Lee: Loss in Oxford Was 'Humbling'

If there has been any complaint of the Clemson baseball team it has been their inability to make it out of the regional round of the NCAA Tournament.

Clemson has not reached the College World Series since 2010 and has not advanced to the Super Regional round of the tournament since that same season. Clemson advanced to a Super Regional eight times from 2000 through 2010 and reached Omaha and the College World Series four times during that stretch, before failing to win a regional each of the past nine years.

That failure ultimately led to the dismissal of longtime, hall of fame head coach Jack Leggett. After last season's exit at the Oxford Regional, current head coach Monte Lee spent a lot of time searching for the answers that can hopefully keep him from experiencing a similar fate.

"It was a very humbling experience for all of us," Lee said. "Again, this game will teach you an awful lot if you allow it to. And last year it was tough. It was a tough second half of the year. And it was a tough summer for all of us. I mean a lot of reflecting, looking at what can I do a better job of as a head coach? What do we need to change? What are some things that we need to try to do a better job of? Do differently?"

For Lee and the Tigers, the journey out of the regional round of play began this fall — as the Tigers spent more time working on development than they had in previous years.

"The fall was all focused on development. Just trying to develop the individual," Lee said. "Obviously we throw a lot of team concepts at these guys. But it’s about developing the individual and trying to find the strength in each individual, trying to build team culture more, spending a lot more time on team culture. And that has went significantly well.

"This is a very selfless group. And it’s a very unproven group, especially on the position player side. We’ve got some young guys. We’ve only got two guys that have played one full season as a starter in Sam Hall and Bryce Teodosio. Besides that, (Bryar) Hawkins played a good bit for us last year as a true freshman. David Sharpe did both. And did both at a high level last year."

The challenge for the Tigers will be how quickly they can replace the middle of their lineup.

The Tigers lost a significant amount of firepower from last season with the departures of Logan Davidson, Grayson Byrd and Kyle Wilkie, who accounted for 37 home runs last season. While the Tigers have a bevy of talented athletes who are all capable of picking up the slack, the fact remains they are all unproven in one of the toughest leagues in college baseball — the ACC.

"But we’ve got a lot of unproven guys in terms of experience. So being able to pass the baton," Lee said. "That’s a big term we’ve been using here lately. It’s nine guys in that line up. And we’re going to have to click together nine quality at bats, and find ways to get on base, and just pass the baton on to the next guy. We don’t have that proven three, four, five right now.

"But we’ve also had some teams in the past that hit a whole bunch of home runs. And three, four, five we’re pretty dang good. And, then, we weren’t quite as good as we wanted to be six through nine. I think we got a better chance to spread our lineup out and put together quality at bats. Will we have the same amount of power? I don’t think so, but I didn’t think we were going to finish 11th in the country last year in home runs."

If the Tigers are unable to match their power production from previous seasons, all is not lost because they have something that previous teams have not had — the ability to play small-ball.

While the idea of stealing bases, playing station-to-station baseball, bunting and playing situational baseball may not be sexy for many around the nation, for the Tigers, they are willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done.

"We spent a lot more time on the short game. We spent a lot of time on situational hitting, the hit and run, advancing runners, safety squeeze, just being able to execute," Lee said. "We want to try to create an offense that can score runs when it’s not conducive to scoring runs. When we play in a big ballpark Doug Kingsmore plays big early in the season. And when the winds blowing in, how are we going to score rooms on those days? We got to be able to manufacture runs, and do the little things, and do a better job of that. And I think we have the personnel that can do that. We’ve got a lot of team speed. We’ve got some guys that can run."

With the Tigers reinventing themselves into the equivalent of a triple-option team in football, an old-school approach in a bomber's world, the new look Tigers has Lee and the rest of the team energized and ready go to work.

"We got to fight harder with two strikes, put together better at bats," Lee said. "And I think our guys are just understanding the importance of the team at bat and the quality at bat. So that’s been a big focus for us. But it’s been a lot of fun just because we do have a lot of young guys, a lot of unproven guys who are ready to prove themselves. So they’ve been very coachable. They’re very hungry. They’re very eager. And they’re ready to get started."

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