By Will Vandervort
Clemson baseball coach Jack Leggett interrupted an interview with a member of the media Wednesday night to make sure his players were properly pulling the tarp off the field at Doug Kingsmore Stadium after rain showers postponed the Tigers’ contest with Furman.
“You have to keep it paralleled with the field,” Leggett yelled from the dugout.
Twenty minutes later the team came back to the dugout soaked as Leggett personally supervised the entire time.
“Sometimes, if he would leave us to our own devices we might be better off on the tarp bull,” pitcher Scott Firth said laughing. “But, he knows what he is doing so we will follow along with whatever he says.”
So far 12th-ranked Clemson (26-11, 12-6 ACC) has followed its skipper to a 10-game winning streak that has the Tigers in the thick of the ACC race in the Atlantic Division. Clemson only trails first place Florida State by one game with 12 conference games left to play. The champions from each division will be the first and second seed in next month’s ACC Tournament.
“At this point, every game has turned into the same approach for us,” Firth said. “Everybody is focused coming down to the ball park and is preparing to win every single game.”
The Tigers were focused on playing Furman Wednesday, but Mother Nature decided they needed an extra day off. Furman and Clemson are schedule to make up Wednesday’s game on May 7 at Doug Kingsmore Stadium in Clemson. First pitch will be 6:30 p.m.
“I think only playing three games this week will be good for us. It will gives us a little rest,” catcher Garrett Boulware said. “It will give us a chance to catch up on some school work and stuff like that.”
The one thing both player agree on was the fact Wednesday’s postponed game has nothing to do with what will take place on Friday night when Clemson opens up a three-game series at Miami.
“It will not have any play,” Boulware said. “It will be the same game Friday night whether we played this game or not.”
Clemson’s 10-game winning streak is its longest since winning 17 straight on its way to the College World Series in 2006. During the streak, the Tigers are hitting .300 and have won four games by one run. Clemson has won eight of the 10 games by three runs or less.
“I definitely knew coming in that we have the talent to pull off a win streak like we have,” centerfielder Thomas Brittle said. “With a team this young we knew we would have some bumps in the middle of the road as we made the adjustment.”
Firth and the pitching staff have adjusted. As a group, they have a combined for a 2.01 ERA as opponents are batting only .221 in the last 10 games.
“We are out there playing with the mentality that we are playing against ourselves,” Firth said. “The opponent really should not matter. If we are playing the way we are trained to, and play in the gear that we are trying to play in then everything else should take care of itself.”