CLEMSON, S.C. — No. 4 Clemson became the highest national seed eliminated from the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, continuing a decade of postseason frustration for the Tigers.
Charlotte ended Clemson’s season with a 3-2 win, making it 10 straight appearances since 2010 that the Tigers have failed to make it out of the regional round. This was the fourth time in five appearances they were knocked out on their home field.
Charlotte was hitless until Will Butcher’s homer tied it at 2 in the seventh inning, and Jack Dragum’s seeing-eye single brought in Spencer Nolan for the winning run.
The 49ers earned Conference USA’s automatic bid by winning five elimination games in five days to win the league tournament, and they won two more after losing their regional opener. They played Tennessee in the final.
Five other national seeds reached regional finals but had to win twice to advance to the super regionals.
No. 3 Arkansas, which had won 31 of 35 home games, lost 20-5 to TCU and needed to beat Santa Clara in an elimination game to get a rematch with the Horned Frogs in the Fayetteville final on Monday. It was the Razorbacks’ most lopsided loss at home since falling 16-1 to Alabama on March 19, 2021.
No. 6 Vanderbilt was playing Santa Clara in an elimination game for the right to play Oregon in the final in Nashville.
No. 2 Florida stayed alive with an 8-2 win over Connecticut in an elimination game and played Texas Tech in the Gainesville final.
Jac Caglianone homered twice against UConn and became the first Southeastern Conference player since LSU’s Brad Cresse in 2000 to hit 30 in a season. Hurston Waldrep struck out 12 in seven innings in his first NCAA Tournament start.
THAT’S CRAY, TRE
No one would have mistaken TCU’s 165-pound second baseman Tre Richardson for a power hitter before Sunday. He sure was one against Arkansas, hitting two grand slams and another homer and tying the tournament record with 11 RBIs.
Richardson entered the game with two home runs in his first 60 games for TCU after going deep seven times in 115 games over three seasons at Baylor.
Richardson’s first and second homers since April 16 were grand slams in the first and second innings, and he hit a solo shot in the sixth and finished the game 5 for 6.
BIG BATS
Michael Seegers’ triple drove in Coy Sarsfield for the winning run in the top of the 13th in Iowa’s 6-5 win over North Carolina. … Connor Dykstra drove in five runs and Brett Stallings’ sacrifice fly in the ninth sent George Mason to its first regional final in eight appearances with an 11-10 walk-off win over Maryland. … Yohandy Morales homered twice in Miami’s 8-5 win over Louisiana. … Barry Walsh homered leading off the game and Boston College knocked out Troy 4-1. … Justin Wishkoski’s three-run homer in the eighth broke open Sam Houston State’s 10-2 win over Tulane. … Jarrod Belbin opened the game with a leadoff homer for the fifth time this season, and Drew Winters added a two-run shot in the first to start Camel’s 11-1 win over North Carolina State.
MOUND MARVELS
Jack Billings retired 18 straight to start the game and took a perfect game into the seventh inning in Coastal Carolina’s 13-5 win over Rider. Billings threw a career-high 7 1/3 innings and allowed five runs on five hits and a walk. … Austin Strickland pitched the first six innings and Magdiel Cotto and James McCoy finished a seven-hit shutout in Kentucky’s 10-0 win over West Virginia. … Braxton Bragg allowed five hits, struck out 10 and walked none in a career-high 7 2/3 innings to lead Dallas Baptist past Washington 9-1. … Drew Dowd and Ryan Bruno combined for 3 1/3 innings of two-hit shutout relief to help Stanford eliminate Cal State Fullerton 6-5.
AROUND THE HORN
West Virginia’s JJ Wetherholt had three hits against Kentucky and finished the season with a .454 batting average, making him the first Power Five player over .450 since Florida State’s Buster Posey (.463) in 2009. … East Carolina reached its fourth straight regional final with its 8-4 win over Oklahoma. … TCU has outscored its two opponents 32-9 and had at least 12 runs in five of six games since the Big 12 Tournament. The Horned Frogs are batting .447 (38 of 85) in the tournament with six homers.