The Clemson Tigers baseball team won their hotly contested series against Wake Forest this weekend, winning two of three games.
The Tigers have two more home games before hitting the road this weekend.
Tuesday’s game is against Coastal Carolina University at 6PM, and Wednesday against Presbyterian, also at 6PM. Both games are at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.
Coastal Carolina comes into DKS for the midweek game at 17-7, 4-2 in the Sun Belt Conference and are in the “others receiving votes” in multiple polls.
Presbyterian College comes in at 12-13 overall and 4-2 in the Big South Conference
Clemson and the Coastal have played 63 times overall, with the Tigers leading the series 51-12
Clemson and Presbyterian have played 93 times, including once already this season, and Clemson leads overall 70-23
Here is your preview of Clemson’s second ACC series with the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.
Clemson Briefly:
Clemson enters the weekend with 23 wins and 3 losses. 4-2 in the ACC.
The Tigers are hitting .290 as a team through 26 games (104th nationally).
Josh Paino leads the Tigers with 29 runs batted in.
As a team, the Tigers have 43 doubles, 5 triples and 25 home runs.
On the mound, the Tigers pitching staff touts a 3.86 ERA (28th nationally). The staff has struck out 275 batters and walked 98 through 26 games.
Opponents are hitting .210 against the Tigers pitching staff.
Here is a look at the both midweek opponents, Coastal Carolina and Presbyterian College:
Coastal Carolina University
Head Coach – Kevin Schnall (1st Season)
2025 Record: 17-7 (4-2 Sun Belt)
Wins: St. Joseph, Kansas State (x2), Washington, Ohio State, NC State, UNC-Wilmington, Rutgers (x3), East Carolina (x2), Georgia Southern (x3), Campbell, Troy
Losses: College of Charleston, Alabama, North Carolina, East Carolina, Wake Forest, Troy (x2)
Here are the probable starting lineup for Coastal Carolina and their 2025 stats:
Position Players:
| Name (#) | Year | Position | 2024 Stats |
| Dean Mihos (8) | Jr. | CF | .348; 7 2B, 2 HR, 13 RBI |
| Caden Bodine (17) | Jr. | C | .326; 3 2B, 3 HR, 20 RBI |
| Sebastian Alexander (1) | RS Sr. | LF | .260; 3 2B, 2 HR, 11 RBI |
| Blake Barthol (7) | Jr. | 2B | .256; 6 2B, 5 HR, 21 RBI |
| Walker Mitchell (5) | Soph. | 3B | .361; 2 2B, 3B, 2 HR, 9 RBI |
| Kaleb Huffman (44) | Jr. | DH | .214; 4 2B, 3 RBI |
| Wells Sykes (20) | Sr. | RF | .315; 3 2B, 2 HR, 10 RBI |
| Colby Thorndyke (16) | RS Soph. | 1B | .280; 6 2B, 13 RBI |
| Ty Dooley (3) | Sr. | SS | .351; 5 2B, 3 HR, 11 RBI |
Offensively, the Chanticleers are led by a pair of juniors Catcher Caden Bodine and Centerfielder Dean Mihos. Both were key members on the team that battled Clemson at the NCAA Regional last season. Mihos is hitting .348 and is a machine from the leadoff spot. Their version of Dominic Listi. Always getting on base. Bodine has 20 RBIs.
Blake Barthol, leads the team in home runs (5) and RBIs (21). He was also a leader on the team last season.
The Chants are hitting .281 as a team (130th nationally). They have hit 50 doubles, 1 triple and 26 home runs as a team.
Announced Starter for Coastal Carolina:
| NAME (#) | Year | Hand | 2025 Stats |
| Luke Jones (45) | Fr. | RHP | 0-1; 4.63 ERA, 6 app; 11.1 IP, 10K, 9 BB; OppBA: .250 |
The Coastal Carolina pitching staff owns a 3.88 staff ERA (29th nationally; one spot below the Tigers), have struck out 215 opponent hitters while walking 98. They have given up 17 home runs as a staff through those 24 games.
Clemson has announced Noah Samol will start against Coastal. Samol has appeared in 2 games, starting both. He’s pitched 2.2 innings and sports a 0-0 record and 0.00 ERA in those two short starts. 1 strikeout and 2 walks, while opponents are hitting .125 against the big lefty.
Wednesday Night’s Game:
Presbyterian College Blue Hose
Head Coach – Elton Pollock (21st Season)
2025 Record: 12-13 (4-2 Big South)
Wins: Georgetown (x2), LeMoyne (x2), Eastern Michigan (x2), Wofford, Alabama, Winthrop, Gardner-Webb (x3)
Losses: Georgetown, Elon, Bowling Green, Citadel (x2), Eastern Michigan (x2), Clemson, Alabama (x2), Winthrop (x2), Western Carolina
Here are the probable starting lineup for Presbyterian and their 2025 stats:
Position Players:
| Name (#) | Year | Position | 2024 Stats |
| Andrew Albertus (5) | Fr. | LF | .294; 6 RBI; 3-5 SB |
| Aaron Hobson (2) | Soph. | 2B | .321; 2B, 5 RBI; 6-8 SB |
| Jake Randolph (13) | Jr. | DH | .390; 3 2B, HR, 17 RBI; 6-8 SB |
| Amman Dewberry (35) | Jr. | RF | .217; 5 2B, 3B, 2 HR, 17 RBI; 4-4 SB |
| Jackson Hugus (8) | Sr. | C | .267; 3 2B, HR, 5 RBI |
| Matthew Rollison (15) | Fr. | 3B | .338; 6 2B, 3B, 2 HR, 14 RBI |
| Ryan Ouzts (22) | Grad. | CF | .277; 6 2B, 6 HR, 18 RBI |
| Brody Linker (21) | Fr. | SS | .271; 2 2B, 2 3B, HR, 12 RBI; 6-7 SB |
| Eli Lazio (10) | Sr. | 1B | .311; 5 2B, 2 HR, 5 RBI |
| Trey Fenderson (1) | Jr. | Util | .342; 5 2B, HR, 11 RBI; 6-7 SB |
Offensively, the Blue Hose are led by graduate center fielder, Ryan Ouzts who has a team-leading 6 home runs and 18 RBIs Junior DH Jake Randolph, hitting in the 3-hole leads the team with a .390 average and adds 17 runs batted in.
The Blue Hose are hitting .288 as a team (110th nationally). They have hit 46 doubles, 5 triple and 17 home runs as a team.
Announced Starter for Presbyterian:
| NAME (#) | Year | Hand | 2025 Stats |
| Luke Gibson (16) | Grad. | LHP | 0-0; 5.68 ERA; 8 app, 6.1 IP, 8 K, 9 BB; OppBA: .229 |
The Presbyterian pitching staff owns a 6.87 staff ERA (201st nationally), have struck out 162 opponent hitters while walking 139. They have given up 25 home runs as a staff through those 25 games.
Clemson has announced Freshman Left-hander Talan Bell will make his collegiate debut against the Blue Hose. The highly-touted freshman was rated extremely highly out of high school and even as a possible first round MLB draft selection until Tommy John surgery was needed his senior season.
SUMMARY
This will be the first meeting between Clemson and Coastal since the tremendous regional battles between the two schools. Also the first for Coastal coach Kevin Schnall who took over this season for college baseball legend, and national championship winning coach Gary Gilmore.
Coastal is always a tough opponent for the Tigers. And I’d expect no different on Tuesday night.
Presbyterian is under .500 currently, but their out of conference schedule was highly rated and has tested Coach Elton Pollock’s young squad, even winning a game from Alabama of the SEC.
With a huge ACC series coming up this weekend in Atlanta against Georgia Tech, these two midweek games are huge to get the bats going and continue to get great outings from the bullpen.
As always…
Go Tigers!
