By Ed McGranahan.

By Ed McGranahan

This Clemson baseball team has been good enough – not great – all season. That’s really all it needs again this weekend in Tallahassee, FL to secure an invitation as a regional host for the NCAA Tournament.

Pitching affords Jack Leggett the latitude a coach cherishes every time the team takes the field.

For example, the Tuesday night game with USC Upstate. When starting pitcher Brody Koerner lost his composure when his control betrayed him, Clemson found itself two runs in arrears in the third inning. Senior Jonathan Meyer and three other relievers bailed him out and kept it close until Kevin Bradley became the most unlikely hero by lofting a fly ball that rode the wings of an angel into the left field stands for a walk-off home run.

Typically this season it’s been pitching that’s provided the safety net. In fact, this staff may be deeper than any in JackLeggett’s two decades as head coach. Individually there have been better. Kris Benson and Billy Koch come to mind – and they were on the same staff.

Many of the arms on this roster are young and electric, allowing Leggett and pitching guru Dan Pepicelli to be patient as the players’ roles evolved. The results are evident at the precise time they need be clearest.

Clemson has eight shutouts, its highest total since that Benson-Koch staff posted 10 in 1996. Three games were by a 1-0 score, all in a seven-game span from April 7-19 against conference opponents to tie a 34-year-old school record. In fact, Clemson had won only 30 games by that score in its history, and not a single time in the previous seven seasons.

The team’s 2.92 staff ERA – top 25 nationally – includes a 19-6 record in games decided by three runs or fewer. Early in the season, Clemson allowed three or fewer earned runs in 13 straight games.

Daniel Gossett and Matthew Crownover have become a dependable 1-2 punch as featured starters with Zack Erwin, Clate Schmidt and Patrick Andrews giving Leggett choices at No. 3 and beyond with postseason beckoning.

Gossett, who led Clemson in strikeouts as a freshman, has been the constant this season with an 8-3 record and 2.36 ERA in nine starts, including conference wins over N.C. State, Wake Forest, Miami and
Georgia Tech. Head-to-head he beat the Wolpack’s Carlos Rondon, arguably the top sophomore pitcher in the nation, and left the Virginia game with a three-run lead.

A year off Tommy John surgery, Crownover helped the Tigers beat top-ranked North Carolina in his first weekend start. His 1.90 ERA leads the team – 1.41 in ACC games – and Clemson has a 10-2 record in games the lefty started.

Winning baseball can be like preparing garlic. You may crush it or you can slice and dice it. Occasionally you may do both, which is Leggett’s preference, but changes in rules and equipment a few years ago required him to adjust his philosophy.

Composite bats replaced the aluminum alloy and defused the power game, much like replacing AC flood lights with solar bulbs. In one year – from 2010 to 2011 – home runs were cut in half, so he began to stockpile power arms and building a lineup and bench to reflect the old school approach to offense and defense with athletic players who could run as well as they hit, caught and threw.

The results are encouraging with sophomores and freshmen playing many of the key roles on the team including Gossett, Crownover and Erwin, the third starter at Florida State (5-0, 2.88).

Besides its impressive earned-run average, of the nearly 300 teams in the nation this year Clemson is top 25 in stolen bases, top 30 in walks, top 50 in sacrifice flies and top 70 in fielding.

This season Clemson has been good enough to jump back into the top 15, which is all it needs for a return to the tournament and as a regional host.