CLEMSON – Tommy Dalley cannot throw strikes.

Or, at least, Vidalia High School’s head basketball coach and athletic director struggled to land pitches in the zone when he was trying to help his eight-year-old son Ty learn how to swing a bat over a decade ago. 

The elder Dalley, a former guard, once recorded 17 assists in a game for Belmont in 1992, and won an NAIA National title at Birmingham Southern College in 1995, but when it came to baseball practice, his message to his son was simple.

“All right, I can’t throw a strike,” Ty recounted his father saying. “Just swing at it.”

And so his son did.

Ty Dalley swung and hacked, practiced and drilled, until he was deemed Perfect Game’s No. 1 first baseman in Georgia in the 2022 high school recruiting class. On the way, Dalley led Vidalia, the sweet onion capital of the world, to its first high school baseball state championship in over 20 years. 

Following in his father’s footsteps, Dalley was also named an all-state basketball player, averaging over 18.5 points per game his senior year en route to an Elite Eight appearance. 

“The kid deserves every accolade he receives,” Tommy Dalley said in a 2022 interview. “He has put in so much time in the gym over his four years – we are super proud of him – his academics, athletics, and leadership are a credit to him and his work ethic.”

Now, over 12 years after “really tough,” batting practice sessions with his dad and four years after earning high school accolades in two sports, Dalley serves as Clemson’s starting right fielder and the nation’s active career leader in home runs after three successful seasons at Mercer University. 

In three seasons with the Bears, Dalley blasted 58 home runs, along with 48 doubles, two triples, and 188 RBIs, leading the Bears to a SoCon Championship game appearance last season. 

When Dalley announced his commitment to Clemson out of the transfer portal in June, and then launched a literal flaming home run against the Savannah Bananas in November, it seemed like a sure thing that the veteran would provide immediate power to a Clemson program that notched only 73 home runs last season.

But in the first two weeks of the 6-foot-4 senior’s first season in the Upstate, Dalley went without a home run or an extra-base hit. Across his first nine games in the orange and white, Dalley was 7-for-32 at the plate, maintaining an average several points below his career .284 rate.

“(Dalley) was great for us in the preseason and great for us all fall,” head coach Erik Bakich said following the Tigers’ 7-2 victory over rival South Carolina on Sunday. “And I think everybody caught a glimpse of some of the talent that he has. Everyone knows he’s the Division I home run leader returning. But it’s been some struggles in the early part of the year.”

In his first game Friday against the Gamecocks, the struggles continued. Dalley struck out in all three of his at-bats, chasing pitches in and out of the strike zone. Two days later, after the Tigers claimed the series from the Gamecocks, the veteran jokingly credited his dad’s “just swing” approach to the start of his chasing issues.

“I think that’s where my chase issues started back when I was eight years old, but I’m trying to hone in on it now,” he said with a laugh.

More seriously, he commented on his mindset during a slower start than expected.

“I mean, it’s not been the way I wanted, but I feel like I’ve hit some balls hard,” he said. “I’ve kind of stayed all over the barrel and just tried to have some quality at bats for this team.” 

Dalley notched some of those quality at-bats Saturday, with a single and a drawn walk in Clemson’s 4-1 win over South Carolina. Still, no homers came for the former dual-sport athlete at Segra Park.

One day later, less than 48 hours after the 0-for-3 performance, the same swing that was fine-tuned by misplaced pitches from his father ended the ‘Dalley Drought.’

In his first trip to the plate in a rubber match against the Gamecocks Sunday, Dalley shot a sacrifice ground out to second base, scoring freshman third baseman Jason Fultz for his first RBI of the day.

When he came up to bat again with the Tigers sporting a 4-2 lead two innings later, however, it was time for the home run leader to do the scoring himself. 

With one out, Dalley left the on-deck circle and headed to the plate to face Gamecocks pitcher Hudson Lee, his former travel ball teammate and “buddy.” Dalley took a breath, got in his stance, and with a CRACK, sent the first pitch he saw 383-feet out of the park. 

The Gap Band’s ‘You Dropped a Bomb On Me,’ washed across thousands of Clemson fans, blasting with the same intensity as Dalley’s 105 mile-per-hour bomb, as he finally got to round third base and jump into a celebratory huddle.

 “I kind of knew it was gone,” Dalley said postgame. “In this type of environment, you got to show some emotion, get the crowd on their feet. So when I hit it, I kind of stood, leaned back on it. Obviously, it’s my first one in a Tigers uniform, so I’ve been itching to do that. So it felt great.”

One inning later, after sporting a 5-2 lead thanks to Dalley’s solo shot, Clemson’s defense forced two quick South Carolina outs, then one batter reached on a hit-by-pitch. When Gamecocks’ left fielder Ethan Lizama launched a blast that immediately looked like a sure home run, it was time for Dalley to draw on his basketball experience.

With the ball soaring above his head, the former shooting guard jumped up– arms outstretched with proper rebounding technique– and robbed a home run over the right field Cajun Café wall, securing the Tigers’ sure lead and momentum. 

“It was hit pretty good, but it was kind of top spun so I knew I was going to have to come get it at the top of its landing point,” Dalley said. “So I just kind of went out there and made the play.”

The nine-hole hitter drew two walks after his home run, finishing 1-for-2 with two RBIs and two walks. Outside of swinging at one ball, according to Bakich, chasing was not an issue for Dalley on Sunday.

“Once guys get in the groove, those things can come in bunches, so, hopefully that’ll be the case for Ty,” he said. “We really called him out in a good way with the team. Just being able to get that RBI, get the solo homer, but then also take his walks and get those two walks. That’s huge. And I think as a power hitter, the more plate discipline you can have and the better your swing decisions are, then you get better pitches to hit.”

Dalley will get his next chance to show off his plate discipline Wednesday, when the Tigers will travel to Greenville to play Michigan State at Fluor Field. First pitch is set for 6 p.m.

While the Spartan pitchers will most likely be far more polished than his father, Clemson fans can rest assured that if a pitch that Dalley likes comes his way, he will “just swing.”