It's a brand-new season for the Clemson baseball team

Clemson (34-24) can breathe a sigh of relief--they are in the field of 64.

For the first time since the 2015 season, when the Tigers traveled to California to play in the Cal State Fullerton Regional, the Tigers will not be hosting the regional round– as the Tigers will travel to Oxford, Mississippi as the No. 3 seed.

The Tigers are joined in the regional by No. 1 seed (No. 12 overall) and host school the Old Miss (37-25), No. 2-seeded Illinois (36-19) and No. 4 Jacksonville St (37-21).

The Tigers will open play Friday (4 p.m., ESPNU ) against Illinois. Meanwhile Ole Miss and Jacksonville St. will face off on Friday at 7 p.m. (ESPN3) in this double elimination tournament.

The regional marks Clemson’s 44th NCAA Tournament appearance (fifth most in the nation) and the program’s 32nd appearance in the last 33 years.

Of course the Tigers haven’t advanced past the regional round since 2010 – meaning the pressure is on fourth-year head coach Monte Lee to get the program over the hump.

But Lee is not putting the pressure from a rabid fanbase on his players.

“Not really, and the reason is when you start talking about stuff like that, it puts more pressure on your team,” Lee said. “We don’t talk a whole lot about outcomes. We want our guys to play with no regrets, and you start talking about the outcome all the time, you start talking about getting to the Super Regionals and getting to Omaha -- you get to those places by making the most of every game and competing as hard as you can.

“So at the end of the day, we don’t spend a lot of time talking about those types of things. Pressure, we don’t worry about pressure. We worry more about playing the game the right way and making the most of what we can do with this team. That’s really all I worry about."

Clemson has never won a national title in baseball.

But when Lee was hired on June 18, 2015, he accepted the job with a clear understanding of what was expected of a head coach at Clemson. In fact, the goal is stitched on the back of every one of their hats -- Omaha.

Even though the Tigers are wearing their goal on their head every time they take the field to practice, walk around or play a game, Lee is focused solely on how his team plays — not the outside noise.

“Everybody knows what’s on the back of our hat,” Lee said. “Everybody knows what the expectations and goals are and where we’re trying to go, and we know every year it’s a disappointment if we don’t go to Omaha — that’s a given. But that’s not something that we’re going to talk about.”

If the Tigers want to be one of the final teams standing in Omaha, they will need to focus on themselves and not the expectations.

“Because if you want to be one of the final eight team playing at the end of the year, you’ve got to be one of the best teams in the country, you’ve got to execute in all phases of the game," Lee said. "So we’re worried more about execution than we are expectations.

"It's a brand-new season for us moving forward."

Clemson finished the regular season with a 7-5 record against top-12 RPI teams. The seven wins are tied for second most in the nation. Only UCLA has more (8). Of Clemson's five losses, two were by one run, one by two runs and one by three runs in extra innings.

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