Lee has no doubt: "We're in now"

If anyone had any doubts about whether or not the Clemson baseball team would hear their name called on Selection Monday, those doubts were quickly extinguished by head coach Monte Lee following the Tigers' 7-1 victory over the seventh-ranked Louisville Cardinals.

DURHAM, N.C.-- If anyone had any doubts about whether or not the Clemson baseball team would hear their name called on Selection Monday, those doubts were quickly extinguished by head coach Monte Lee following the Tigers' 7-1 victory over the seventh-ranked Louisville Cardinals.

"Well, I certainly think that we're in now," Lee said. "I think if you look at our record...We're sitting at 36 in the RPI, so with this win today, that jumps us in the top 40 in the RPI. We're 3-1 this year against the ACC champion. We're 9-7 versus the top 25 this year, okay. All of those teams are in the top 16 in the country ranked right now. And we are 8-7 versus top-20 RPI teams.

"So I certainly think that we are a team that will be in the field of 64, and again, it was just a tremendous performance today by our team. I've been saying it all year long, we've got a good team. We've been through a lot of highs, we've been through some lows, but at the end of the day, I think this win certainly solidifies us in the field of 64, and it's a brand new season for us moving forward."

Facing a do-or-die game, the Tigers played arguably their most complete game of the season--when they needed it most.

"It's just a -- of the games that we've played this year, this is our best performance for sure," Lee said. "I can't think back to a game where I feel like we pitched, played defense and swing the bats against this quality of a ballclub this well. Again, you're facing (Reid) Detmers. I mean, Detmers has, I think -- and I'm probably wrong here, but like 83 innings with 54 hits given up and 138 strikeouts, and we swung the bats like that today. That says a lot about our team that we were certainly capable of hitting the best arms in the country.

"And again, Louisville's offense has gotten better and better. They're a better offensive club right now than they were when we played them earlier in the year statistically, and we shut them down behind Mat Clark. Mat Clark shut them down. I mean, he did it, and our defense was outstanding. So again, I thought it was the most complete game that we've played of the year in the biggest moment that we needed our best game of the year."

Clark stole the show, as the Tigers stated their case for being one of the at-large teams to have their name called Monday (noon, ESPNU).

Against the Cardinals, Clark pitched the game of his life, as he carried a perfect game into the ninth inning and ended the game allowing one-hit and one run in eight innings of work.

It was that kind of performance that Lee believes showed the selection committee that his Tigers belong.

"Yeah, you know what, what I saw today was a team that was pretty loose and very confident going into the ballgame. I tried to be as relaxed as I could be. I feel like I've been on pins and needles and intense for the last month, so I honestly said maybe five words the whole game. I literally just said, you know what, this game is in the hands of our players. There's nothing that I can do at this point to try to get them to play their best basketball. It's up to them. So this game today was really about them. It had absolutely nothing to do with me. I literally just sat there and watched the game.

"And that's one of the things that you learn at the end of the day as a coach. You do make an impact on your guys, but at the end of the day when the lights cut on or in this case when Mat Clark toed the rubber, he put our team on his shoulders, we swung the bats well, we played good defense today, and we played like the team that I know we can be and we have been for a good portion of this season. So hopefully we can carry some good positive momentum into next week."