By Will Vandervort.

By Will Vandervort

On the official baseball roster sheet from Clemson Sports Information, Daniel Gossett is listed at 6-foot, 170-pounds. Since this information was taken a few months back, the sophomore pitcher has added seven more pounds on to his frame as he tries to get himself ready for the Tigers’ season-opener on Feb. 15 against William & Mary.

Gossett’s goal? One-hundred and eighty pounds. Why 180?

“Coach Pep promised the weight room guys a steak dinner if they get me to 180 by opening day,” he laughed. “I’m trying to help those boys out.”

Though it’s nice that he is watching out for his friends, there’s a reason why Dan Pepicelli wants some extra weight and muscle on his potential ace pitcher.

“They’ve been real hard on me on gaining weight,” Gossett said. “I have been working real hard on that and eating all I can. I have been working on my off-speed pitches to where I can throw them consistently.

“With the weight gain, it will give me longevity throughout the season, taking it easy on my arm and that will allow me to rely on the off-speed stuff more than my arm.”

Getting Gossett to throw a more array of pitches should allow the Lyman, SC native to stay on the mound longer.

“Gossett has pretty dynamic stuff,” Pepicelli said. “He has some swing and miss stuff. He really grew as the year went on last year. I’ll like to see him come in whatever night we decide to use him and say, ‘This is the consistency you can count on getting from me every week working the zone.’”

Toward the end of last season, Gossett became pretty consistent for the Tigers as he finished the year as the No. 1 guy. But if he wishes to stay as the ace, he will have to improve upon his 4.32 ERA. He is currently in a competitive battle with Scott Firth, Kevin Pohle, Jonathan Meyer and freshman Matthew Crownover for the top spot as they all battle to be in the weekend rotation.

Right now, Gossett is throwing three to four pitches consistently, throwing in a curveball every now and again.

“My changeup has been coming along well. That’s what I worked on the most,” he said. “It’s good to see because that was one of my missing links last year and that’s the one I worked on all summer and off-season.”

It’s not that Gossett was bad last season. He compiled a 6-3 record in 19 appearances, including 10 of those as a starter. The 77 innings he pitched were second on the team and his 87 strikeouts led the staff. He also had a plus 2-1 ratio in strikeouts to walks.

But there is still room to improve and Gossett says it starts with his enthusiasm.

“Sometimes, I get over excited,” he said. “I have been working on calming down so they have been working on keeping me back more because when I get excited I want to jump out and I want to get going, then all of sudden I start yanking and the arm slides.

“So keeping me back and keeping me relaxed is helping me pitch with consistency.”

And being consistent could allow him to have the baseball in his hand when the Tigers open the season in two weeks.

“He is healthy and ready to go,” Clemson head coach Jack Leggett said. “He has been pitching well for us. He is coming off a really good season last year being our number one guy at the end of the year. We have a lot of confidence in Daniel and we look for him to be pitching in a major role for us.

“If we had to start a game today, he would be our Friday night guy.”