Winning last weekend’s three-game series against Maine was not a perfect one for Clemson’s baseball program, but it was a pretty good one.
New Clemson head coach Monte Lee says he saw a lot of good things out of his baseball team last week from the mound, in the field and at the plate. The Tigers outscored Maine 31-10 in the three games, including an impressive 19-2 win in Sunday’s series clinching victory.
After some first game jitters that cost the Tigers in a 4-3 loss in Game 1, they bounced back to win Game 2 (9-4) to even the series up before blowing out the Black Bears in Game 3.
“Maybe we tried a little too hard, first game jitters,” Lee said, “guys were over swinging a little bit and just trying a little bit too hard. As the weekend progressed, I think we relaxed a little bit and stayed within ourselves a little bit more.
“We played better in Game 2 than we did in Game 1 and we played better in Game 3 than we did in Game 2. So I thought we played better as the weekend went on, which is a great sign for our ball club.”
Clemson’s success started on the mound where, even in the loss, the Tigers pitched well. The staff as a whole allowed nine earned runs, while giving up 26 hits and a .252 batting average. They had 30 strikeouts and walked just eight.
“We have pitching goals … pitching and defensive goals and numbers we try to hit in every game,” Lee said. “One of our goals is to be five or under in the free department. Walk, HBP, stolen bases, errors … you know, free nineties.
“If you limit your free nineties as a pitching staff and as a defense, you give yourself a chance to win the ball game and we did that every game. I was very, very pleased with our pitching staff with what they were able to do this weekend.”
As the Tigers head into this weekend’s three-game series against James Madison, Lee likes where his team’s mindset is at as it embarks on the second week of the season.
“I absolutely think we can compete at a very high level. Like any ball club, we will have our ups and downs throughout the 56-game schedule, but I have a lot of confidence in our team,” he said. “I see a team that’s pretty poised and pretty loose. It has a lot of energy and enjoys playing together. They are not too high or too low in the dugout and that comes with leadership.
“We have some older guys that kind of run this ball club with Chris Okey, Pat Krall and some of these guys pitching and on the offensive side … Weston Wilson and Eli (White). There are a lot of guys. There are a lot of guys on this team, Chris Williams is always smiling and just plays. Our guys play and that is the fun thing about this team. I enjoy being in the dugout with this team because of how they approach every single pitch and every single inning.”
Speaking of guys at the plate, Clemson hit .308 as a team and tallied 27 RBIs, which included two home runs, a three-run shot by Chase Pinder and a grand slam from freshman sensation Seth Beer. Wilson led the way with a .545 average, while Adam Renwick hit .308 and White hit .300.
Clemson had 22 hits in Sunday’s win and drew 18 walks all together in the three-game set. They were also hit by a pitch nine other nine times. That’s a total of 27 “Free 90s.”
“I think I saw a lot of different things this weekend. I think I have seen what our team is capable of, but it is still awfully early,” Lee said. “We were able to pitch a lot of guys and we were able to play a lot of guys. I think we played 14 different guys over the course of a weekend and got some at-bats and got some time on the field which was good for me to see.
“We moved some guys in-and-out over three days and I think we accomplished everything we were looking for outside of winning the first game. Outside of finding a way to win that first one, I think our guys responded very well after losing Game One. They found a way to win Game Two and then played even better (on Sunday).”
If you haven’t already order your copy today of Guts & Glory – Tales of Clemson’s Historic 2015 Football Season to help you celebrate and remember this special season.
