By Will Vandervort.

By Will Vandervort

Nothing against Boston College, Western Carolina, Presbyterian, Wake Forest or Furman, but they are not North Carolina, Virginia, NC State or South Carolina. Instead, those next five opponents represent an opportunity for the Tigers to get on a roll and really turn their season from an okay one to a really good one.

“The next couple of weeks can be really big for us,” catcher Garrett Boulware said. “We can easily win the next 10 to 12 games. It can completely change the way our season is going.”

Beginning today, Clemson (18-11, 6-6 ACC) has an opportunity to build on the momentum it created with last Monday’s win at top-ranked North Carolina. Boston College is 5-22 overall and is winless in the ACC through 11 games. The Tigers and BC start a three-game series today at 2:30 p.m. in Chestnut Hill, MA

After the three-game series with the Eagles, Clemson travels to Western Carolina (17-14) before returning home to host Presbyterian (18-12), Wake Forest (17-14, 4-8 ACC) in a three-game series and Furman (17-11). All nine games are matchups the Tigers will be favored and should win.

“We just need to play the way we know how to play,” Boulware said. “The biggest problem we have is that we play down to our competition, like in our midweek games. I mean we should have beaten (Gardner-Webb) by eight runs. If we don’t look at who they are and just play our game, that will make the biggest difference for us.”

Boulware has a point. When Clemson has not focused on who it is playing, it has fared much better. In their games versus mid-major teams, the Tigers are 10-2, winning those 10 games by an average of 4.7 runs per game.

In five of those games, Clemson won by at least five runs, while the other five victories where three runs or less. As Boulware pointed out from Wednesday’s win against Gardner-Webb, the Tigers did not execute properly on the offensive side of the plate and left several runs out there, allowing the Bulldogs to hang around. Clemson ultimately won the game, 4-1, but it was a little more difficult than it should have been.

That same mindset allowed the Tigers to lose to William & Mary and Winthrop earlier in the season and then lose in sweep opportunities against Duke and Georgia. In all four cases, it can be argued they were games Clemson had no business losing.

“We can’t feel comfortable up there,” Boulware said. “You should always feel the need to get more hits and add on more runs. The lead is never big enough and there is always a chance for them to comeback, so we just need to put them down when we can.”

For Clemson to get on the run it has an opportunity to get on, it needs to do the little things better. Things like bunting over players, making good decisions on the base pads and picking up runners in scoring position.

“We have to find a measure of consistency on offense. That’s the key,” Clemson head coach Jack Leggett said. “We have to get more guys that are confident and more consistent. If we can do that, it will help us breathe a little bit better in midweek games, weekends and early in ball games.

“It seems like we are scrambling a lot and that does not make for a good offensive team because it is tough to get things done when you are scrambling.”

Leggett likes to remind his team that baseball is not a difficult game to understand. To be a good baseball team it has to pitch well, play good defense and most importantly it has to hit and execute on offense.

Like Boulware, Leggett likes the opportunity his team has to possibly pile on some wins in the next couple of weeks, but also like his catcher, he knows they have to play better offensively in order to take full advantage of the situation.

“I’m concerned about how we play,” he said. “We play well defensively and we play well on the mound, but offensively, we have to pick it up and be there every night for us to get on a roll. You have to hit to win.

“We have to do all the little things right if we want to be the team we want to be.”