Clemson baseball took care of business with a fun game on Tuesday night against Georgia Southern. If you weren’t in attendance you probably did not have a great time trying to watch that broadcast, but nonetheless, Clemson managed a fun, competitive win, once again in the midweek.
The Tigers will continue to stay on the road and make their first trip to the West Coast for an Atlantic Coast Conference series with the Cal Golden Bears.
The three game weekend series will take place at Evans Diamond at Stu Gordon Stadium in Berkeley, California.
Friday night’s game will start at 9PM EST, Saturday’s game will be at 5PM EST and the series will conclude on Sunday at 4PM EST.
Cal comes into the tilt at 16-12, 6-6 in their first season competing in the ACC.
Clemson and the Georgia Southern Eagles have played 4 times. The last time was in 1997. The Bears lead the overall series 3-1.
Here is your preview of Clemson’s weekend series out west against the University of California-Berkeley Bears.
Clemson Briefly:
Clemson enters the weekend with 27 wins and 5 losses. 6-3 in the ACC.
The Tigers are hitting .281 as a team through 32 games (135th nationally).
As a team, the Tigers have 49 doubles, 6 triples and 32 home runs.
On the mound, the Tigers pitching staff touts a 4.52 ERA (49th nationally). The staff has struck out 328 batters for an average of 10.7 per 9 innings (16th) and walked 130 through 32 games.
Opponents are hitting .223 against the Tigers pitching staff.
Here is a look at the Cal Bears:
University of California Berkeley Golden Bears
Head Coach – Mike Neu (8th Season)
2025 Record: 16-12 (6-6 ACC)
Wins: Nevada (x3), Houston, Cal State Bakersfield, Santa Clara, Duke, Utah, Virginia, St. Mary’s, Stanford (x3), San Francisco, Louisville, Sacramento State
Losses: Nevada, Houston (x2), Santa Clara (x3), Duke (x2), Virginia (x2), Louisville (x2)
Here are the probable starting lineup for Cal and their 2025 stats:
Position Players:
| Name (#) | Year | Position | 2024 Stats |
| Jarren Advincula (1) | Soph | 2B | .395; 10 2B, 3B, 5 HR, 23 RBI; 6-7 SB |
| Alex Birge (22) | RS Jr. | C | .253; 6 2B, 7 HR, 15 RBI |
| Dominic Smaldino (38) | Soph | 1B | .257; 5 2B, 7 HR, 26 RBI |
| Ryan Tayman (17) | Soph. | DH | .274; 7 2B, 3B, 3 HR, 12 RBI |
| PJ Moutzouridis (10) | Soph. | SS | .267; 6 2B, 3B, 2 HR, 19 RBI; 4-6 SB |
| Jacob French (15) | Soph. | RF | .370; 7 2B, 3 3B, 2 HR, 19 RBI |
| Seth Gwynn (3) | Sr. | CF | .232; 9 2B, 3B, 2 HR, 16 RBI |
| Max Handron (4) | RS Sr. | 3B | .281; 4 2B, 3 HR, 14 RBI |
| Carl Schmidt (8) | RS Fr. | LF | .322; 4 2B, 2 HR, 15 RBI |
| Cade Campbell (2) | Jr. | Util | .388; 8 2B, 3B, 7 HR, 27 RBI |
Offensively, the Bears hit a lot of home runs and the team lead is three hitters with 7. Catcher Alex Birge, 1st Baseman Dominic Smaldino and regular 3B Cade Campbell are all tied.
Sophomore leadoff hitter Jarren Advincula is hitting .395 with 10 doubles, a triple and 5 home runs as well as 23 runs batted in.
The Eagles are hitting .296 as a team (79th nationally). They have hit 68 doubles (12th), 9 triple (T-42nd) and 42 home runs as a team (40th).
Anticipated Starters for Cal:
| NAME (#) | Year | Hand | 2025 Stats |
| Austin Turkington (5) | Jr. | RHP | 4-2; 5.03 ERA, 7 App, 34 IP, 39 K, 12 BB; OppBA: .244 |
| Gavin Eddy (46) | RS Fr. | RHP | 2-1; 3.41 ERA, 7 App, 31.2 IP, 23 K, 19 BB; OppBA: .167 |
| Ethan Foley (48) | Soph. | RHP | 2-2; 7.30 ERA, 7 App, 24.2 IP, 28 K, 5 BB; OppBA: .340 |
***Both Teams have announced TBA for each of the three games. The three Cal pitchers listed above have been the weekend starters for the entirety of the season up to this point.
The Cal pitching staff owns a 5.04 staff ERA (81st nationally), having struck out 238 opponent hitters for an average of 8.5 per 9 innings (140th) while walking 118. They have given up 40 home runs as a staff through those 28 games.
Clemson have not announced any pitchers for any of the three games. It is the expectation that Aidan Knaak will toe the slab on his usual Friday night slot. BJ Bailey will likely get a spot as well, likely in the Sunday role, but would not be surprising to see him go on Satuday. Ethan Darden likely keeps his spot in the rotation at either the Saturday spot or Sunday spot.
SUMMARY
The Tigers will only make one trip out west and it is this weekend. The other west coast team in the conference, Stanford, will come to Doug Kingsmore next weekend. There is a lot to be said about making that cross-country trip.
Cal can flat out hit. I’m not sure why both coaches did not release starting pitchers for this weekend, but it has the smell of some gamesmanship in some way.
The two teams do not have any common opponents at this point in the season.
It will be a late night on Friday watching the Tigers on the other coast, but this series should be a really good one.
The Tigers need to get the bats going again against a very hittable pitching staff.
As always…
Go Tigers!
