This time last year, Monte Lee had no idea what to expect from his pitching staff. As Clemson’s new coach, he inherited one of the ACC’s youngest and most inexperienced staffs prior to his first season in Tigertown.

“Last year at this point, we had about 17 starting innings,” Lee said. “Outside of Clate Schmidt, and he had thrown some significant innings in his career, but past Clate we did not have a lot of starting options with guys that had experience.”

What Lee and the Tigers had was a lot of potential in young arms like Charlie Barnes, Alex Eubanks, Brooks Crawford, Jake Higginbotham and Ryley Gilliam. He knew they all had a chance to be productive, but the question was when, and could they and the team survive those lumps until they all found their way.

The answer was yes. Clemson finished with a 44-20 record, which included the program’s first ACC Championship in 10 years, and the No. 7 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Of course it helped that Schmidt went 8-5, and a guy named Pat Krall came out of nowhere to become Clemson’s first First-Team All-American reliever since Scott Winchester in 1995. The former Temple transfer recorded a 10-2 mark, mostly out of the bullpen, in 29 appearances. He led the Tigers with a 1.67 ERA with 65 strikeouts and 17 walks. He pitched 80.2 innings and started three games.

With the 6-foot-6 lefty doing his thing, it allowed Barnes, Eubanks and the others to settle down and find their strengths and weaknesses.

“The biggest positive we have going into year two is that we have roughly 240 innings returning between Barnes, Krall and Eubanks,” Lee said. “When you look at those guys, they threw 80-plus innings for us last year and they are all back.”

Coming into this year, Clemson has more experience on the mound. Between Barnes, Eubanks and Krall and then guys like Crawford, a sophomore who threw significant innings and pitched in the ACC Championship Game. Gilliam, who made two midweek starts and one or two weekend starts, and had some success. Then Higginbotham, who made a number of midweek starts last year as well, is getting healthy.

The sophomore had an arm injury that shut him down at the end of his freshman year. But Lee says he is healthy, is throwing hard and is throwing bullpen.

“Just to have those three guys back with Eubanks, Crawford and Barnes, along with that nucleus of sophomores that pitched some as freshmen, and then you build on the guys that are around them, the first year guys … We feel really good about our pitching depth,” Lee said. “It is going to be a battle. It is going to be a battle to see who is going to be our weekend starters. Who is going to be our matchup guys out of the pen, our short and long relievers, and who is going to be guy in the end? Who is going to be the guy that comes in and shuts a team down in the ninth?

“We still have some roles to figure out, but we feel like we have a good group of guys to pick from.”

And most importantly, the Tigers are deep.

“When we looked at what we needed to improve on, we needed to be deeper on the mound and we needed to be better defensively,” Lee said. “We had a really good offense last year. Our offense is going to be a staple. But we needed to improve defensively, and we needed to improve on the mound in terms of our depth.”

Clemson opens the season on Feb. 17 at Doug Kingsmore Stadium in Clemson against Wright State. First pitch is set for 4 p.m.

Clemson’s experienced pitching:

Pat Krall: 10-2 record, 1.67 ERA, 29 Games, 3 Starts, 80.2 innings, 65 K, 17 BB

Alex Eubanks: 6-5 record, 4.09 ERA, 23 Games, 11 Starts, 81.1 innings, 70 K, 21 BB

Charlie Barnes: 6-4 record, 4.66 ERA, 16 Games, 16 Starts, 94.2, 84 K, 24 BB

Brooks Crawford: 3-0 record, 3.66 ERA, 26 Games, 2 Starts, 46.2 innings, 26 K, 19 BB

Jake Higginbotham: 3-0 record, 4.59 ERA, 8 Games, 7 Starts, 33.1 innings, 28 K, 21 BB

Ryley Gilliam: 3-2, 6.10 ERA, 15 Games, 6 Starts, 31.0 innings, 16 K, 18 BB

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