What a fun, strange, sweep of a weekend we had at Doug Kingsmore this weekend. The Tigers faced some of that adversity that Coach Bakich likes his team facing, and they answered. Every time.
The Tigers swept the Davidson Wildcats over the weekend and have yet another busy week ahead as they have two mid-week games. A different sort of mid-week, as the Tigers will face the Liberty Flames on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.
Liberty has a few familiar names to Clemson fans. First off, they’re led by long time Clemson assistant and player Bradley LeCroy. LeCroy employs former Clemson pitching coach Andrew See and fan favorite player Andrew Cox. And finally, former Clemson depth piece Camden Troyer followed Bradley LeCroy to Liberty.
Clemson is 6-5 all-time against Liberty having last played in 2020.
Here is your preview of Clemson’s out of conference, mid-week series against the Liberty Flames.
Clemson Briefly:
Clemson enters the weekend with 15 wins and 1 loss, having gone 5-0 last week, beating USC Upstate, Presbyterian and Davidson(x3).
The Tigers are hitting .306 as a team through 16 games (51st nationally). They’re led in that category by Jarren Purify (.447; 45th in the country). He’s also slugging .809 after a 12 hit weekend. As a team, the Tigers have 29 doubles, 3 triples and 16 home runs.
On the mound, the Tigers pitching staff touts a 3.98 ERA (54th nationally). The staff has struck out 170 batters and walked 51 through 16 games.
Opponents are hitting .210 against the Tigers.
Here is a look at the Liberty Flames through 15 games of the season:
Liberty Flames
Head Coach – Bradley LeCroy (1st Season)
2025 Record: 11-4
Wins: St. John’s (x3), NC State, Xavier, Duke, UNC-Wilmington, Campbell, Central Michigan (x3)
Losses: Xavier (x2), UNC-Wilmington (x2)
Here are the probable starting lineup for Liberty and their 2025 stats:
Position Players:
| Name (#) | Year | Position | 2024 Stats |
| Riley Decandido (35) | Soph. | 1B | .229; 2B, HR, 7 RBI |
| Tanner Marsh (1) | Soph. | SS | .274; 3 2B, 8 RBI; 5-6 SB |
| Jaxon Sorenson (4) | Jr. | 3B | .321; 4 2B, 5 HR, 17 RBI |
| Nick Barone (17) | Jr. | LF | .298; 3 2B, 3B, 5 HR, 20 RBI |
| Camden Troyer (18) | Sr. | RF | .263; 4 2B, 3 HR, 12 RBI |
| Landon Scilley (6) | Fr. | DH | .339; 4 2B, HR, 13 RBI |
| Cal Early (2) | Fr. | 2B | .333; RBI |
| Tucker Moore (26) | R-Soph. | C | .261; 3 2B, 3B, 2 HR, 14 RBI |
| Michael Robertson (11) | R-Jr. | CF | .170; 2 2B, 5 RBI; 5-5 SB |
Offensively, the Flames are led by a pair of juniors; Third Baseman Jaxon Sorenson and Left Fielder Nick Barone. Both of the players have 5 home runs and are 1-2 in RBIs as well. They both hit in the middle of the order and will be hard for Clemson pitching to avoid. Clemson transfer Camden Troyer has added 3 home runs for the Flames.
The Wildcats are hitting .263 as a team (176th nationally). They have hit 26 doubles, 2 triples and 17 home runs as a team. This team, like their head coach, is scrappy on the base paths stealing 17 bags in 21 attempts led by SS Tanner Marsh and CF Michael Robertson.
Starters for Liberty:
| NAME (#) | Year | Hand | 2025 Stats |
| Josh Swink (48) | Soph. | LHP | 2-1; 7.62 ERA, 13 IP, 11 K, 6 BB; OppBA: .315 |
| ***Ben Blair (16) | Soph. | RHP | 3-0; 1.17 ERA, 23 IP, 27 K, 10 BB; OppBA: .181 |
| ***Dylan Mathiesen (45) | Jr. | RHP | 1-1; 3.63 ERA, 22.1 IP, 33 K, 7 BB; OppBA: .232 |
***The Flames have announce Wednesday’s starter as TBA. Interesting note, the Flames have only started three pitchers through their first 15 games and those are the three that are listed above.
Sophomore left-hander that has been announced for Tuesday night, Josh Swink, has been their Friday night starter throughout the season so far. He does have the least amount of innings pitched from the “weekend rotation,” which leads me to believe that LeCroy could throw a guy out there on Wednesday that is not mentioned above. But there are just not numbers out there to guess at this point.
The Flames pitching staff owns a 3.86 staff ERA (48th nationally), have struck out 143 opponent hitters while walking 56. They have given up only 10 home runs as a staff through those 15 games.
Clemson will counter with Freshman Brendon Bennett on Tuesday, and have also announced a TBA for Wednesday’s game.
SUMMARY
The Tigers are 10-0 at home. They are the winners of 13 straight games. Into DKS come the Liberty Flames and a very familiar face leading the way.
The Flames have beaten two ACC teams already in the mid-week (NC State and Duke). This is a team that is starting to get used to winning against the power conference foes.
These two games will be a battle, as the strength of the Flames team is their pitching staff, a top 50 staff in the country.
The Tigers will have to battle every at bat and limit the “free-90s” in order to win this two game set.
