Sometimes in baseball all a player needs is one opportunity, and that was exactly the case for Clemson senior left fielder Drew Wharton. 11th-ranked Clemson swept No. 10 Dallas Baptist University this weekend with a score of 9-1 and 3-2 on Saturday in a doubleheader and a 12-1 win Friday night at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.

Friday night, Wharton hit his first career home run which was a solo shot to left field and was 3-for-4 with two runs batted in. On Saturday, he hit two more three-run home runs and went 3-for-7 in both games combined with six RBIs. The native of Suwanee, Ga., is now leading the team in home runs this season.

“It feels pretty good (to be hitting like that),” Wharton said Saturday after the games. “It definitely helps when you have a pitching staff who is throwing lights out right now and a bunch of guys in front of me who are getting on base, so I think we’re just really confident but it definitely feels good.”

Opportunities have not always come easy for Wharton. In his previous years at Clemson he did not start often. Many players in his position certainly could have decided to transfer but Wharton did not. The former Peachtree Ridge High School standout stayed, and it is now paying off for him.

“I just love Clemson and I believe in myself and I believe in my teammates,” he said. “They are the best teammates in the world and getting to go out on that field with them every single day just means the world to me, so I just wanted to stick it out with them.”

Head coach Monte Lee believes there is no difference in Wharton this year as opposed to previous years. He has always been a skilled player and extremely hard worker. The only difference is he is now simply getting a chance.

“Just getting an opportunity,” Lee said. “I don’t think there is anything different about Wharton. He has been the same guy for three years. He is one of the hardest workers on our team. He is a positive young man, even when he wasn’t getting maybe the opportunities to play that I would’ve loved to have given him.

“He’s one of those guys you always feel bad about if he’s not in the lineup because he does so well, but we’ve always known that he is a plus defender. He’s got a good arm from the outfield. He just needed to be able to put together good at-bats to give himself a chance to be in the lineup and he’s doing that right now. I couldn’t be happier for him.”

During the offseason Wharton did work on a few specific things such as his approach at the plate, and the slight adjustments he has made are certainly working out for him.

“(I am) having more of a one-strike approach and two-strike approach,” he said. “Because I know what I want to do in a no-strike approach, but having an idea of what I would do in certain counts.

“Just not pulling off of the ball. I have a tendency to do that a lot. Just rolling over balls, going to short and third. So just staying up the middle is what I really keyed in on.”