While Clemson might have gotten swept at NC State last weekend, there was one piece of good news that came out of that series.

Transfer pitcher Michael Gillen made his long-awaited debut. In his return from injury, the hard-throwing right-hander pitched one inning in the series-opening loss to the Wolfpack last Thursday. Of the five Clemson pitchers who threw in that game, Gillen was the only one who did not allow a run.

Gillen did allow one hit, and he also hit a batter, but the hit was a ground ball off the glove of second baseman Jarren Purify that would wind up slowly trickling into right field, allowing the hitter to stretch a single into a double.

However, despite allowing two runners to reach, Gillen ultimately stranded both. He needed just 14 pitches to get through the frame, 11 of which were strikes, a strike rate of 79%.

“He had a good inning, I think he gave up a hit and hit a guy, so it really wasn’t that good,” Bakich said with a smile. “I think the positive is, he is back. It is good to have him out there.”

While Gillen’s velocity might not be all the way back just yet, it’s only a matter of time, assuming he has no setbacks. His slider was plenty sharp and featured plenty of bite.

Getting a high-leverage reliever like Gillen back for the stretch run makes what was already a strong bullpen even stronger. We are talking about a guy with a career ERA of 1.49 across 66.2 innings pitched. Even more impressive is his career WHIP, which was 1.12 coming into this season.

“His velo is not all the way back, but he was 92-93, he had a good slider,” Bakich said. “Just having him as an extra bullpen piece is certainly going to be very valuable when you put a guy like that and Talan Bell, as well. With no midweek games and those two guys in the mix, that is pretty valuable for the backend.