If you think the rain messed up your tailgating plans this football season, just think about what it did to Monte Lee and his Clemson baseball team.

Due to all the rain, the Tigers spent much of fall practice either in the batting cages or on the turf field behind Doug Kingsmore Stadium because Tiger Field was either saturated with water or it was raining too hard to get on the field.

“We would have two or three days of rain in a row and the field would basically be shut down or we would have to tarp the field to be able to play,” Clemson’s new baseball coach told The Clemson Insider earlier this week.

Lee said the weather limited the Tigers rep, but overall it was still a good 33 days of fall practice, which concluded with the Orange and Purple scrimmages last week.

“We worked as hard as we possibly could. We did have some challenges. The weather this fall was pretty tough,” he said. “We had a lot of days where we spent a lot of time in the cages and on the back field because we were unable to get on the field and really get the reps that I would have liked.”

Clemson was able to have a lot of intersquads’ scrimmages, however. The Tigers scrimmaged 21 out of the 33 practices they had.

“We were a little limited rep wise, but overall I thought we had a good fall,” Lee said. “I think the guys really bought into what, we feel, is important when it comes to offense, defense, pitching and base running.

“We got better, better and better as the fall went on. I think the guys have a good foundation going into winter break as to what we expect of them when we come back. How are we going to practice? How are we going to prepare for the season? They have a good base and a good foundation.”

Lee spent the last week talking to each individual player about what he expects out of them the next couple of months before they start preseason practice in January.

As for what happened in regards to the weather in the last month, it was a frustrating time because there is no substitute in baseball for being on the field.

“There is no substitute for a hitter standing at home plate where he plays and working on his swing, or playing balls off the bats live or getting ground ball work or live work on the field where he plays. There is no substitute for it,” Lee said. “We are fortunate here at Clemson to have a very nice batting cage and a turf field that when we do have rain, we can still get some work in, but it is not the same.

“It is frustrating, but on the other side we talk a lot about only worrying about things you can control. Just control what you can control. We can’t control the weather. We could not control the fact that we lost some time on the field in terms of practice. That being said, we had a lot of classroom sessions in the cage and we taught a lot about offensive approach to hitting … when we are ahead, two strike hitting, situational hitting, swing mechanics, things that are important to becoming a complete hitter. I think we accomplished a lot in the batting cage in that regard.”