Carolina (46-14)

• Friday: North Carolina 8, West Virginia 6

• 8 p.m. Saturday (ESPN2)

• 3 p.m. Sunday, if necessary (ESPN2)
  
  

——Saturday-Sunday-Monday series——

No. 15 Oregon St. (45-14) at No. 2 Kentucky (43-14)

• 6 p.m. Saturday (ESPNU)

• 9 p.m. Sunday (ESPNU)

• TBD Monday (TBD)

No. 10 NC State (37-20) at No. 7 Georgia (42-16)

• Saturday: NC State 16, Georgia 1

• noon Sunday (ESPNU)

• TBD Monday, if necessary (TBD)

Florida (33-28) at No. 6 Clemson (44-15)

• Saturday: Florida 10, Clemson 7

• 2:30 p.m. Sunday (ESPN)

• TBD Monday, if necessary (TBD)
  
  

Oregon (40-18) at No. 3 Texas A&M (47-13)

• 2 p.m. Saturday (ESPN2)

• 7:30 p.m. Sunday (ESPN2)

• TBD Monday, if necessary (TBD)