By Will Vandervort.

It goes without saying that No. 24 Clemson wants to get off to a strong start as it opens up the 2015 baseball season on Friday against West Virginia.

The Tigers have not won all three games on opening weekend since the 2010 season when they opened that year with wins over Miami of Ohio, Michigan State and Furman. Ironically, that was the last Clemson team to advance to the College World Series.

“You want to get started off on the right foot,” Clemson head coach Jack Leggett said. “You want to figure out your right combinations in the infield, outfield, behind the plate and on the mound. It has not changed at all in that respect.

“You want your team to be able develop some confidence and have them relax. You don’t want them to press, feeling like they are behind after the fifteenth game.”

Last season, Clemson started the year with a 6-5 record, losing the opener to Eastern Michigan and being swept by South Carolina in a three-game series. From that point, Leggett and his staff spent the rest of the year trying to build their squad back up.

“Obviously, you want to go at it early and see the fruits of your hard labor come to the surface,” Leggett said.

Last year was not the only season in which the Tigers—a tournament team in 21 of Leggett’s 22 seasons as a head coach at Clemson—started off slow. In 2012 and ‘13, they were 6-4 after 10 games and 7-3 in 2011.

Granted most of those losses were charged to South Carolina—a combined 3-9 vs. the Gamecocks—but there were also defeats to Eastern Michigan (2011 and 2013), UAB, Maine, William & Mary, Winthrop and Western Carolina.

“It’s extremely important that we don’t stumble, but then again I think we have a different approach this year,” Clemson right fielder Steven Duggar said. “I think what we are going to do is try to win every pitch, win every inning and ultimately it might transform into winning every game.”

The last time Clemson opened the season with that kind of attitude was in 2010 when it started the year by winning 13 of its first 14 games. Of course that season ended in Omaha.

“Every game is crucial. We saw that the past two years,” Duggar said. “Every game that we can win is definitely much needed so we are going to try and take it one-game at a time and if we do that, I think at the end of the season we will be in pretty good shape.”

The goal for the Tigers is the same as it is every year – get to Omaha. But recent history has shown that isn’t as easy as it used to be. But getting off to a good start and beating a Power 5 Conference team in West Virginia would definitely help build their confidence.

“It’s one of those things, there is so much parity in college baseball now that it does not matter who you play, they have a chance to beat you,” pitcher Matthew Crownover said. “Football wise, you show up, you pretty much know you are going to win 25 points, but baseball wise, you have to show up each day because anybody can beat you.

“You see it in Major League Baseball every week. That is a good thing for us because we can’t let our guard down like Coach Leggett talks about all the time.”