Though it’s featured more highs than lows, Clemson baseball’s season has been a bit of a rollercoaster.

It was back on the incline Sunday when the 15th-ranked Tigers blasted Miami to salvage the final game of the series. Before that, Clemson had lost four consecutive games. And before that, the Tigers had won 14 straight to begin the season, which included sweeps of Indiana, South Carolina and Hartford.

Now that the opening ACC series has come and gone for Clemson, one-third of the Tigers’ regular season is in the books. So how does Clemson coach Monte Lee assess where his team is 19 games in?

“I feel like we’re in a really good place,” Lee said following Sunday’s game. “We’ve got things to work on. I look at it more in the pieces that we’re playing and the pieces that we’re pitching. How are those guys doing?”

Much of the Tigers’ success to this point can be attributed to a pitching staff that’s shown improvement since last season when Clemson posted a 5.00 earned run average as a team, the highest of Lee’s seven-year tenure. Led by starters Nick Hoffman (3.51 ERA) and Mack Anglin (3.75) and reliever Jackson Lindley (1.17 ERA in a team-high 12 appearances), Clemson cut that down to 3.17, though the Tigers yielded more than six runs on average against Miami over the weekend.

“We’ve had a couple of outings here or there that weren’t as good as we’d like to them to be, but overall our pitching has been pretty strong,” Lee said.

While the Tigers have produced enough offense to help them win 78% of their games, the bats have been hit or miss so far. Sunday’s game was the sixth in which the Tigers have scored double-digit runs, but Clemson had also seven games in which it’s plated four or less. Clemson’s .291 average ranks in the bottom half of the ACC as some key bats have been slow to get going this season. The most notable is preseason All-American Caden Grice, normally a middle-of-the-order stick for the Tigers who’s been dropped to the 6 hole while hitting just .253 with five extra-base hits through the first 19 games. 

It’s just one of the changes Lee has tinkered with as Clemson looks for more consistent offense, particularly when it comes to situational hitting. It’s been an issue for most of the season but was glaring during the Tigers’ recent losing streak. Clemson, which dropped to No. 20 in Baseball America’s rankings this week after the series loss to Miami, hit just .153 (8 of 52) with runners on and just 3 of 26 with runners in scoring position during those four games. 

Shortstop Ben Blackwell, who began the season as the Tigers’ 9-hole hitter, has taken over the leadoff spot from Dylan Brewer (.234) the last few games. Lee has also experimented with J.D. Brock in left field of late. The new-look lineup broke out Sunday as Blackwell led the Tigers’ 20-hit barrage with four knocks, combining with Brock and Grice to go 8-for-16 with six runs and five RBIs.

“The pieces are starting to go in the right direction,” Lee said. “Some of the guys we’re going to count on have struggled some for us. Those guys are starting the swing the bat a little bit better. The pieces that we’ve moved in are playing well, and Ben’s doing a good job in the leadoff spot.”

Clemson has a pair of midweek home games looming against Coastal Carolina (Tuesday) and Winthrop (Wednesday) before the Tigers continue ACC play Friday at Pittsburgh, which is off to 1-5 start in league play after dropping a series to Virginia Tech over the weekend.

“I like where we’re at. We’ve got a long way to go though,” Lee said. “I think we’re a third of the way through now roughly, so hopefully from (Sunday) we can take some positive momentum into the week and get on a roll.”

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