Clemson baseball dominates Coastal Carolina to reach first NCAA super regional since 2010
CLEMSON — Clemson baseball is headed to the NCAA super regionals for the first time since 2010.
After two close calls in their first two games of the NCAA tournament, the No. 1 seed Tigers (44-14) faced another Sunday before winning 12-5 over No. 3 seed Coastal Carolina at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.
Clemson never trailed against the Chanticleers (36-25), scoring at least one run in the first five innings. Coastal Carolina battled late, scoring three runs in the eighth to cut the Tigers' lead to one, but Clemson scored six runs in the bottom of the eighth.
Jacob Hinderleider was 3-for-5 with three RBIs, and Cam Cannarella went 2-for-5 with a home run.
The Tigers went 3-0 in their regional and will host the Clemson Super Regional next weekend against Oklahoma State or Florida.
Clemson's Ethan Darden's has strong outing in first NCAA tournament start
Sophomore Ethan Darden was coming off rough starts against Boston College and Miami. In those games, he had an 18.90 ERA allowing nine hits, including three home runs, and 12 runs (seven earned) allowed across 3⅓ innings.
But on Sunday he had two strikeouts, got nine groundouts, allowed five hits and two runs in 4⅔ innings. He struggled in the first two innings, but a mound visit in each calmed him. He retired eight consecutive batters from the end of the second through the fourth.
Clemson baseball's offense finally awakens
After being capped at four runs in their first two games of the tournament, the Tigers' offense erupted. Every batter in the lineup reached base with eight hitters recording a hit and the team logging eight walks.
Clemson has hit 101 home runs this season and entered the tournament with a 14-game home-run streak. Yet, it logged zero homers in its first two games of the regional. The Tigers finally got back on track in the third inning with Jimmy Obertop's 20th homer of the year and Cannarella's eight-inning home run.
Derrian Carter covers Clemson athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at dcarter@gannett.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @DerrianCarter00
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Clemson baseball makes NCAA super regionals for first time since 2010
