By Hale McGranahan.

It was love at first sight for Seth Beer, so there was no use in delaying the inevitable.

On Saturday afternoon, while visiting Clemson for the third time in about a two-month span, Beer pledged to play ball for Jack Leggett. A junior outfielder/pitcher at Suwanee-Lambert (Ga.), PerfectGame.com lists Beer as the No. 7 player in the class of 2016.

He committed to Clemson over some of the country’s elite programs, including South Carolina, Florida, Florida State, Georgia Tech, LSU, Mississippi State, North Carolina and Ole Miss.

“I got up there and I just fell in love with (Clemson),” Beer said. “It just got better and better the more layers I peeled back.”

The courtship began in late July/early August.

“It’s funny, too. Clemson really wasn’t on my radar until my sister came up to a volleyball camp,” Beer told TheClemsonInsider. “My mom was like, ‘Hey, ya know? It would be a good idea to go look at Clemson.’

“I was like, ‘Yeah, that’d be cool.’ I went up there and right when I got on campus it was like, this is where I want to be, this is where I want to be.

“So that was in the back of my mind and my mom was like, ‘Hold up, you’ve got to meet everybody. You’ve got to see what they’ve got when it comes to the academic side.’

“That’s one thing my mom always talks about, the academic side.”

Fortunately, for Clemson, academics could win out over the Major League Draft.

Beer, who is on track to graduate from high school in December of his senior year, is planning to enroll at Clemson and play his first season of college baseball in the spring of 2016.

“(Leggett) has been telling me that Kyle Parker did that, jumped right in; and he said it was a good fit on how that worked. I think so, too. It might work,” Beer said. “I’m a little older, so it might help me when it came to the other side — which is the draft aspect — when I would turn 21 I would have kind of caught back up to my grade.”

He added, “My parents and everyone around me really support me going to college. As of right now, that’s what I want to do, go up there and be a Clemson Tiger and play some ball.”

Joined by mom, dad, sister and girlfriend, Beer informed Leggett and assistant head coach Bradley LeCroy on Saturday afternoon when he was back on campus.

“We were sitting in the office and we had some questions for him…I stood up, shook his hand and said, ‘Coach, I want to bleed orange and purple. I want to be a Clemson Tiger.’ I shook his hand. My dad was crying. It was just a big dream for us,” Beer said. “For it finally to hit home, it was just great.”

Assuming things don’t change, Beer, who throws right-handed and bats on the left-side of the plate, will play in the outfield at Kingsmore Stadium. And, if needed, he could also work as a closer.