It cannot be emphasized enough about just how good that mid-week win against Kansas State was on Wednesday evening in Clemson. Billy Barlow pitched a gem and looked like opening day Billy Barlow. He walked two, but that would be nit-picking his nice performance. That K-State team will win a lot of games this year in a good baseball conference. That was a nice confidence-building win for the Tigers in the mid-week.
The schedule turns to the weekend and Tiger fans should be excited to see the much-anticipated Friday night start from staff ace, Austin Gordon.
Clemson is hitting .303 as a team through 11 games, good enough for 58th in the country. Redshirt Freshman Nolan Nawrocki has been fantastic to start the season. The now regular starter at 3rd base, playing a steady hot corner while hitting .394 with 3 home runs, including one in Wednesday night’s win, and we cannot forget the eventual game winning long ball in game 2 against the Gamecocks.
The Tigers are averaging 7.9 runs per game (110th in the country).
Here is your preview of the weekend three-game set with UNC-Greensboro, a Greensboro team that beat then #1 Wake Forest in Winston-Salem.
UNC-Greensboro Spartans
Head Coach – Cody Ellis (interim)
Record – 8-4
Wins against: Fairfield x3, Wake Forest, Binghamton, Canisius x2, High Point
Losses against: Binghamton x2, Elon, Canisius
Pitching Match Ups:
Friday @ 2pm – RHP Austin Gordon (Clemson) vs. LHP Noah Chapman (UNC-G)
Saturday @ 2pm – LHP Tristan Smith (Clemson) vs. RHP Jay Miller (UNC-G)
Sunday @ 2pm – RHP Aidan Knaak (Clemson) vs. RHP Rob Ready (UNC-G)
It was stated in this space the last preview that it was interesting that Barlow would get the Wednesday start opening a weekend start for Gordon, well here it is. Coach Erik Bakich stated that Gordon needed to be stretched out as he played a lot of baseball over the summer and into the fall and needed to rest that valuable arm. It seems like he’s ready to go and he’ll get the nod Friday night, as he did so often a season ago.
Here is the projected starters for the UNC-Greensboro Spartans positionally, with their early season stats as well:
Position Players:
| NAME (Jersey #) | GRADE | POSITION | ‘24 STATISTICS |
| Trey Truitt (7) | Junior | Right Field | .190; 2B, 3B, 3 HR, 9 RBI; 3-3 SB |
| Jeremy Wolf (9) | Sophomore | 2nd Base | .235; 2 2B, 3 RBI; 11-11 SB |
| Jake Ogden (16) | Sophomore | 3rd Base | .295; 2 2B, 10 RBI; 6-6 SB |
| Matt Venuto (18) | Graduate | DH | .306; 2B, 5 RBI |
| GC Jarman (12) | Senior | 1st Base | .348; 6 RBI |
| Brantley Truitt (3) | Freshman | Left Field | .261; 2B, 3B, 4 RBI; 2-2 SB |
| Aidan Brewer (15) | Graduate | Shortstop | .233; 4 HR, 13 RBI |
| Mitchell Smith (5) | RS Senior | Catcher | .171; 4 2B, 2 RBI; 2-2 SB |
| Zachary Walsh (2) | Junior | Centerfield | .167; 2B; 3-3 SB |
Offensively, the Spartans are hitting .235 as a team (240th nationally), with 16 doubles, 3 triples, 14 home runs and have knocked in 78 runs. The Spartans will run and run a lot averaging 2.75 stolen bases a game, a total of 32, having only been caught once.
This UNC-Greensboro team stats do not jump off the page at you for the right reasons outside of the fact that they will run to try to stress the Tigers pitchers and defense. However, hitting below .250 as a team doesn’t scare many opposing pitching staffs. They did beat Wake Forest in the mid-week early in the season though. This team can be dangerous.
Note: Kennesaw State didn’t look like an offensively powerful team on paper, and they put up an 18-spot on the Tigers on a Friday night. So take the stats with a grain of salt when it comes to baseball.
STARTING PITCHING
| NAME (Jersey #) | Year/Hand | ‘24 Statistics |
| Noah Champman (21) | Freshman/LHP | 1-0; 2.25 ERA; 12IP, 14 K, 6 BB; OppBA: .178 |
| Jay Miller (31) | Sophomore/RHP | 0-0; 3.86 ERA; 7 IP, 10 K, 4 BB; OppBA: .174 |
| Rob Ready (34) | Junior/RHP | 1-0; 3.77 ERA; 14.1 IP, 8 K, 6 BB; OppBA: .286 |
UNC-G leads off Friday night with Summerville, SC native and freshman, Noah Chapman. He’ll be entering his second career start this weekend for the Spartans. Of note, Sunday starter for the Spartans, Rob Ready was teammates with Clemson’s Alden Mathes at Richmond.
As a pitching staff, UNC-G has a 5.78 ERA, 148th in the country in the early going and opponents are hitting .260 against the Spartans. They’ve surrendered 25 2Bs, 8 3B, and 9 HRs as a staff. This staff has been the strength of the early going, especially the starters.
This should be a really fun series and a slight contrast of styles. UNC-G will like to get on base, work pitch-counts and run, while the Tigers have been a well-rounded offense, not running nearly as much as we would have thought entering the season but hitting more home runs than we were to expect with what was lost from a season ago.
It should be great to see Austin Gordon’s weekend series debut. The true ace last year for the young pitching staff.
