The Clemson Mens Soccer team continued their romp through the ACC and the nation with their WIN over 5th ranked UNC this past Friday.  Danny Poe scored the winning goal for the second game in a row and once again, the gnomes seemingly favorite Tiger, Dane Richards, was in on the play with an assist.  It must also be noted that the Tigers fanbase is increasing by the game.  If they keep this up, they will have fans in both stands and in the parking lot.  As noted, the Tigers stay undefeated and may be repeating history heading towards an 11 win start.

Go Tigers!  Keep up the good work!

As mentioned previously, the Tigers have been moving toward the head of the class in men’s soccer. After beating the #1 ranked Maryland team last Friday, the Tigers walloped Wofford 6-0 at Historic Riggs field on Tuesday night. Tonight brings another home game against another top-5 team, North Carolina.

And here’s more about that Maryland game from ESPNSoccerNet:

No. 2 Clemson (6-0-0), off to its best start in 23 years, could just as easily be No. 1. Last weekend, the Tigers beat top-ranked, defending national champs Maryland in both teams’ ACC opener (in front of an overflow Historic Riggs Field crowd of 6,821, the largest since Clemson won the 1987 national championship on its home turf). What’s more is they did it playing with 10 men for most of the second half.

Now if someone can get the memo to the football team, this could shape up to be a pretty good fall.

I picked one of the two games yesterday. I would have preferred the pics worked out the other way however. Ga Tech was sent home early in the day, giving up a 5-4 lead with two outs in the 9th to Cal St. Fullerton. The night cap was reminiscent of many recent Clemson games. Faris did an excellent job keeping the Tarheel bats at bay. A running error on a double in the gap prevented the 3rd inning from being worse than it was, although that was all UNC would end up needing. Woodard, the UNC pitcher went a full 9 innings against the Tiger bats. His velocity wasn’t impressive but the herky-jerky motion, 3/4 release point, and an expanded strike zone kept the Tiger bats from ever putting together a solid inning. He was hitting his spots, painting the corners, and mixing up his stuff, making the offense look silly at times. The squad was only able to put together 3 hits and was never able to capatilize with runners in scoring position, being held without a run for the first time in a 130+ games, dating back to February of last season. Quite frankly, just a tough game. I thought the key was going to be getting into their bullpen though it is typically pretty good, after their extended game Friday. As it stood both pitchers went the distance but the Tarheels held on. Clemson plays Cal St. Fullerton tomorrow (Tuesday) in an elimination game. The winner of that game moves on for a UNC rematch where they will have to win an additional two in a row to move into the Championship series, otherwise the Tarheels will be playing for it all.

Update: Make that 75%. Rice cooled Miami’s jets by pitching their closer for 5 and 2/3rds. The Hurricanes never got their bats going and Rice did everything they could to give the game away and still won. UGA was never able to put a full inning together and lsot 5-3. The loss ends the SEC’s streak of winning at least one game in the CWS since the ‘95 season. The ACC remains alive and well, with two teams in the elimination brackets and UNC, with a first round draft pick pitcher on plenty of rest, sitting high and mighty at 2-0. As for the state of Georgia, well Ray Charles, it’s not looking so sweet right now. Both teams need to give Delta a call, maybe they can share a flight. Honestly, I can’t say this bothers me too much. As previsouly noted, keep an eye on the Cal St. Team.

In continuing the “baseball’s just a crazy game” theme, here’s the ACC component of the latest pseudo-RPI:

        Division I   Overall
Rank Rating   W   L      W   L    Team   

1    0.637   37  13     37  13   Clemson
4    0.624   37  13     37  13   Georgia Tech
10   0.609   40  10     40  10   North Carolina
12   0.607   37  13     37  13   Florida State
13   0.604   33  16     33  16   Miami, Florida
14   0.603   34  16     34  16   North Carolina State
15   0.602   40  10     40  10   Virginia
20   0.595   32  16     32  16   Wake Forest

Those will (in all likelihood) be your 8 ACC Tournament teams. It looks like it will be a close proxy for the national championship.

The first game of the tourney is May 24th, with play the championship game to be played on the 28th. Who’s going to buy me a plane ticket to Jacksonville?