By Will Vandervort.
By Will Vandervort
During its current 10-game winning streak, 12th-ranked Clemson has had someone different step up every night and deliver that game-winning hit, make a pitch to get a key strikeout or come up with a big defensive stop.
“We are playing as a team,” catcher Garrett Boulware said. “No one is really depending on one player to do it and all nine of us are contributing. Every day, someone else is a hero and I really think that is a big part to it.”
The Tigers (26-11, 12-6 ACC) hope they can keep up the heroics up this weekend as they open up a three-game series at Miami today at 7 p.m.
“We have a little mojo going where we feel like we can win,” Clemson head coach Jack Leggett said. “The key is we have the right attitude and we play hard.”
Clemson started the 10-game win streak with a gutsy performance at top-ranked North Carolina on April 1. The Tigers rallied to take the lead and after the Tar Heels tied the game late, senior Scott Firth pitched one of his better outings as he held off UNC until a couple of hits in the top of the 11th inning propelled Clemson to a 5-4 victory.
Since then, Clemson has found different ways to win, whether it was from a Jon McGibbon ninth-inning hit to beat Western Carolina, Tyler Krieger’s game-ending single down the right field line to beat Presbyterian or Steven Duggar’s walk-off home run in the bottom of the 11th to down Wake Forest.
“Last year, Richie Shaffer was a big-time player and we were always hoping for him to pull us through, but right now there is really no one like that and all nine of us are contributing when we can in the lineup,” Boulware said. “I think that has been the big thing. We are not a complete team, but we are getting there.”
It’s not just the bats that have sparked the Tigers in the last three weeks. The pitching staff has also improved, in particular Matthew Crownover. In his last two starts, he earned 1-0 wins over Boston College and Wake Forest, while throwing 11.2 innings. Both 1-0 wins marked the first time in the program’s history that Clemson had two 1-0 wins against ACC competition in the same year.
But it’s not just Crownover that is getting it done on the mound. Starters Daniel Gossett and Clate Schmidt have also improved. The three have a combined 13-3 record with Gossett (2.88) and Crownover (2.54) pitching with an ERA under three. As a team, the pitching staff has a 3.15 ERA.
At the beginning of the year, everyone was talking about how talented, but young the 2013 Clemson baseball team might be. The question was how long was it going to take for these young players to figure the game out at the college level? It appears as if it took a little shorter than people once thought.
Boulware, a sophomore, has been Clemson’s most consistent hitter all year. Another sophomore Tyler Slaton has emerged as a solid lead-off man, while Krieger and Duggar—both freshmen—have been good in the field all year, but are now finding themselves at the plate, too.
On the mound, Gossett, another sophomore, has been solid all year, while Schmidt, a freshman, has pitched in and won big games for the Tigers. Now Crownover, also a freshman, has come on and has record two victories in his first three weekend starts.
“It really isn’t much of a surprise to see the young guys coming around,” centerfielder Thomas Brittle said. “You knew they would struggle a little early in the year, but you knew it would be just a matter of time when they would figure things out.”
But as good as things have been, Clemson knows it is far from perfect. The Tigers still have some issues to resolve at the plate. As good as those 1-0 wins over Boston College and Wake Forest were from a pitching standpoint, they would like to get a few more hits and runs so there isn’t so much pressure put on the pitching staff and the defense.
“A couple of us have to step up and be more consistent, myself included,” Boulware said. “I am nowhere near where I need to be so as a team we need to make that jump in the little areas we need to improve on. We have to make that step if we want to go where we want to be at the end of the year.”
And that starts with, “a little more consistency,” Brittle said. “We have had some games where we swing it really well at the plate and then the next game we will only get four or five hits. Putting together full games more often than we have been and playing complete games instead of taking a couple of innings off, that’s what we need to get better at.
“Everything is coming together, but I still don’t think we are playing the best ball that we can, but we have been able to put a nice streak together.”