Sometimes college baseball gives you a quick reminder that the things you thought you knew, you do not. And that’s why there is a common phrase among baseball fans of “baseball happens.”
That reminder came earlier this week for the Clemson Tigers.
Baseball happened in North Augusta this week in a rare mid-week loss to Georgia Southern.
Clemson made the trip down the road to North Augusta on Tuesday night and dropped a midweek contest to Georgia Southern at SRP Park. It was one of those games that tend to pop up over the course of a long season. Midweek matchups can get a little unpredictable. Occasionally a team that has been rolling simply runs into a night where things do not quite click.
But the bigger picture remains exactly the same.
The Tigers still sit at 15-2 on the season and remain firmly planted in the national top ten depending on which ranking service is your favorite this week. One loss on a Tuesday night in March does not suddenly erase the strong start Clemson has put together over the first few weeks of the season. The sky is not falling in Tigertown, like it may be in other parts of the state…sorry, couldn’t resist.
If anything, the timing simply adds a little extra juice to what was already shaping up to be one of the best weekends of the young college baseball season.
Because rolling into Doug Kingsmore Stadium this weekend is a Georgia Tech club that looks a lot like the best team in the country in the early part of the year. The Yellow Jackets are also 15-2 and arrive in Clemson ranked No. 4 in the country. In other words, this is exactly the kind of early season series that tends to grab the attention of the entire college baseball world.
Clemson and Georgia Tech usually deliver epic games in their history. I still have nightmares of Luke Murton’s 3-home run game in the 2006 ACC Baseball Tournament in Jacksonville. South Carolina is obviously the true rival, but there have been wonderful, heart-breaking series with conference rival, Georgia Tech throughout the years.
Both teams have shown depth on the mound. Georgia Tech has the better lineup right now. But I believe both teams believe they have the pieces to make a deep run when the calendar eventually flips to June.
Now they have three games to prove it against each other.
The series opens Thursday night at Doug Kingsmore Stadium, where Clemson will look to quickly get back to the brand of baseball that carried the Tigers through the first month of the season. But a true test definitely awaits. No disrespect to any of the previous opponents, this is a major step up in competition.
And if the early part of this season has told us anything, it is that weekends like this one tend to be a whole lot of fun in Tigertown.
Clemson Briefly
Tennessee transfer Michael Sharman will get the ball in game 2 (Friday). The lefty has been sensational to begin the season. 4-0 with a 0.72 ERA, throwing a lot of strikes and an opponent batting average of a paltry .115.
Offensively, the Tigers had a really nice series against LaSalle, scoring 52 runs in four games, but then went really cold against Georgia Southern in the mid-week.
Trystan McCladdie leads the team currently with a .400 average, tied for team lead in home runs with 5, and also second to Nate Savoie (25) with 21 runs batted in.
Tyler Lichetenberger recorded his first home run in his Tiger tenure on Tuesday night. The extent of the Tigers offense that night
Through seventeen games, Clemson is hitting .316 as a team and has tallied 34 doubles and 24 home runs while scoring in 134 runs, good for an average of 7.9 runs per game.
On the mound, Clemson will start Aidan Knaak in the opener. The Tiger’s ace skipped a start last weekend but is primed to go against the hot Yellow Jackets on Thursday night. Sharman will go in game 2, and both teams currently have TBA listed for the series finale on Saturday.
Just wait until you see these stats from the Yellow Jackets offense. Just completely baffling how talented this team coming into DKS is offensively. And heck, their pitching has been really solid as well for first year coach James Ramsey.
Here is a look at the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets:
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
Location: Atlanta, GA
Head Coach – James Ramsey (1st Season)
2026 Record: 15-2 (2-1 ACC)
Wins: Bowling Green (x3), Georgia Southern, Stony Brook (x4), Northwestern (x3), Georgia State, Virginia Tech (x2), West Georgia
Losses: Georgia State, Virginia Tech
The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets enter the ACC weekend series at 15-2 overall.
The Jackets are hitting .410 as a team (1st nationally) and have collected 49 doubles (T-4th), 5 triples (T-44th) and 38 home runs (3rd) in their first seventeen games. They average 13.4 runs per game (1st).
The Yellow Jackets are led offensively by a plethora of players. Pre-season National Player of the Year candidate, junior Drew Burress has started slowly by his standards, hitting .353 with 3 home runs and 11 RBI. Junior do-everything but mostly catcher, Vahn Lackey is hitting .467 with 7 home runs and 13 RBI and is also 7-7 in stolen bases. Sophomore utility player Alex Hernandez is second in the nation hitting an astonishing .526 (30-57) with 4 home runs and 18 runs batted in. And they have the nations leader in doubles, Carson Kerce in their nine hole. This team is loaded offensively.
On the mound, this Georgia Tech pitching staff is also very good, just overshadowed by their offensive counterparts. They carry a 3.60 ERA through seventeen games. The staff has struck out 174 batters but has also issued 56 walks, allowing opponents to hit .243.
Here are the probable starting lineup for Georgia Tech and their early season stats:
Position Players
| Name (#) | Year | Position | 2026 Stats |
| Drew Burress (8) | Junior | CF | .353; 7 2B, 3B, 3 HR, 11 RBI; 3-6 SB |
| Alex Hernandez (4) | Sophomore | LF/DH | .526; 2 2B, 4 HR, 18 RBI; 2-2 SB |
| Jarren Advicula (2) – Cal | Junior | 2B | .368; 4 HR, 22 RBI; 4-4 SB |
| Vahn Lackey (25) | Junior | C | .467; 5 2B, 3B, 7 HR, 28 RBI; 7-7 SB |
| Kent Schmidt (10) – Georgia Southern | Junior | 1B/DH | .429; 2 2B, 10 RBI; 1-1 SB |
| Ryan Zuckerman (11) – Pitt | Junior | 1B/3B | .435; 6 2B, 3B, 7 HR, 27 RBI; 1-1 SB |
| Will Baker (7) | Sophomore | LF | .418; 9 2B, HR, 19 RBI; 1-1 SB |
| Caleb Daniel (6) | Sophomore | RF | .380; 5 2B, 6 HR, 15 RBI |
| Carson Kerce (3) | Junior | SS | .389; 10 2B, 3B, 12 RBI; 1-1 SB |
Starting Pitchers for GT
| NAME (#) | Year | Hand | 2026 Stats |
| Tate McKee (22) | Junior | RHP | 2-0; 3.86 ERA, 16.1 IP, 18 K, 8 BB; OppBA: .258 |
| Dylan Loy (37) – Tennessee | Junior | LHP | 1-0; 2.04 ERA, 17.2 IP, 21 K, 3 BB; OppBA: .239 |
| TBA | Eternal | Both |
Final Thought
Clemson took a loss against Georgia Southern in a classic trap game, aka baseball being baseball. They had a day to lick their wounds, apply some bug spray and get ready for some swarming bees. Terrible analogy, I get it. But this Georgia Tech team is special. We hope this Clemson team is as well. Still trying to get a firm grasp on our squad, but this is a good measuring stick series at DKS this weekend.
First pitch against Georgia Tech is scheduled for Thursday at 7 p.m. Friday night at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 3 p.m. at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.
