By Will Vandervort.
It only took two minutes following Wednesday’s win over Wofford before Clemson head coach Jack Leggett was asked the inevitable – how good do you feel about this weekend’s series against archrival South Carolina?
“I always feel good. We will be ready to play,” he said. “We have a good challenge obviously and hopefully the weather will clear out and we will have three good ballgames.”
The 12th-ranked Gamecocks will definitely be a challenge. USC has won seven of the last eight meetings between the two rivals and 24 of the last 32 dating back to 2007. The last time a Clemson team had a winning record against the Gamecocks in the course of an entire season was in 2006.
“They have had a great run these last five or six years,” said Clemson pitcher Matthew Crownover. “Kudos to them because they have been one of the best programs in the country the last couple of years, but this year is this year and hopefully we go out there and play well.
“We have three games to prove what we are made of.”
The Tigers (5-2) will come into the annual grudge match with a lot of confidence. They have won four straight games, including Wednesday’s 11-5 victory over Wofford.
Clemson totaled 13 hits while driving in 10 runs. It was the third time in the last four games the Tigers scored 10 or more runs.
“I’m pleased with how we played and how we got ourselves in position where we can relax and have some confidence going into the weekend,” Leggett said.
The Terriers (7-1) took a 5-3 lead on Clemson after scoring two runs in each the fourth and fifth innings. But Clemson responded with eight unanswered runs of its own to hand them their first loss of the season.
“This is huge. The whole team is feeling good about this win, not just me,” said redshirt freshman Reed Rohlman, who hit his first career home run in the bottom of the third inning. “We have been waiting for this weekend and we got a big win today against a good team. We are really excited about coming into this weekend and playing.”
The Tigers will need all the confidence they can get. The Gamecocks come into the weekend series, which begins Friday at Clemson, with a six-game winning streak. Then there is the whole getting over the hump thing when it comes to playing their rival.
“This is a great challenge for us and it is a great challenge for them,” Leggett said. “It is a good thing for our fans. We have a lot of the season left. We have played seven ball games so we have forty-nine left to play so we have a long season ahead of us.
“Obviously this is an important weekend for us, but we will be ready to play on Friday, we will be ready to play on Saturday and we will be ready to play on Sunday.”