Streaking Tigers Set to Host Georgia in Midweek Affair
The 2021 season didn't start off quite how Monte Lee and the Tigers expected.
Clemson dropped eight of their first 13 games, which included a 1-5 start to ACC play. After a weekend sweep of Boston College, the Tigers' first road wins of the season, the team has now won five straight, seven of their last eight and the bats look to be heating up.
Clemson hit .355 as a team over the weekend, totaled 44 hits and scored 32 runs. A stark contrast to what the Tigers were able to do at the plate over the first few weeks of the season. At one point Clemson was hitting below .240 as a team, but now have that average up to .253.
"Our offense was just fantastic all weekend long, swung the bats very very well," Lee said after the weekend sweep. "Our defense was outstanding, played great defensively. Swung the bats well again. So just really proud of my club and to walk out of here with three wins, certainly makes the flight back home tomorrow a lot better."
The Tigers (12-9, 6-6) now return home for a midweek affair against SEC foe Georgia (16-7, 2-4) on Tuesday night. It will be the first of two midweek games this season, as the teams are scheduled to play in Athens on April 20.
Hard-throwing RHP Carter Raffield will get the start for Clemson, with LHP Charlie Goldstein getting the nod for the Bulldogs.
If Monte Lee's team is to keep up the momentum they have developed over the past two weeks, his team will need to continue to do the little things well. Base-running blunders, a failure to move runners over in critical situations and defensive miscues all plagued the Tigers during their slow start.
Over the last eight games, however, the Tigers have been much improved in almost every aspect, the most important of which is scoring runs. When Clemson scores five runs or more, the team is 11-1.
Freshman Caden Grice (.343) and redshirt sophomore James Parker (.372) have led the team at the plate The two have combined for 12 of the teams 26 home runs and 44 of their 115 RBI.
Adam Hackenberg's return from injury has helped tremendously too. While he has yet to really get it going at the plate (.233), he has provided some protection for Grice and Parker that was, at times, missing earlier in the season.
The team will also need to continue to get the type of pitching performances they got over the weekend at Boston College, as starting pitching hadn't been quite as strong as originally expected. After a less than stellar start on Friday by Jackson Lindley, the Tigers got strong, quality starts from Keyshawn Askew and Nick Hoffman in the final two games of the series, the latter of which threw a complete game in his first career start.
"It all starts with great pitching, and we certainly got that today with Keyshawn Askew," Lee said Saturday night. "Then in game two we went to Nick Hoffman. Nick's been obviously a big-time reliever for us, strike-throwing machine and just threw a complete game for us, which was just unbelievable. Just pounded the strike zone and he just did what he always does when he pitches for us."
That complete game came at the perfect time as the Tigers were short on arms after going into the weekend knowing they would be without the services of Davis Sharpe, Mack Anglin and Mat Clark. However, the team still got impressive efforts out of its bullpen from Rob Hughes, Nick Clayton and Geoffrey Gilbert to help take the series from the Eagles.
Clemson hosts Georgia on Tuesday in Doug Kingsmore Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. and it will be televised by the ACC Network.