For the Clemson Tigers, the 2017 baseball season ended on a sour note. After defeating Vanderbilt 6-0 during game six of the Clemson regional, the Tigers were handily beaten by the Commodores in game seven. In the 8-0 shutout, Clemson managed only four hits. For the second year in a row, the Tigers failed to advance from their own regional.
With the 2018 season on the horizon, Head Coach Monte Lee is trying to keep his team focused on the little things.
“We don’t talk a whole lot about outcomes … If you want to be one of the final eight teams playing at the end of the year, you gotta be one of the best teams in the country, you gotta execute in all phases of the game. We are worried more about execution than we are expectation,” Lee said, when asked if his team was under pressure to advance past a regional this season.
Offensively, the Tigers did not lose much from last year. The key departures were Chase Pinder and Reed Rohlman, who combined for 13 homeruns and 68 RBIs in the 2016 season.
However, Clemson is returning what Lee refers to as “the three-headed monster,” in sophomore Logan Davidson, senior Chris Williams and junior Seth Beer. These three combined for 42 homeruns and 145 RBIs last season, and they each ended the season with a batting average of more than .250.
To compliment those three in the lineup, Clemson has also brought in some young talent. Junior college transfer Justin Hawkins has gathered some attention from his performance in the preseason. Hawkins hit two impressive homeruns during team practices, one over the scoreboard and the other out of the stadium.
“[Hawkins] has more raw power than anyone out here,” said Lee. “When he touches the ball on the barrel, it goes a long way.”
The biggest loss for the Tigers was the entire starting pitching rotation from last year. Charlie Barnes, Alex Eubanks and Pat Krall all signed with major league teams, and Tyler Jackson completed his final year of eligibility at Clemson as a graduate student transfer. Those four threw a total of 380.1 innings for Clemson last season. Lee and his coaching staff will have to pull from a list of candidates with limited starting experience in college to piece together a weekend rotation and midweek starter.
“It makes it easy when you have a Barnes, a Eubanks, a Krall and then a fifth-year guy like a Tyler Jackson coming in where it’s pretty easy to see who is going to be the starter. It’s a little different this year and I’m excited about that,” said Lee.
While Lee finds it exciting to have the chance to put together a new pitching staff, it also brings uncertainty. Pitching has been a struggle for Lee and the Tigers the last two years, even with a reliable starting rotation. Without players who Clemson can count on to throw five or six quality innings per start, the Tigers face an uncertain future.
There are some returning players on the roster that bring starting experience to the team. Brooks Crawford, Ryley Gilliam and Jake Higginbotham are three pitchers who have been in a starting role at some point in their careers. Young players like Owen Griffith, Ryan Miller and Spencer Strider are also in the mix for starting jobs.
Defensively, Clemson needs to improve dramatically, especially with a young and inexperienced pitching staff. The Tigers had 71 errors last season, many of them leading to runs and costing Clemson games.
Davidson committed 22 errors at shortstop his freshman season and is hoping to improve after a year of experience. “For me it was throwing more so than fielding … Throwing wise, I pitched in high school, so a lot of times I had a high arm slot. We dropped that down this fall and that’s helped a lot,” Davidson said when asked about his struggles.
Lee also acknowledged that the Tigers have to clean up defensively if they want a chance to compete in a tough conference. “We command the ball, we play good defense behind our pitching staff, with the potential we have on offense, we are gonna give ourselves a chance to win ballgames.”
Clemson won’t have much of a chance to ease into things. After their opening series against William and Mary, the Tigers have to face Dallas Baptist. The Patriots won 42 games last season and will be a tough challenge for the young Clemson team. After that series, Clemson will face South Carolina in its annual home-home-neutral series with the Gamecocks.
Other non-conference games to watch include midweek matchups with Michigan State and Coastal Carolina. Those games mixed in with a tough ACC schedule will make things difficult for the Tigers.
The good news for Clemson is that if they manage to win most of their non-conference games and compete in the ACC, they will have a strong resume come postseason play.
Clemson opens the season against William and Mary on Feb. 16 at 4 p.m.
