By Will Vandervort.

By Will Vandervort

In his three years as the pitching coach at Clemson, Dan Pepicelli has seen his pitching staff do some pretty good things.

In 2010, his first year at Clemson, he developed Casey Harmon into a clutch postseason pitcher. Harman had a 2.73 ERA and 27 strikeouts against four walks in 29.2 innings of work in the NCAA Tournament. He also worked in guiding Alex Frederick into one of the top relievers as he posted two saves for the Tigers in the College World Series.

In 2011, he molded Justin Sarratt into one of the ACC’s best pitchers as the fifth-year player posted a 7-2 record with a 2.57 ERA. The staff as a whole in 2011 had a 3.32 ERA. Then last year, guys like Scotty Firth (2.09 ERA), Kevin Pohle (3.66 ERA) and Daniel Gossett (4.32 ERA) grew under his tutelage.

But despite all the success and three solid runs in the NCAA Tournament, there has been one thing missing since Pepicelli has been the pitching coach at Clemson – consistency from his weekend rotation. In all three seasons, Clemson has ended the year with a different weekend rotation than what it started the season with.

“That’s what we have been missing,” Pepicelli said. “I would love to have the three who start the season, be the three that finish it. That way it allows us to be consistent on how we use the bullpen and how we are attacking the middle of the week.

“That’s something we have not really had.”

In 2010, only Harman started the season as a weekend starter and ended it that way. In 2011, Dominic Leone started the season as a weekend starter, and then got it back after recovering from a mid-season injury to finish the year there.

Leone was the opening day starter last year, and held on to that position throughout the season, again the only weekend starter to finish the year in the same role.

As Clemson opens up practice for the 2013 season on Friday, Firth, Pohle, Gossett, Jonathan Meyer and freshman Matthew Crownover are all vying for the three-weekend positions. Each pitcher brings something good to the table, but Pepicelli is primarily looking for one thing out of all of them.

“The thing to keep these three guys moving, whoever they might be, is the ability to have command in the zone,” he said. “That’s everything we try to do pitching wise.

“The reason why Casey Harman and I were really successful together in my first year here was because he could move a count. We could do different things and when we wanted to shift the count back in our favor he could execute it.

“That’s why Mike Kent, without a huge fastball, he can move the count around, which makes him pretty effective as a reliever for us. I’m seeing that out of Daniel. I think Gossett has pretty dynamic stuff. He has some swing and miss stuff and he really grew as the year went on last year. I will like to see him come in, whatever night we decide to use him say, ‘this is the kind of consistency you can count on getting from me every week working in the zone.’”

Pepicelli thinks he can get the same kind of results from Firth, Pohle, Meyer and Crownover, too. Though he admits he has to be conservative with the freshman since he is coming off Tommy John surgery.

“Whether we are talking about Crownover, Daniel, Firth or Pohle, we are looking for guys that can consistently have command every day that they are out there. If you are doing that, I think you have a great chance,” the Clemson coach said.

Injuries to Kevin Brady, Meyer, Leone and a few others in the past three seasons have played a role in Clemson’s inconsistencies with its weekend rotation, which then sets the whole staff back as well.

“Mike Kent actually had a better year than what you might look at statistically. He had some great appearances for us,” Pepicelli said. “There were too many times where we were stretching in a territory he did not belong in because of injuries or people didn’t throw enough strikes early on in games for us.

“You start taxing people in ways that they don’t belong. Think about it, what kind of year would Scotty Firth had if he just pitched in the eighth and ninth innings or just the ninth for the entire year, but he couldn’t? There were times we knew we had to go win this game in the seventh or sixth. Or we got into extra innings and we had to extend him, we could not take a chance at that point.”

In 2011, Meyer was giving Clemson the kind of command Pepicelli was looking for. Before getting hurt during a freak play in the ACC Tournament, he was 5-2 with a 3.31 ERA. After recovering from knee surgery due to the injury in the ACCs, Meyer was never able to gain the same consistent command last year as he struggled to a 2-5 record.

“What was he doing in 2011? He was showing some pitch mix and had command,” Pepicelli said. “He was not striking out a ton of people. He was like Casey, except he was doing it from the right hand side.

“Those guys that can do that, that will help us out a lot. I’ll love to see us have three guys that have that consistency and four guys, if we can get it in the middle of the week, and just be able to count on that.

“If that happens, then you use (the bullpen) in the roles that they are supposed to be used in.”