The Florida Gators beat the two-time defending national champion South Carolina Gamecocks 7-2 on Friday night at the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Alabama. The Gamecocks were eliminated from the tournament. Gamecocks starting pitcher Colby Holmes (6-1) got lit up for four earned runs over 2.1 innings of work and suffered his first loss of the season. Florida's Mike Zunino did most of the damage with a two-run homer. He drove in three runs on the night to lead the Gators. South Carolina outfielder Tanner English out of St. James High went 1-for-3 at the plate and scored a run. The Gamecocks overall record falls to 40-17 heading into the NCAA Tournament.
The Clemson Tigers rallied to beat the number one ranked Florida State Seminoles 9-7 at the ACC Tournament in Greensboro, North Carolina. With Clemson trailing 7-6 in the bottom of the ninth, Jon McGibbon hit a walk-off 3-run homer for the Tigers. Clemson is now 1-1 at the ACC Tournament in pool play. They have an overall record of 33-25. It was Clemson's third win over FSU in four meetings this season. Clemson will play against Georgia Tech at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers beat the High Point Panthers 4-3 to advance to the Big South Conference Tournament Championship game in High Point, North Carolina. Daniel Bowman went 3-for-3 at the plate to become CCU's all-time hit leader. Bowman now has 304 career hits at Coastal. Rich Witten drove in two runs and Tripp Martin singled home the game winner to give the Chants a one-run victory. Coastal Carolina advances to the tournament title game against the Liberty Flames on Saturday at 4 p.m. CCU has a 16-game head-to-head win streak against Liberty.
