By Will Vandervort
With seven games left in the regular season, including a three-game series against Georgia Southern that starts Friday (6:30 p.m.) at Doug Kingsmore Stadium, 15th-ranked Clemson is in “must-win” mode as it strives to be one of the teams hosting an NCAA Regional next month.
Few teams in the country are playing as well as the Tigers. Clemson (34-15) has won 18 of its last 22 games thanks to Wednesday’s 14-2 and 12-2 beat downs of Furman in a doubleheader at Greenville’s Fluor Field.
“We are playing good. We are starting to gel a little bit,” Clemson head coach Jack Leggett said. “The young guys are playing well and the older guys are starting to come along. Our pitching has been pretty solid and we are getting into a good place offensively. If we can get to where we were tonight, then we are pretty good.”
Baseball America seems to think so. The country’s authority on College Baseball has the Tigers on the bubble as far as being a host regional site, but they say as of today Clemson will be one of the host sites.
The Tigers’ RPI is sitting at No. 12 as of Thursday night and the strength of schedule is No. 8. Not bad considering they still have ninth-ranked Florida State left on the schedule with a three-game series in Tallahassee, FL starting on May 16.
“Our strength of schedule is good and our RPI is good so hopefully we will get an opportunity down the road there,” Leggett said.
Clemson, who is 17-10 in the ACC, could have an opportunity at winning the ACC’s Atlantic Division depending on what the ‘Noles do this weekend at No. 7 NC State. If the Tigers can play like they have been and take care of business against Georgia Southern (25-23) this weekend, USC Upstate (25-22) this coming Tuesday and then win the series at Florida State, they’ll be almost a lock as a regional host, especially if they are Atlantic Division Champions.
“(The players) don’t think about it, but they know every game is important and every game can make or break you before it is all over,” Leggett said. “There are a lot of people competing for the same thing so we just want to keep on winning games and keep on playing well.”
Clemson is playing well enough that it appears it has found some rhythm on offense. In the last three games, the Tigers averaged 11.7 runs on 13.3 hits. During the current four-game winning streak guys like Jon McGibbon, Steve Wilkerson and Maleeke Gibson are stepping up and joining guys that have been solid all year at the plate such as Tyler Krieger, Steven Duggar and Garrett Boulware.
McGibbon has made the biggest impact, as he is eight of his last 12 at the plate with seven RBIs. But his turnaround didn’t start this week. The junior first baseman is hitting .485 in his last 11 games and has brought home 14 runs.
“Let’s not talk about it,” Leggett said laughing. “Just let him keep playing. He is doing a really good job for us at first base. He is making some plays and digging some balls out of the dirt and making us look good. He has really played well defensively.
“He is feeling better offensively. He has a little more flow to him, a little bit more rhythm and a little bit more confidence in him. We really need him going down the stretch so hopefully he keeps it up.”
And so do the Tigers in general because as Leggett said, “When we play well offensively, we are generally pretty good.”
Right now, there are not too many teams playing any better.