CLEMSON – In today’s world of college athletics, it is increasingly rare for a player to spend their entire athletic career at one school. But despite coaching changes and position moves, pitcher Reed Garris remained loyal to Clemson for four years.

And for the Mount Pleasant, S.C., native, that decision paid off.

In his final season with the Tigers, the right-hander recorded a dominant 1.57 ERA, a perfect 3-0 record, and only allowed six runs in 28.2 innings of work. Across his three-year pitching career at Clemson, Garris compiled a 9-1 record and  2.94 ERA in 82.2 innings. 

Now, a month after battling back from an injury and competing in Clemson’s NCAA Regional at Doug Kingsmore Stadium, Garris is officially moving on from Clemson baseball.

“At first it was honestly a little overwhelming, just because for the last four years all I’ve known is college baseball,” Garris told the Clemson Insider recently. “That routine, training every single day, always working towards something. Now it’s almost like, at least for these next few weeks, next few months, it’s all just kind of like focusing on myself, which is a big change, because it’s been so centered around doing everything you can to help, a team, our team.”

That shift in focus started with a two-week break from throwing, going “crazy” in the weight room, and a gradual return to the mound. He plans to head back to Clemson to train ahead of the upcoming MLB Draft, but first, he made time to fish with his dad Brian and help him coach a 12u baseball team at a tournament in Cooperstown, N.Y.

In the first two games of the tournament, Garris’s 12u team scored 38 runs, but allowed eight. Though the team completed two blowout wins, Garris, a competitor by nature, was not satisfied.

“We need to throw more strikes,” he said with a laugh.

For Garris, baseball and fishing have always connected him to his dad, a long time charter fisherman and former college baseball player. Both passions have taught him patience, consistency, and emotional steadiness– attributes Clemson fans have come to associate with his presence on the mound, along with his signature walk-up song, Luke Combs’ Ain’t No Love In Oklahoma.

“At my exit meeting this year, Coach (Erik) Bakich actually put it really well,” Garris said. “If anybody watched me pitch, I feel like the way I carry myself in life is very similar to it. There’s going to be highs, there’s going to be lows, but you can never tell where the highs were or where the lows were.

“I just stayed the same and cruised through it all. And I think that’s something that most people don’t realize– it’s not to say, you don’t care, but it’s more of a go-with-the-flow mindset.” 

That mindset, he says, comes with years of developing routines on and off the field.

“If you look at the people who’ve had success, at the collegiate level and even in the pros, the difference is their mental makeup and just being a slave to their routines and how they go about things every single day.”

Following a standout senior season and conversations with MLB teams, Garris is hoping to take that mindset and his own routines into professional baseball. However, he says he will never forget his time as a Tiger.

His favorite memory?

Celebrating with teammates and fans in the Doug Kingsmore Stadium’s Cajun Cafe his junior year after winning Clemson’s first NCAA Regional since 2010. Fans could witness Garris and his teammates, along with Bakich, scaling the left field fence to embrace their loyal fan club.

“That second team for Bakich was a special team,” he said. “I’ll never forget, right after the Alma Mater, running into the Cajun Cafe and jumping into it, because that was something that I’ve always dreamed of.”

As for incoming Clemson freshmen and future recruits hoping to scale the Cajun Cafe’s fence in celebration one day, Garris offers two pieces of advice:

First, if you want to play baseball at Clemson, you cannot come in prepared to only play for yourself. 

Second– if you start something… finish it.

Now, Garris has the chance to start something new after taking his own advice and finishing what he started in Clemson. He, his family, his coaches, and Tiger fans will find out what’s next for Garris when the MLB Draft takes place July 13–14 in Atlanta.