Anyone else feel beat up after that series with the Davidson Wildcats? Can’t be just me. The Clemson baseball team fought hard on the bookend days of the series to sweep the feisty Wildcats.
Davidson led in both Friday and Sunday’s contests. They led until the 7th inning on Sunday, while their slew of off-speed pitchers had Tiger hitters searching for answers. Even when Clemson would get runners on base, Davidson pitchers would string a few quality pitches together to get them out of the inning.
As much of a “struggle” it may have seemed at times on Sunday, the Tigers did, in fact, sweep Davidson to improve their record to 15-1. Winners of 13 straight games.
Here are some things that we learned in this weekend’s series recap:
The Great
Jaren Purify – Insert the eyes emoji here. Coach Erik Bakich looked a group of media in the eyes on many occasions a season ago and told them how special a player Jaren Purify was going to be. He absolutely showed flashes in his freshman season, but he has all but broken out this season. The sophomore is a true leader on the team at all facets. He’s been fun to watch these first 16 games. He’s hitting .447, Slugging .809. Leads the team with 3 home runs, and stolen bases (9).
Quality At-Bats – Even when this team went down and had nothing really going, especially Sunday, the at-bats were still battles. Every starting position player reached base on Sunday. They worked the pitchers into long at-bats, earning 10 walks and two hit by pitches on Sunday alone. This team never feels like it’s out of a ballgame.
Andrew Ciufo – Ciufo, who has started the season slow had a 5-8 weekend with 5 RBIs. He was a tough out every time he came up. He reached base on 9 of 12 plate appearances. Ciufo, from the 9-hole was paramount in turning the lineup over and getting rally’s started all weekend. It was good to see.
The Bullpen – Through 16 games, this group should be in this section every week. Lucas Mahlstedt, Jacob McGovern, Drew Titsworth, Joe Allen, BJ Bailey, Reed Garris, et al. (sorry to those I didn’t name, you all deserve a mention!) are completely solid. And the way the coaching staff uses each guy has been a masterpiece of execution. Even as Joe Allen did not quite have his A-stuff on (and was getting pinched a little bit by the umpire), the next guy picked him up and kept eating quality innings. This bullpen is a true strength of this team and will need to be as the competition ramps up in the coming weeks.
The Good
Cam Breaking Out – You know this team is really good when the sparkplug that is Cam Cannarella has yet to “break out” and the team continues to roll along. Cam, currently hitting .288 with a home run and 10 RBIs, hit a three-run home run that gave the Tigers the lead for good in the Sunday contest. The strike zone was pitcher-friendly pretty much all weekend, and once the Junior figured it out, he was back to swinging it like the All-American candidate we know and love.
Starting Pitching…again – Knaak is allowing more hits than maybe we remember, but he’s striking out a lot of opposing hitters and keeping a lot of runs off of the board, allowing the Tiger hitters a lot of room to take and keep the lead. Ethan Darden was really good again on Saturday, with the only real critique that he allowed a couple of walks, which is out of character for the lefty this season. And Justin LeGuernic, who put back to back weekend quality starts together the past few weeks saw his pitch count get up there on Sunday. He battled, but only got through 6 innings. Again, like the two other weekend guys, LeGuernic has limited the damage and kept the Tigers in each game he’s pitched since Ole Miss.
The OK
Saturday’s Broadcast – There was a lot going on in Clemson on Saturday, but to have only one camera was a little disappointing. It was not as bad as some broadcasts that we’ve seen already this season, but I’ll leave it at disappointing.
Injury Bug – As good as the bullpen has been, the full complement is still not available. We’ve still not seen a handful of arms out of the bullpen, notably Michael Gillen who Coach Bakich said would be back “soon.”
Overall Grade
A Minus – Clemson, now ranked as high as #4 in the country gets everyone’s best shot. And that was no different this weekend against a tough Davidson team. Davidson was outmatched at just about every position but still put quality at bats together, put together two our rallies and mixed in a lot of different pitchers to put up a nice battle all weekend against the Tigers.
But this is a weekend that the Tigers, on paper, should not have struggled. Of course, it’s baseball and anyone can beat anyone any given weekend.
The Tigers are really good, and are really thought of that way nationally. I just really believe that we have not seen their best as of yet. There’s been a couple of lulls in the order at times, and some untimely free passes from the pitching staff.
Obviously 15-1 and highly ranked is really good. But I think this season can be really special when it all comes together, as I expect it to do.
Next up are two mid-week games this week against Liberty University and former Clemson player/coach Bradley LeCroy (along with former Pitching Coach Andrew See and former Clemson fan favorite Andrew Cox, both on LeCroy’s staff) on Tuesday and Wednesday at home. Then the Tigers will welcome Notre Dame to open the ACC schedule to Doug Kingsmore Stadium over the weekend.
