CLEMSON — Anchored by Michael Sharman, the Clemson pitching staff has been downright dominant over the first three weeks of the season.

While Sharman’s complete game performance in a 4-1 win over South Carolina at Segra Park last Saturday has generated a lot of attention, it was really a continuation of what the left-handed transfer has been doing since the start of the season.

Sharman went six scoreless in his Tigers’ debut against Army. He allowed just one run on two hits the following week in a win over Bryant.

Then came the extremely efficient against the Gamecocks. Sharman needed just 78 pitches to dispose of South Carolina. His strike rate in that one was higher than any D1 pitcher (min. 75 pitches) since 2022. Sharman now sports an ERA of 0.90 across 20 innings of work and an extremely impressive WHIP of 0.40.

However, that tells just part of the story. While Sharman has certainly led the way, the entire pitching staff has been getting it done. Heading into Wednesday’s midweek matchup against Michigan State at Fluor Field in Greenville, the Tigers have a team ERA of 1.80 and a team WHIP of 0.81. Clemson pitchers have walked just 26 hitters across 95 innings, while striking out 109. That’s flat out getting it done regardless of the competition.

Even more impressive is the fact that the Tigers are doing this with ace Aidan Knaak yet to find his groove. Make no mistake, Knaak has been more than solid, but he’s not been overly efficient. He’s issued seven walks and hit two batters in 13 innings of work. He’s also struck out 22 and has an ERA of 2.77. But Knaak has yet to go deeper than five innings due to his pitch count getting too high too quickly.

One of the bigger stories outside of Sharman has been the bullpen. Danny Nelson, Nathan Dvorsky and Dion Brown all have multiple appearances without having allowed an earned run. Eston Simpson has one start and one relief appearance and still has an ERA of 0.00.

Justin LeGuernic, Dylan Harrison, Joe Allen and Drew Titsworth all have ERAs below 2.00. Harrison has done it both out of the bullpen and as a midweek starter. Ariston Veasey pitched a scoreless inning in his debut out of the pen last weekend.

Head coach Erik Bakich said before the season that this was going to be his deepest pitching staff since he’s been at Clemson, and nothing over the first three weeks of the season has disproved that sentiment.

“We just have more depth than we feel like we’ve ever had on the pitching mound,” Bakich said. “Normally, it’s like, who are the 9-11 guys that are going to get 90% of the innings. This year, we are looking at 18-20 guys that can spread the wealth.”