After Being Swept By Louisville, Clemson In Real Danger of Missing ACC Tournament

Monte Lee's Tigers have a lot of work to do in order to qualify for this seasons ACC Tournament

Clemson's postseason chances took a major hit over the weekend.

The Tigers (28-17) were swept by No. 16 Louisville, and after starting the season 14-0, Monte Lee's team is at serious risk of missing the ACC Tournament.

Clemson is currently just 6-14 in league play, almost a full percentage point behind Duke (8-13) and North Carolina (8-13) for the 12th and final spot in the conference tournament.

Just one year removed from the program's first losing season in more than six decades, the Tigers are on the verge of missing the NCAA Tournament in consecutive seasons for the first time since the mid-80s.

If the Tigers do not qualify for the ACC Tournament, it will mark the first time in the program's history they did not make an ACC Tournament. The ACC Baseball Tournament began in 1976.

Clemson is the last charter member of the ACC to qualify for every ACC Baseball Tournament.

There is no denying the Tigers are better than they were a season ago. The team is currently 11 games over .500 after finishing last season two games under. Clemson is also unbeaten against SEC teams, having swept a three-game series with the rival Gamecocks, and sweeping a home-and-home series against a nationally ranked Georgia team.

ACC play is where this team has struggled, as the Tigers have failed to get any consistency out of the weekend starters, have gotten very little production from the bottom third of the batting order, and have been the victim of some very untimely defensive miscues.

Far too often, starting pitchers have failed to make it through three innings, taxing a bullpen that had a very strong start to the season. On Saturday, starter Geoffrey Gilbert lasted just 1.1 innings and on Sunday Billy Barlow went just 1.2 innings.

One year after hitting .317 with 15 home runs, 53 RBI, and slugging .618, slugger Caden Grice has struggled mightily. The sophomore is now hitting just .242 and has struck out 80 times in 178 at-bats, and his slugging is at just .427. 

Max Wagner has helped picked up the slack, as the sophomore leads the team with a .403 batting average, 21 home runs and 61 RBI. 

And while the team has a .972 fielding percentage, it's the untimely errors that have really hurt. In the 18-15 loss to the Cardinals on Sunday, the Tigers made four costly errors, at least three of which were fly balls that were either misplayed or flat out dropped, leading to six unearned runs.

However, the season is not quite over. There is still time to right the ship. Clemson still sits at No. 30 in RPI, meaning if they can finish up strong, and get into the conference tournament, the postseason is still a possibility. 

After the sweep by Louisville, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that coming into the weekend, the Tigers had won nine of 11, won each of its last two ACC series and had been playing pretty good baseball over that stretch.

This most recent series loss means there is little to no margin for error the rest of the way, though, and with no midweek games on the schedule this week, this team has ample opportunity to get rested up for the final stretch of the season. Maybe the coaching staff takes that time to rethink some things as it pertains to the starting rotation.

Clemson hosts Georgia Tech next weekend, before going on the road and facing No. 11 Virginia the weekend after. The Tigers will then finish up the season at home against Boston College. With nine games left against ACC competition and the Tigers two games behind Duke and North Carolina in the win column, now is the time. 

This was once a storied baseball program. Qualifying for regional play is and should be the expectation each and every season. Missing out on postseason play in consecutive seasons just shouldn't happen at a program like Clemson. And missing out on the ACC Tournament? That's almost unfathomable.

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