Monte Lee doesn’t want to overreact now that his team is dealing with its first extended bout of adversity.
“It’s part of the process,” Clemson’s baseball coach said. “You’re going to go through this because we weren’t going to be perfect throughout the season. We knew, at some point, you’re going to go through some tough spells, and we’re going through one right now.”
But there’s been one constant regardless of each outcome of the Tigers’ first 18 games, and that’s a lack of timely offense. It’s starting to catch up to No. 15 Clemson as the quality of competition stiffens.
Clemson lost its opening ACC series as well as its fourth straight game Saturday with a 4-1 setback to No. 23 Miami at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. The skid has come on the heels of the Tigers’ 14-0 start to the season, though strong pitching – the Tigers’ staff has a collective 3.09 earned run average – helped Clemson mask its offensive woes even when the wins were coming.
Four of Clemson’s wins have been decided by two runs or less, games in which the Tigers didn’t score more than four runs. With production at the plate falling off even more during the losing streak, which began with a 5-2 loss to Northeastern in last weekend’s series finale, Lee said there could be more changes to the lineup coming.
He’s already shaken things up the last few games. Sophomore Mac Starbuck got his first career start at second base in Clemson’s midweek loss to Georgia State, though Blake Wright was back in the starting lineup in the series opener against Miami on Friday. Lee moved shortstop Ben Blackwell, normally Clemson’s 9-hole hitter, to the leadoff spot, and J.D. Brock got his first start of the season in left field Saturday in place of Chad Fairey, who’s hit just .213 in the 16 games he’s played.
“Now that the game is over, I’ll look at the pieces and see if there’s something that makes sense to move in and out and those kinds of things,” Lee said following Saturday’s game.
Things haven’t improved much in the first two games against the Hurricanes, who have held Clemson to just five runs in the series. Saturday’s offensive performance was the bleakest it’s been all season for the Tigers, who had a season-low four hits. Blackwell, Wright and Brock combined to go 0-for-12 while preseason All-American Caden Grice, who slid down to the No. 6 spot in the lineup, went hitless in two at-bats to drop his average to .246.
After notching just one hit in 13 at-bats with runners on Saturday, Clemson is hitting just .153 (8 of 52) in that category during its losing streak. The Tigers are 0-for-14 with runners in scoring position so far against Miami and just 3 of 26 over their last four games. Clemson hasn’t scored more than four runs in any of them.
“Typically when you’re not scoring runs, you want to try to run another guy or two in there and see what he can do,” Lee said. “I don’t want to move the pieces to the puzzle all over the place, but we’ll still continue to look at it and maybe tinker with one or two more guys to see if we can find a spark there.”
Regardless of who’s in the lineup, though, Lee said it’s on him and his coaching staff to practice positive reinforcement as their players go through their first extended bout of adversity of the season.
“The psyche of a baseball player, it can be tough,” Lee said. “You’re dealing with a lot of pressure to play at a school like Clemson. You’re dealing with failure constantly, and the players have to feel like you have their back and that you’re the person they can come to that’s going to help them and not shun them. When you have to deal with the amount of failure a baseball player has to deal with, they need somebody on their side.”
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